Abstract:
A wash sink and drained area assembly and method of construction comprise a wash sink assembled in immediate and lateral proximity to an enclosable and drained floor area with racks provided for drying items and a retractable curtain across the front edge of the drained area, the assembly formed as a single unit suitable for installation in a residential utility room.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATION 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/153,435, filed Sep. 10, 1999. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     A. Field of Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to household fixtures and more particularly to a wash sink and drained area assembly having a wash sink assembled in proximity to an enclosable and drained floor area, and the method of construction thereof. 
     B. Description of Related Art 
     Several designs of one piece or integrated sink and shower or tub assemblies have been designed for providing a compact and convenient facility for personal hygiene. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. D110,643, 2,084,793, 2,198,605, 2,438,665, 3,600,720, 4,718,131, and 4,653,128 all describe sanitary facilities in which a sink and shower are combined in a single fixture unit. While these types of fixture units may be useful for personal hygiene, they are not designed for utility purposes such as clothes washing, pet bathing, air or drip-drying wet items, plant misting, and or cleaning large items such as muddy footwear. While many modern home designs provide for utility or “mud” rooms, the usefulness of such rooms is limited by the facilities available. Commonly available utility sinks are not sufficient for cleaning large or extremely dirty items, pets or children. Drained areas for drying garments or other wet items are not used. Therefore, the need remains for a utility unit, which is suited for such utility purposes and can be conveniently and compactly fitted into a mud or utility room of a personal residence. Rather than providing a facility for personal hygiene, such a utility unit would provide features that are not applicable or useful for personal hygiene, except for pets or small children. 
     While counter level wash sinks for hand laundering of clothes are known, there is a need for adjacent facilities for drying hand washed items by hanging and allowing water to drip off the items. Occasionally washroom areas are designed with a central floor drain, but use of a central floor drain allows the drainage to extend over the floor into areas that may serve as pathways. What is required is an integrated assembly including a wash sink with hand spray attachment in close proximity to a partially enclosable and self contained area with a floor drainage system similar to a shower drain pan and with rods and racks placed for convenient drying of washed or wet items. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention comprises an assembly comprising, at one end, a wash sink formed at conventional work sink height with appropriate plumbing for a faucet with hot and cold water, and a partially enclosed drained area immediately and laterally adjacent the sink. In the preferred embodiment, the entire fixture body is molded as a single unit of fiber reinforced resin, although other materials, such as plastic, tile or plastic laminates could be substituted with similar results. The unit is configured to be installed in a residential utility room along a wall, and has a front, at which the user stands, and a rear, which abuts the wall when installed. The distance from front to rear is such as will allow comfortable arm&#39;s length access to items in the rear. The sink section comprises a faucet and flow control devices for hot and cold water as well as a sprayer attachment with a flexible and preferably retractable hose, which is long enough to reach the far end of the drained area. The sprayer nozzle is preferably adapted for flow control to provide a high velocity spray, which may be adjustable for velocity, volume and/or pattern. In the preferred embodiment, the drained area is located to the right, viewing the unit from front to rear, for the convenience of right hand dominant users; however, the relative positions of the sink and drained areas could be reversed if desired. The drained area comprises a drain pan with a central drain and a pan floor sloping toward the drain. An outer lip extends upward from the floor of the pan, the inside surface of the lip forming a shoulder which surrounds the entire drained area to support and surround an open grate suitably strong to bear a user&#39;s weight. The unit may be installed with the drain below the level of the floor in the room in which it is installed such that the lip and grate are flush or nearly flush with the room floor. The preferred installation would involve only a slight upward protrusion of the lip above floor level. An alternative installation would place the entire unit above the room floor with the lip significantly elevated above floor level. The choice of installation height may be determined by the user&#39;s desires and expected usage and may be influenced by construction convenience as the process of installing the recessed drain pan may require modifications of floor joists. 
     The wash and drain area unit comprises a vertical and flat rear wall of impervious material as well as two side walls that are also vertical, flat and impervious. One or more series of hook shaped rack supports are mounted on the rear and side walls at convenient heights to support drying racks or to support clothes hung thereon. Each series of hooks comprises three hooks mounted on the rear wall and two hooks mounted on each side wall, all hooks in a series being mounted at the same height. Open grate drying racks extend from at least one side wall hook to the other side wall hook when deployed horizontally, and the racks may be raised to a vertical position flat against the rear wall and resting on the rear wall hooks, or the racks may be completely removed. The unit further comprises one or more retractable clotheslines on the side walls containing a spring loaded line extendable to hooks on the opposing side wall. The drained area is partially enclosable by a retractable curtain. A hinged bar extends horizontally from a hinge fitting on the front of the side wall opposite to the sink, to a releasable support fitting on the side of the sink cabinet, at the front of the unit, parallel to and slightly rearward of the front edge of the drain area lip. A retractable curtain is supported by the bar and extendable the length of the bar and across the front edge of the drained area such that the drained area can be completely enclosed to a height just less than counter height. With the curtain fully deployed, the sprayer can be vigorously used in the drain area without splashing or over spray escaping the drained area. While the height of the curtain may vary according to expected usage, it is anticipated that a height of about thirty inches would be most generally convenient. 
     The principal aim of the present invention is to provide a sink and drained area assembly which meets the foregoing requirements and which is capable of providing a comfortable and convenient residential utility facility. 
     Another and further object and aim of the present invention is to provide a sink and drained area assembly which meets the foregoing requirements and which is capable of being economical to manufacture and install. 
     Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the Description of the Preferred Embodiment and the Drawings and will be in part pointed out in more detail hereinafter. 
     The invention consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts exemplified in the construction hereinafter described and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the appended claims. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the sink and drain assembly of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is an angled perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the sink and drain assembly of the present invention with drying racks removed. 
     FIG. 3 is an angled perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the sink and drain assembly of the present invention with drying racks and floor grate removed. 
     FIG. 4 is a top view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the sink and drain assembly of the present invention with a drying rack partially cut away. 
     FIG. 5 is a front view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the sink and drain assembly of the present invention with a drying rack partially cut away and the curtain retracted. 
     FIG. 6 is a sectional side view of a part of the preferred embodiment of the invention showing a rack support hook of the present invention. 
     FIG. 7 is a right side view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the sink and drain assembly of the present invention with one horizontal and one vertical drying rack. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     With reference to the Drawings wherein like numerals represent like parts throughout the Figures., a sink and drained area assembly in accordance with the present invention is generally designated by numeral  10  in FIGS. 1,  2 , and  3 . Assembly  10  of the present invention employs some features that are similar to or perform similar functions as commonly known features of traditional sink assemblies or shower facilities, such as plumbing and plumbing fixtures. To the extent such features are not specifically or uniquely changed in the design of assembly  10 , specific detailed drawings and descriptions of known parts or features will not be provided herein. 
     Assembly  10  is of overall rectangular prism shape, without a top and a front side. Therefore, assembly  10  comprises an open front  24 , a rear wall  18  and side walls  20  and  22 . Side walls  20  and  22  are both about two and one half feet in width, and front  24  and rear wall  18  are both about six feet wide in the preferred embodiment. The width of the side walls  20  and  22  cause rear wall  18  to be recessed about average arm&#39;s length from the front  24 . The front  24  to rear  18  distance may be varied according to the individual preference of the user, including the depth of twenty-four inches to conform with conventional residential cabinetry. Side walls  20  and  22  and rear wall  18  are flat, vertical and formed of a generally impervious material. The assembly  10  comprises a wash sink  12  formed as a part of, or installed on a sink stand  60  at conventional work sink height with appropriate plumbing for a faucet  36 , and a sprayer  14 , both supplied with hot and cold water, which is controlled by conventional control knobs  38  and  40  and the flow control component of sprayer nozzle  14 . Assembly  10  also comprises a drained area  16  immediately and laterally adjacent sink  12 , on the right side of sink stand  60 . Drained area  16  comprises a rectangular drain pan  26  with a central drain  28  and a floor  30  sloping toward drain  28 . A lip  62  protrudes upward from the edge of floor  30  and forms a shoulder  32  raised slightly above the outer edge of floor  30 , along the perimeter of entire drained area  16 . Shoulder  32  supports a rectangular open floor grate  34  sized to fit within the rectangular area defined and surrounded by lip  62 . The preferred material for the body of assembly  10 , including sink  12 , sink stand  60 , drain pan  26  and walls  18 ,  20 , and  22  is fiber reinforced resin. The body of assembly  10  may be formed as an integrated unit that can be molded as one piece. 
     One or more horizontal rows of three equally spaced upward facing hook shaped rack supports  42  are mounted on the rear wall  18  at heights greater than sink  12 . At least one similarly hook shaped rack support  44  is mounted on each of the side walls  20  and  22  at the same height as each row of rear wall hooks  42 . For each row of hooks  42  and  44 , a rectangular, open grate drying rack  46  is provided, of the same width as the rear wall to extend from one side wall hook  44  to the opposite side wall hook  44 . Rear wall hooks  42  are configured to releasably receive the rear lengthwise edge of a drying rack  46  in either the horizontal or vertical position and side wall hooks  44  are  15  configured to releasably receive the side end edge of a drying rack  46  in the horizontal position. Hooks  42  and  44  are useable to hang a variety of items when not in use supporting a drying rack  46 . Assembly  10  comprises one or more retractable clothes lines  48  mounted on either side wall  20  or  22 , containing a spring loaded line (not shown) extendable to hooks  50  on the opposing side wall  20  or  22 . 
     Drained area  16  is partially enclosable by a retractable curtain  52 . A hinged bar  54  extends horizontally from a hinge fitting  56  on side wall  20  to a releasable support fitting  58  mounted on the front corner of the sink stand  60 . When engaged in fitting  58 , bar  54  extends across the front edge of drained area  16 . Curtain  52  is slidingly supported on bar  54  and extendable the length of bar and across the front edge of drained area  16 . Hinge  56  allows bar  54  to be raised to a vertical position wall  20 . Assembly  10  may be installed with the drain  28  below the level of the floor in the room in which it is installed such that the floor grate is flush or nearly flush with the room floor. The preferred installation would involve only a slight upward protrusion of lip  62  above floor level. An alternative installation would place the position bar  54  may it) realizably engage and be retained by a spring clamp fitting  64  mounted on side entire assembly  10  above the room floor with lip  62  significantly elevated above floor level. 
     The method of constructing sink and drained area assembly  10  comprises mounting sink  12  on, or forming sink  12  as part of sink stand  60 , which is elevated about thirty inches above floor level, and installing or forming drain pan  26  area at or about floor level, laterally and immediately adjacent to the sink stand  60 . The method further comprises connecting the sink  12  and drain pan  26  to drainage systems (not shown) and mounting on the sink stand  60  and connecting to the water supply a faucet  36  with flow controls  38  and  40  and a flexible hose (not shown) with attached spray nozzle  14 . The drain pan  26  being formed with a central drain  28  and a drain pan floor  30  that slopes downward from the periphery of the drain pan  26  toward the central drain  28 . A side wall  20  is formed or installed vertically extending from the sink stand  60  and a side wall  22  is formed or installed vertically extending from the drain pan  26 , and a rear wall  18  is formed or installed vertically extending from the rear of sink stand  60  and drain pan  26  and is either molded integrally with, or is connected to side wall  20  and  22  by waterproof joints, the walls being formed of an impervious material. The method comprises either the formation and installation of the sink  12 , sink stand  60 , the side and rear walls  20 ,  18 , and  22 , and drain pan  26  as separate units joined by waterproof seams, or molding the sink  12 , sink stand  60 , the side and rear walls  20 ,  18 , and  22 , and drain pan  26  as a single unit of fiber reinforced resin. The method further comprises the steps of installing a horizontal grate  34  supported above the drain pan floor  30  by the periphery of the drain pan  26  and mounting a plurality of support hooks  42  on the rear and side walls, and releasably supporting from support hooks  42  in a horizontal position at least one drying rack  46  comprising a grate, and pivotally attaching to the front of side wall  20  opposite from sink stand  60 , a curtain support rod  54  and mounting on the front of sink stand  60  a support fitting  58  for releasably supporting rod  54 , and supporting from rod  54  a retractable curtain  52 . 
     It should be appreciated and anticipated that while the body of assembly  10  has been fabricated as a single molded unit of fiber reinforced resin, other materials, such as plastic, tile or plastic laminates, and other manufacturing and assembly methods could be substituted with similar results. 
     It should be further appreciated and anticipated that while assembly  10  has been designed with drained area  16  located to the right of sink  12 , for the convenience of a right hand dominant user; however, the relative positions of the sink  12  and drained area  16  could be reversed if desired. Similarly, while the height of the curtain  52  is set based on the anticipation that a height of about thirty inches would be most generally convenient, the height can be varied according to expected usage. The number and positions of the drying racks  46 , hooks  42  or  44  and clothes lines  48 , as well as the overall dimensions and scale of assembly  10  can be varied without departing from the spirit of the present invention and while retaining the benefits thereof. 
     While preferred embodiments of the foregoing invention have been set forth for purposes of illustration, the foregoing description should not be deemed a limitation of the invention herein. Accordingly, various modifications, adaptations and alternatives may occur to one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and the scope of the present invention.