Abstract:
A transition support for flooring material extending between a floor area of a high height and a floor area of a low height, said support being in the shape of a wedge with an attached flat section in the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, the wedge having a thick end whose thickness is the same as that of the flat section. The transition support is generally unnoticeable by persons walking across it and does not jostle wheeled vehicles crossing the support.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 08/801,010 filed on Feb. 19, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,385,923 issued May 14, 2002. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to supporting flooring materials extending on adjacent underlying flooring of different heights and spanning the transition between the adjacent flooring and including a platform or tack strip so that the junction of the materials can be in a separate vertical plane from the juncture of the underlying flooring, making the transition generally unnoticeable to people walking on flooring over the juncture or to wheeled vehicles which will not be jostled or upset when crossing the transition at the juncture. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     In many institutions such as factories, exhibitions halls, shopping malls, transportation facilities and the like, floors of hard materials such as tile, marble granite, brick, quarry stone or ceramic are frequently adjacent to floors of concrete or wood. The adjacent floors usually meet at a juncture, and there is an interface or juncture between the floor area of the relatively high height and the floor area of the relatively low height. Transition flooring is often put over all of the floor areas to make it easier and safer to walk across the floor areas and the juncture, and to make it easier for wheeled vehicles to traverse the juncture of the floor areas. It is common to ramp up to the higher floor area. 
     However the transition flooring, which can be a flexible vinyl or rubber based sheet, or flexible vinyl or rubber based tiles or a carpet material, or a hardened resilient material, such as vinyl composition or hard rubber tiles, must extend from the juncture onto the floor area of the relatively low height. If no transition support is provided, there could be a sharp incline in the flooring at the juncture. People could trip or at least be surprised and jarred when they step on the flooring at the juncture, especially if they are unaware that the difference in heights exists. In addition, wheeled vehicles could be jostled, tipped or possibly overturned if they reach an unexpected abrupt change in the height of the flooring. Moreover, the transition flooring could become frayed, cracked or torn over time, especially if the juncture is in an area of high traffic. 
     In most instances in commercial buildings where the sharp transition between floor materials of different heights is made more gradual, a worker uses a trowel to lay by hand cementitious material, such as a latex underlayment, at the juncture between the high and low flooring levels. This is time consuming and expensive, and the time to lay the material depends on the ability and skill of the troweler. Once the troweler has laid the cementitious material, he or she uses adhesive to connect the flooring material to the cementitious material. In other cases, workers stack old tile to reduce the steepness of the juncture between the adjacent flooring areas. 
     The difference in height between the two areas of the floor as discussed above is generally not great, often around ¼ inch, so the problem has not been previously and seriously addressed. Architects have no standard for addressing the problem. Compensating for the difference in heights between adjacent flooring areas is a real problem. 
     There are various patents which have been issued relating to the support of carpets near walls, including U.S. Pat. No. 530,096 (Eckman 1894), U.S. Pat. No. 1,070,273 (MacLean 1913), U.S. Pat. No. 1,401,490 (Rathjens 1921), U.S. Pat. No. 1,483,941 (Kasson 1924), U.S. Pat. No. 1,833,732 (Barrows 1931), U.S. Pat. No. 1,988,603 (McLaren et al. 1935), U.S. Pat. No. 2,677,145 (Adams 1954), U.S. Pat. No. 3,086,262 (Krantz 1963), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,656 (Lutz 1980). 
     However, the foregoing patents are not directed to the support of flooring at or near the juncture between adjacent floor areas of different heights. U.S. Pat. No. 1,128,061 (Schroeter 1915) is directed to metal edge binding in linoleum. Which is also not a problem to which the present invention relates. Rather, Schroeter provides an edge binding which securely holds the floor covering in place and protects the edge of same. Schroeter wants to protect the flooring against, for example, breakage or wear by shoes or truck wheels, but Schroeter is not concerned with people or vehicles crossing the floor. U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,953 (Greenfield 1995) relates to an edge molding strip for protecting the floor covering between first and second floors of different heights, but it relates to the objects of the present invention in only a very general way. U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,798 provides a wedge shaped finishing member for draining water away from a bathtub, and it too is not directed to the problems to which the invention is directed. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 2,142,832 (Bell 1939) discloses a mat construction made of a multiplicity of rubber blocks arranged in an overlapping, laterally abutting relationship. The mat has a nosing strip running along its edge. Bell does not recognized recognize the problem of providing a transition between two levels of flooring. 
     U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/801,010, from which this application derives, discloses a gradual ramp or wedge which supports flooring at the juncture of materials of different heights at the transition at the juncture between materials, so that the transition is generally unnoticeable to people walking on flooring over the juncture or where wheeled vehicles will not be jostled or upset when crossing the transition at the juncture. However, the device in this prior application is entirely ramped; no flat surface is provided. Thus the device must abut the higher flooring and the flooring height must begin to change at this juncture. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention solves the problem of the prior art by providing a gradual ramp along with a narrow platform and sometimes a carpet tack strip to transition between two different flooring elevations. Unlike prior methods this invention creates a smooth transition without costly labor and curing time, enhancing both the visual aesthetics and life-safety characteristics of flooring. The floorings supported by the invention do not necessarily join where the floor changes height; instead, one flooring can extend over the juncture of the floor heights and meet the other on a level surface. Significantly reducing the fraying, cracking and tearing of the floorings at the juncture. Further, the flooring height need not begin to decrease where the invention abuts the existing flooring support. The platform found in the invention is a continuation of the wedge but flat across the top. The carpet tack strip, which adheres to the platform, is comprised of numerous carpet pins set typically at an angle of about 60 degrees and extending from the surface of the tack strip a distance of advantageously {fraction (7/32)}″. In addition to the carpet pins, the tack strip typically has ⅝″ concrete nails or 1″ wood floor nails equally spaced across the tack strip length to secure the tack strip to the platform. 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a support for flooring covering floor areas of different heights where the floorings can join in separate vertical plane from the juncture of the sections of the floor. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide a support for flooring, such as those having vinyl or rubber components or those made of carpeting, which cover the juncture of floor areas made of different materials and have different heights, such that the juncture of the floorings is not vertically above the juncture of the floor areas, and the carpet or rubber components can be tacked on to the support at the tack strip to reduce wear and tear at the juncture of the floorings. 
     A further object of the present invention is to provide a transition support for flexible sheet flooring at the juncture of floors made of ceramic or tile, and floors made of concrete or wood where there is a difference in heights between the two sections of the floor, such that the juncture of the flooring may not be vertically above the juncture of the floor areas. 
     Yet another object of the invention is to provide a transition support for flooring as described above, which is generally unnoticeable to a person walking across the support or which does not jostle wheeled vehicles crossing the support. 
     An additional object is to provide a transition support for flooring areas of different heights which can be installed by workers who need not be highly skilled in laying transition supports. 
     A still further object of the invention is to provide a transition support as described above which can be made in large economical quantities, and which can be installed quickly, economically and effectively, in large institutional buildings such as schools and hospitals, office buildings, factories shopping malls and other stores, exhibition halls, transportation facilities and the like. 
     According to the preferred embodiment of the invention, a transition support (which is also called a patch board or a leveler strip) has a generally wedge shaped construction with a rectangular parallelepiped extension, i.e. a generally solid rectangular strip or platform, integral with and attached to the thick end of the wedge. That is a transition support according to the preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a wedge with an integral flat section in the form of a rectangular parallelepiped, the wedge having a thick end with a thickness which is also the thickness of the flat section. The transition support has a bottom surface for engaging the flooring and a top surface forming means for supporting flooring material. The transition support is for use with a pair of adjacent floors. One having a higher level than the other, such as because of different heights of the underlying floor or because of a flooring material such as tiles or sheet flooring on one of the floors (or a part of a floor). The two floors meet at a juncture, and the juncture has a height. If there is flooring material on one or both of the adjacent floors, the height of the juncture is adjusted accordingly so that the flooring material on the flat section is flush with the flooring material on the high area of the adjacent floors. 
     As explained above, the juncture of the flooring material on the adjacent floors can be the same as or different from the juncture of the flooring material on the adjacent floors. If one adjacent floor is at a higher level than the other floor, the flooring material could either extend from the high level over the lower level, in which case the transition support would have a thick end sufficient for the flooring material it supports to meet the flooring material on the flat section of the support at the same level to render both junctures unnoticeable to persons passing over them or to reduce or prevent jostling of wheeled vehicles crossing them. The flooring material on the upper level could terminate shy of the juncture with the adjacent floor, and the transition support could support flooring material which extends beyond the top surfaces of the inclined part or wedge and the flat section, and meet the flooring material on the upper level with the top of the flooring materials being flush to render them unnoticeable, and reduce or prevent jostling as explained above. The juncture of the adjacent floors could be located in the same vertical plane as the juncture of the flooring materials in which the thickness of the thick end of the transition support should render the top surface of the two flooring materials to be flush to render the junctures unnoticeable and to reduce or prevent jostling of wheeled vehicles as discussed above and elsewhere. In order to assist in firmly securing the flooring material to the flat section, a tack strip can be fastened to the flat strip such as by nails or the like extending through the flat strip into the underlying floor, and tacks can project upwardly from the tack strip to extend into the flooring material and hold it in place as is normally done with tack strips. The transition support is made of a flexible plastic such as vinyl and has a thick end portion, a parallel thin end portion, a flat section which extends from the upper portion of the thick end to a flat center portion, and a tapering section which extends from the flat center portion to the thin end. Alternatively, the transition support can be a hard material such as vinyl composition or hard rubber tiles. (The sections will be described as if the transition support is in place, with an upper section and a lower section). The transition support has a bottom surface for resting on a floor and a top surface for supporting flooring material such as carpet, tiles, sheet flooring or other flooring material. The flooring material meets other flooring material on an adjacent floor at a higher level. The contour of the tapering section is very slight, so that walkers crossing the transition support, especially when it is covered with a flooring, will not be aware of its presence. Likewise, carts, motor driven carriers, dollies, wheeled stretchers, wheeled carrying cases, and other wheeled vehicles will not be jostled or upset when they cross the transition support for the flooring supported thereby. 
     These and other objects will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment taken together with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The invention may take physical form in certain parts and arrangement of parts, a preferred embodiment of which will be described in detail in the specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the transition support according to the preferred embodiment of the invention, installed for supporting a flexible sheet flooring. 
     FIG. 1 a  is a perspective view of the transition support according to the second embodiment of the invention which includes a tack strip, installed for supporting a flexible sheet flooring. 
     FIG. 1 b  is a detailed vie v of the carpet tack strip shown in FIG. 1 a.    
     FIG. 2 is a side view of the transition support shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is a plan view of the transition support shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the transition support shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 5 is a side view of transition supports stacked in tandem. 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the stacked transition supports shown in FIG.  5 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring now to the drawings wherein the showings are for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiment of the invention only, and not for the purpose of limiting same, FIG. 1 shows a transition support  1  in perspective. It is located on a concrete floor  2  which is adjacent to another floor  4 . A set of tiles  6  are is located on floor  4 . Tiles  6  could be of vinyl, rubber, ceramic or any other composition. Tiles  6  could be replaced by any other type of floor, such as carpet  6 ′ shown in phantom in FIG. 1 a  provided for the present discussion that their top surface  8  is above or below the top surface  10  of floor  2 . Tiles  6  and carpet  6 ′ are shown above floor  2 . A juncture  12  exists between flooring  2  and the flooring  4 , and another juncture  12 ′ exists between flooring  4  and tiles  6 . 
     A flexible sheet flooring  14  shown in phantom lines, lies on floor  2 , on transition support  1  and on tiles  6 . Flooring  14  could be harder, and less flexible or inflexible. In the alternative flooring  14  could be carpeting. Transition support  1  rests on flooring  2 , and support  1  has a thick end  16  and a thin end  18 . Thick end  16  is generally equal to the difference in height between the lower floor area (area  2  in the present example), and the higher floor area (area  4  and tile  6  in the present example). For this discussion, the heights of floor  2  and floor  4  are the same (and they could be the same floor), so thick end  16  is shown equal to the thickness of tiles  6 . The thickness of thick end  16  need not exactly equal the difference in height between the two adjacent floor areas, since support  1  can be flexible and resilient, so the transition between the heights will not be noticeable. 
     Transition support  1  has a flat section  17  which is a solid platform or a rectangular parallelepiped extending between thick end  16  and strip end  16 ′, and a tapering section or wedge  20  extending between strip end  16 ′ and thin end  18 . Flat section  17  has a top surface  17 ′ and a bottom surface  24 . Tapering section  20  has a top surface  22  and the uninterrupted continuation of bottom surface  24 , as shown in FIGS. 2-4. There is thus a tap surface  23  extending across wedge  20  and flat section  17 . The tapering surface  22  should be of sufficient distance between thick end  16 ′ and thin end  18  so that one crossing support  1  on foot or with a wheeled vehicle would not notice transition support  1 , or the vehicle would not be jostled or upset. Thus, the distance from thin end to the thick end is at most variations at least thirty (30) times the height of the thick end. In the preferred embodiment, thick section  16  was ¼ inch thick and thin end  18  was disposed 12 inches from strip end  16 ′ and the interior angle between top surface  22  and bottom surface  24  was 3°. The thickness of the flat section  17  generally should not exceed {fraction (3/16)} inches. However, in some situations, the thickness of the flat section  17  as well as the thick end  16  could be increased to ½ inch or even ¾ inch. 
     In a second embodiment as shown in FIG. 1 a , transition support  1  also contains a carpet tack strip  117 , shown in phantom in FIG. 1 a  and clearly in FIG. 2, attached to the flat section  17 . The carpet tack strip is comprised of numerous carpet pins  101  set typically at an angle of about 60 degrees and extending from the surface of the tack strip a distance of advantageously {fraction (7/32)}″ carpet pins  101  are more dense than shown in FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b . In addition to the carpet pins  101 , the tack strip  117  typically has ⅝″ concrete nails  102  or 1 ″wood floor nails (not shown) equally spaced across the tack strip length to secure the tack strip to the flat section and also to the floor  2 . Carpeting  118  is shown in tack strip  17 . 
     In a third embodiment, thick section  16  was ⅛ inch thick and thin end  18  was disposed 12 inches from strip end  16 ′. In a fourth embodiment, thick section  16  was ⅜ inch thick and thin end  18  was disposed 12 inches from strip end  16 ′. In a fifth embodiment, thick section  16  was ½ inch thick and thin end  18  was disposed 12 inches from strip end  16 ′. In this, the distance from the thin end to the thick end is twenty four (24) times the height of the thick end. In a sixth embodiment, thick section  16  was ¾ inch thick and thin end  18  was disposed  12  inches from strip end  16 ′. The ratio of the latter distance to the height of the thick end is nine (9). Each of these embodiments three through six can also include the carpet tack strip  117  attached to the flat section  17 . 
     The maximum angle for other preferred versions of the invention should not exceed 10°, and the minimum angle should be less than 1°. The width, or distance between the strip end  16 ′ and the thin end  18 , should generally be between 10 inches and 20 inches. The distance between the strip end  16 ′ and the thin end should be at least 30 times the thickness of the thick end until the thickness is about ½ inch. Scoring lines can be placed on top surface  22  so that the transition support can be cut to create specific heights for non-conforming projects. 
     In order to secure support  1  on a floor such as floor  2  an appropriate adhesive can be used. In order to promote the strength of the adhesive, slight ridges  26  or other physical changes in bottom surface  24  are provided to hold the adhesive as well as to improve the friction between support  1  and the floor. Likewise, ridges  28  are provided on the top surface of support  1 . An effective set of ridges has been found to be about 10 ridges per inch and to be less than 0.1 mm in height. Flooring  14  is preferably secured to support  1  with an appropriate adhesive, and ridges  28  both hold the adhesive in place and increase friction between flooring  14  and support  1 . The ridges could be replaced with grooves or other surface configurations, or could even be eliminated. Other forms of physical variations in surfaces  22  and  24  are available. For example, to secure flooring  14  on the top section  17 ′ of tack strip  17 , carpet tacks or carpet pins  101  can be used. 
     Transition support  1  can be flexible sheet flooring prepared in roll form or in long sheets, with the thick and thin end portions being the side surfaces. The appropriate length is cut from the roll, or one or more sheets (or parts of sheets) are selected. The thickness of the thick end  16  should generally equal the difference in height between the two flooring areas. Adhesive is spread in the floor of the lower floor area as far from the juncture as support  1  will extend, on bottom surface  24  of support  1 , or in the floor and the bottom surface, and the support  1  is laid in place. Adhesive is then put in top surface  22  of support  1  on the sheet flooring  14 , or on both, and flooring  14  is then placed on support  1 . The system is ready for use once the adhesive has dried or cured, if necessary. 
     In some situations, it may be necessary to decrease the slope of the tapered section of the transition support, as where the high floor requires a wider transition support. This can be accomplished by stacking transition support  1  in tandem, that is, by stacking them like shingles. Referring to FIG. 5, a transition support  1  is placed on floor  2  and attached by an appropriate adhesive. A second support  1 ′ is adhered to support  1 , but located on tapered section  22  of support  1 , where it is glued in place. The thin end  18 ′ of support  1 ′ is located further from floor  4  than thin end  18  of support  1 . The upper part  30 , shown in dotted lines, is severed from support  1 ′. This can be accomplished by using a blade, cutting part way into support  1 ′ at line  32 , and then bending and severing part  30  from support  1 ′. The final product is shown in perspective in FIG. 6, in an embodiment without the ridges. 
     Transition support  1  is preferably made from vinyl (such as molded vinyl and extruded vinyl) or rubber composite so that it will have the desired flexibility and resilience. Harder materials may work in some situations, including polyethylene, polyester, recycled plastic, vinyl mixed with fillers such as limestone, vinyl composition and plastic-like materials. 
     The foregoing description is a specific embodiment of the present invention. It should be appreciated that this embodiment is described for purposes of illustration only, and that numerous alterations and modifications may be practiced by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is intended that all such modifications and alterations be included insofar as they come within the scope of the invention as claimed or the equivalents thereof.