Tool for straightening wooden planks

A tool for straightening flooring material laid over floor joists having a thickness includes a square “U” shaped wedge having a pair of spaced apart legs running in parallel. The legs are spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the thickness of the floor joist. A wedge body has a planar bottom side and an upper side tapering with respect to the bottom planar side from a head end downwardly to the distal ends of the legs. A planar chisel plate shaped to conform with the shape of the bottom planar side of the wedge body includes a pair of legs spaced apart a distance slightly smaller than the thickness of the floor joist. The chisel plate includes a chisel edge on each of the distal ends of the legs and further includes a chisel edge along the inside spaced apart edges of the legs of the chisel plate.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

When constructing a deck, decking planks are used to provide the flooring for the deck. These decking planks are conventionally supported by underlying joists to which the decking planks are attached. In many cases the decking planks may run in length from 12 to 16 feet and are commonly 2×6 planks. If the decking planks are not exactly straight, it has been a problem to straighten these planks before attaching them to the underlying floor joists. The present invention provides a tool for straightening these wooden planks when installing decking planks on floor joists.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

A tool for straightening flooring material laid over floor joists having a thickness includes a squared “U” shaped wedge having a pair of spaced apart legs. The legs are spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the thickness of the floor joist. A wedge body has a planar bottom side and an upper side tapering with respect to the bottom planar side from a head end downwardly to the distal ends of the legs. A squared “U” shaped planar chisel plate shaped to conform with the shape of the bottom planar side of the wedge body includes a pair of legs spaced apart a distance slightly smaller than the thickness of the floor joist. The chisel plate includes a chisel edge along the inside spaced part ledges of the legs of the chisel plate. The tool according to the present invention is used by driving the “U” shaped wedge onto the floor joist with the tapered surface abutting the plank to be straightened. Further as the squared “U” shaped chisel edge wedge is driven downwardly on the joist, the upper tapered surface of the tool forces the plank to be bent away from the wedge body thereby straightening the plank.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A tool10for straightening wooden planks is shown inFIGS. 1-3. The tool10includes a squared “U” shaped wedge body12having a pair of spaced apart legs12A and12B running parallel with one another together with a flat bottom surface14. The body12also includes an upper surface16which is tapered with respect to the bottom surface14. In a preferred embodiment, the body12is constructed of a rigid material such as wood, plastic or steel.

A squared “U” shaped chisel plate18having the same shape as the bottom surface14, including two spaced apart legs18A and18B, is mounted to the body12with fasteners20as shown inFIGS. 2 and 4. The chisel plate18is provided with inwardly extending chisel edges22on the legs18A and18B as shown inFIGS. 1 and 4which extend into opening13defined by the space between the two legs12A and12B of the “U” shaped body12. The chisel plate18is further provided with a chisel edge23at each distal end of the legs18A and18B.

The present invention has particular application in removing lateral deflection of a wood plank during construction of a wooden deck. However, the present invention could also be used to straighten siding or inside flooring.

In conventional construction of a deck, decking planks24are laid over floor joists26positioned on edge as shown inFIG. 5. If decking plank24A inFIG. 5is to be straightened, a spacer28is positioned between decking planks24A and24B. The tool10is then positioned over the joist26as shown inFIG. 5with the opening13receiving the edge of joist26and with the upper surface16positioned in abutting relationship with plank24A.

The size of the opening13receiving the joist26is determined by the thickness of the joist with which the tool is to be used. The spaced apart chisel edges22are spaced apart a distance slightly less than the thickness of the joist with which the tool10is used. By driving the tool10downwardly as shown inFIG. 5with a hammer, for example, the chisel edges22will chisel into the joist26thereby preventing the tool10from moving away from the plank24A. The tool10is driven downwardly with the upper surface16wedging the plank24A against spacer28. When the plank24A abuts the spacer28, screws or nails may be used to secure the plank24A to the joist26.

With the present invention, flooring, siding or deck planking can be straightened easily at the time it is installed before securing the flooring, siding or deck planking to the underlying support joists. The tool10is easy to use, easy to make and has no moving parts.

While the fundamental novel features of the invention have been shown and described, it should be understood that various substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made by those skilled in the arts, without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Accordingly, all such modifications or variations are included in the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims: