Smooth wall finishing system

The invention is a wall finishing system which is a sheet material designed to cover an entire wall, requiring minimal seams. The wall material has the characteristic of shrinking after application causing surface irregularities to pull out to a smooth plane. The sheet material can be applied to various substrates including finished or unfinished drywall, paneling, cement block, etc.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The invention is directed to provide a material and method for finishing 
unfinished or damaged wall substrates. The use of this invention results 
in a smooth plaster-like wall surface. 
U. S. Pat. Nos. 3,941,632 and 4,698,258 show structures applied to walls 
without a shrinking effect. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Current methods for finishing wall surfaces include: traditional applied 
plaster, tape and joint compound, heavy texture wall coverings and heavy 
texture paint. Methods to achieve a smooth plaster finish are messy, 
require a certain skill level, and often require several days for 
application and drying time. Methods that utilize heavy texture as a means 
of hiding surface irregularity are often unacceptable to the home owner 
for various reasons--too rough, not easily wall papered, looks unfinished. 
The invention is a sheet material that covers the entire wall surface and 
bridges substrate irregularities by shrinking to a tight smooth surface. 
The invention is a wall finishing system that provides a smooth flat 
pre-finished surface that can be painted, papered or left as applied. The 
invention is designed to apply to a wide array of wall substrates and 
situations. The invention consists of a sheet material, designed to shrink 
after application to a wall and an attachment method such as adhesive, 
double-faced adhesive carpet tape, staples (staples are covered with 
trim). The sheet material is manufactured on a release paper which is 
removed prior to installation of the sheet to a wall. The sheet material 
can be trimmed to fit the wall prior to application or in some cases 
trimmed out after application. The shrink characteristic of the material 
allows the application to the wall to be less than perfectly smooth as the 
material will shrink tight to a smooth fit. 
The invention, being capable of installing in one day, is especially useful 
for wall finishing situations where the room being finished cannot 
accommodate the several day process associated with conventional tape and 
compound finishing. The invention is also useful in situations where 
reoccurring settling cracks are a problem. The material acts as a flexible 
membrane that allows for movement without sacrificing surface continuity. 
This finishing system is ideal for manufactured housing applications 
because large wall sections can be finished in the factory and then 
survive subsequent transport and assembly. 
In residential basement applications, the material may be applied directly 
over block walls, poured walls, old paneling and other common substrates 
to quickly transform the walls to smooth plaster looking walls.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
The invention is a wallcovering 2 designed to be a wall finishing system 
that can provide a smooth flat finish to a variety of possible wall 
substrates such as drywall 4, block and paneling. The wallcovering 
material would be available in rolls and range in size of widths from 6' 
to 14' and lengths of any size (limited only by handling realities). The 
material thickness would be about 0.020" to 0.060". The material is made 
from a PVC compound formulated to meet code requirements. The sheet is 
manufactured on a release paper which is removed prior to installation. 
The release paper may be used to pattern scribe the wall, assisting in 
sizing the PVC sheet for wall application. The actual technique of 
handling and positioning this material would be similar to applying carpet 
or flooring materials to a floor, but in this case, a wall is the plane of 
application. The sheet material forming the wallcovering is made according 
to the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,219. The vinyl resin-containing 
layer (column 2, lines 34-44) of the floor product of the above patent are 
used as the wall covering material (shrinkable sheet material) used 
herein. The wallcovering material is normally made with a smooth plain 
white face. 
An entire wall can be finished using this system and in most cases without 
any seams interrupting the wall plane. The material can be attached to the 
substrate using adhesive 6, carpet tape, or staples along the perimeter, 
around openings and at high spots. The means to fasten the wallcovering 
can be perimeter fastening or perimeter and high spot fastening. No 
fastening is done to low spots. After being secured to the substrate the 
material will shrink causing it to tightly "drum" across the wall plane 
resulting in a smooth flat surface, covering the low spots, that may be 
painted or left as is (standard white opague finish). 
FIG. 5 shows the wallcovering 2 held by adhesive 6 to the face of drywall 4 
(or cement blocks). The wallcovering conceals the nails 10 in depressed 
areas and the gap 8 between adjacent sections of drywall or cement blocks. 
The invention is intended to provide the ability to produce a finished wall 
without requiring numerous preparation steps and to provide this finish to 
a variety of different substrates. Currently different substrates require 
both unique and different approaches to finishing. For example, block 
walls can be skim coated with plaster or furred out and drywalled, taped 
and spackled (either way, the finishing procedure will require two to 
three days). The present invention would simply be trimmed to fit the wall 
and applied, as shown in the drawings, attached with adhesive.