Door frame guard

A door frame guard for protecting a door jamb and door trim having a central section and a pair of conveying end sections extending from opposite sides of the central section. The guard includes a relatively stiff outer shell and a relatively soft inner lining which overlies and engages the door jamb and door trim.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
During the construction phase of the interior of a building, door jambs and 
door trim may be installed on the walls defining door openings to provide 
a finished door frame before the remainder of the building interior has 
been completed. Doors for these openings typically are installed 
subsequent to the completion of the construction of the interior of the 
building. Consequently, for some period of time, construction personnel, 
construction materials and equipment must pass through the door openings 
defined by the finished door frames. Inevitably, some of the door jambs 
and/or door trim of the finished door frame are struck and damaged by the 
materials and equipment passing through the door openings. 
Consequently, at the completion of the construction of the building 
interior, the damaged door jambs and door trim must be repaired. Such 
repair normally entails removing the damaged door jambs and trim from the 
walls and replacing them. Door jambs and trim must be cut, sanded, and 
finished by skilled carpenters. Thus, the repair of damaged door frames 
entails considerable time and expense. 
The longitudinal edges of the door jambs and door trim are particularly 
vulnerable to damage when struck by materials or equipment. In order to 
protect these edges, some type of guard may be placed over the finished 
door frame until the construction of the building has been completed. 
Examples of guards or protective devices for door jambs or for wall 
corners may be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,837,787 to Wright; 3,559,356 to 
Koral; 4,242,848 to Schoultz; and 4,443,508 to Mehl. However, the 
protective devices disclosed in these patents do not lend themselves to 
temporary installation of a finished door frame during the construction 
phase of a building. The structures disclosed in Koral and Schoultz are 
designed to be permanently affixed to the wall or corner being protected. 
The protective device of Wright is designed for use with flat walls. 
Likewise, the edge protector disclosed by Mehl is a rigid device, having 
flexible gripping pads which are best adapted to engage flat surfaces such 
as glass. 
Although it has been found preferable to construct a door frame guard from 
a relatively rigid material to ensure that it will withstand severe 
impacts, it has been found that the edges of door jambs and door trim may 
be damaged when a rigid guard is utilized because impacts applied to the 
rigid guard may be transmitted directly to these edges. Hence it is 
desirable to provide a guard for a door frame, which has sufficient 
stiffness to withstand severe impacts, yet has a capability to resist 
transmitting the force of these impacts to the edges of door jambs and 
trim. 
Additionally, it is desireable to provide a guard for a door frame which is 
inexpensive, which may be installed over a door frame easily, which will 
grip the door frame without requiring external fastening devices which may 
be removed from a door frame easily, and which may be reused. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The instant invention is directed to a door frame guard for protecting a 
door jamb and door trim comprising a generally rectangular central section 
and a pair of converging end sections extending from opposite sides of the 
central section. The guard includes an outer shell having an outer surface 
and an inner surface and an inner shell attached to the inner surface for 
overlying and engaging the door jamb and the door trim. The inner shell is 
formed from a softer material or a material have greater resilience than 
the material forming the outer shell. The materials comprising the inner 
and outer shells are selected to enable the converging end sections to 
have a range of movement away from and towards each other such that the 
end sections are adapted to grippingly engage the door frame.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Turning to FIG. 1, a doorway 10 is defined by an opening in a wall 12. A 
door jamb 14 which covers the lateral faces of the wall 12 and door trim 
16, 17 provide a door frame for doorway 10. Door jamb 14 and door trim 16 
may be seen in greater detail by referring to FIG. 2. In this figure it 
may be seen that wall 12 includes sheets of drywall 18 and 20 which are 
spaced apart by vertically extending studs 22. Door jamb 14 overlies the 
ends 23 and 25 of the drywall sheets 18 and 20 and one face 28 of stud 22. 
Trim pieces 16 and 17 are applied to the faces of drywall sheets 20 and 18 
and overlie a portion of the ends 24 and 26, respectively of jamb 14. 
The door frame guard 30 of the present invention includes a generally 
rectangular central section 32 and a pair of end sections 34 and 36 which 
extend from opposite sides of central section 32. Central section 32 has a 
width greater than the width between the outside surfaces 37 and 39 of 
door trim pieces 16 and 17 and end sections 34 and 36 converge towards 
each other and towards drywall sheets 20 and 18. It may be seen that guard 
30 includes an outer shell 38 having an outer surface 40 and an inner 
surface 42 and a co-extensive inner lining or shell 44 adjacent to inner 
surface 42. Outer shell 38 is manufactured from a relatively hard but 
resilient material, such as rubber or plastic and inner shell 42 is 
manufactured from a relatively soft and resilient material, such as soft 
rubber or vinyl. 
Inner and outer shells 44 and 38 are manufactured from resilient materials 
such that end sections 34 and 36 may be moved apart from each other to 
enable these sections to be installed over the trim pieces 16 and 17, as 
shown in FIG. 2. When guard 30 is installed, end sections 34 and 36 
grippingly engage door trim pieces 16 and 17. In the embodiment shown in 
FIG. 2, the ends 46 and 48 of sections 34 and 36, respectively, are spaced 
from drywall sheets 20 and 18. However, ends 46 and 48 may engage the 
drywall sheets 20 and 18 if the end sections 34 and 36 are of sufficient 
length. Preferably inner shell 44 overlies the ends 50 and 52 of outer 
shell 38 so that the softer and more resilient material is in contact with 
sheets 18 and 20. Although in the preferred embodiment the inner shell 44 
is illustrated as being one continuous piece and overlying the entire 
surface 42 of outer shell 38, this is not necessary. Inner shell 44 may be 
discontinuous and only partially cover inner surface 42. It is necessary 
only to have the inner lining or shell 44 cover the areas of inner surface 
42 that overlie door jamb 14 and door trim 16 and 17. 
It has been found that by manufacturing door frame guard 30 with a 
relatively hard outer shell 38 and a relatively soft inner lining or shell 
44 that engages the door frame, the outer shell 38 can resist relatively 
severe impacts and simultaneously the inner shell 44 can absorb or cushion 
a significant amount of the force of the impact that is transmitted to the 
door frame. Consequently, with the door guard 30 of the present invention, 
less force is transmitted to door jamb 14 and door trim pieces 16 and 17 
and the damage to these members is significantly reduced. Additionally, 
the door guard 30 is installed easily over a door frame, is inexpensive to 
manufacture and is reuseable. 
Outer shell 38 may be extruded from a plastic compound and inner shell 44, 
which overlies and is co-extensive with the inner surface 42 of outer 
shell 48 may be extruded from a relatively soft vinyl material. 
Since certain changes may be made in the above-described apparatus without 
departing from the scope of the invention herein involved, it is intended 
that all matter contained in the description or shown in the accompanying 
drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.