Abstract:
A sturdy and non-marking standoff is inserted between a piece of furniture and a supporting surface and comprises a platform supported by a plurality of radially extending, non-marking vanes. When supporting furniture over wet carpet, the carpet is permitted to dry due to air spaces formed between the vanes and between the carpet and the platform. Preferably, an upstanding rim is added about the perimeter of the platform for cooperating with additional standoffs to enable stacking; the vanes of one standoff being laterally constrained by the rim of an adjacent and lower stackable standoff.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates generally to a carpet standoff which is inserted between furniture and a supporting surface such as carpet. More particularly, one standoff, or multiple stacked standoffs, are inserted to raise furniture above the surface of a wet carpet, thereby allowing the carpet to dry.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    In the carpet cleaning industry it is quite usual to face the situation of having to move furniture back into a room shortly after the carpet has been cleaned. In such circumstances the carpet is generally still wet, and any furniture that is placed upon it will prevent that portion of carpet directly underneath the furniture&#39;s legs, and other contact surfaces, from drying properly. More importantly, the moisture in the carpet can cause the furniture to form wood or rust stains on the carpet. The furniture itself is also susceptible to damage from the moisture in the wet carpet; due to the moisture soaking up into the furniture&#39;s legs or into the cloth skirting of the furniture which, if present, often touches the carpet.  
           [0003]    The general practice in the carpet cleaning business is to place foil sheets, or Styrofoam (® Dow Chemical Company) or wooden blocks, underneath the furniture legs. Wooden blocks protect the furniture but can still cause staining. The use of non-wood spacers is successful in preventing the wood or rust stains, however it does not allow that portion of the carpet underneath the foil or block to dry as quickly as the rest of the carpet. The quick drying of a carpet after cleaning is important including: to prevent the shrinking or stretching of the carpet, to prevent damage to the carpet backing, and to prevent mildew. Even if a device is placed under the furniture, it may not provide sufficient height to lift the skirting from the carpet.  
           [0004]    In U.S. Pat. No. 6,206,424 a foam drying block is described for use as a furniture slide device. Although this device is useful for moving furniture over a floor surface, it suffers from the same disadvantages as mentioned above; precisely because it uses a foam block which prevents the carpet underneath it from drying quickly. Furthermore, stacking of such blocks (in order to lift the furniture a sufficient height) results in the furniture being precariously balanced on top.  
           [0005]    A number of devices are known to alleviate an unrelated problem where furniture legs cause permanent depressions to the carpet due to the placing of the furniture upon the pile of the carpet for prolonged periods of time. For example, furniture support devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,743,506, and 5,823,492 as well as in French Pat. No.s 2,062,032 and 2,265,314. The common elements of these devices include:  
           [0006]    supporting the furniture legs on a horizontal platform;  
           [0007]    transferring the weight of the furniture to the underlying subfloor by a plurality of protrusions which extend down through the carpet pile and through the carpet backing; and  
           [0008]    supporting the platform just above the carpet pile to support a piece of furniture and prevent damage to the carpet pile from the crushing forces of the furniture.  
           [0009]    While supporting furniture, these devices do not contemplate the problems associated with wet carpet; particularly the need for circulating enough air between the platforms and the wet carpet to allow carpet to dry quickly. This is understandable as these references are designed to address a completely different problem—protecting the pile from crushing and supporting furniture on a more permanent basis. This permanent aspect of these devices is also reflected in the design of their columnar protrusions—which easily puncture through the carpet pile, carpet backing, and any underlying pad to engage the subfloor. These columnar protrusions are also usually quite short. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,492, the protrusions are of such height that, once they pass through the carpet pile, backing and underlying pad, the horizontal platform barely touches the top of the pile.  
           [0010]    The columnar protrusions of the prior art also tend to cause damage to the carpet backing and underlay; precisely because they puncture through the carpet. For example, in the French Pat. No. 2265314 the protrusions are descriptively referred to as “points taking support on the ground between the interstices of the fitted carpet”. With only four such sharp points, as is shown in the preferred embodiment of this French patent, heavy furniture would also cause the protrusions to penetrate most pliable subfloors making subsequent removal quite difficult.  
           [0011]    In general, prior art furniture support devices are intended for long term use and therefore are designed so as to avoid crushing carpet pile. As a consequence, the clearance of the horizontal platform to the carpet pile has conventionally been minimize so that the supported furniture does not appear awkward and unstable. Such minimal clearance affects the air flow between the bottom of the platform and the top of the pile; adversely affecting drying. Furthermore, the prior art furniture support devices do not address the issue of moisture soaking up into a furniture&#39;s cloth skirting which often extends below the bottom of the furniture&#39;s legs.  
           [0012]    Ideally, a device designed to support furniture for use after carpet cleaning would be of sufficient height to allow air currents to dry that portion of the wet carpet directly underneath the furniture quickly. Such a device would have a supporting structure which does not penetrate through the carpet backing or underlying pad, would isolate the furniture leg from the carpet, and would raise the leg securely and sufficiently to elevate skirting above the wet carpet pile.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0013]    The standoff of the present invention is temporarily inserted between a piece of furniture and a supporting surface. In one preferred embodiment the furniture rests on standoff comprising a circular planer platform supported by a plurality of radially extending vanes as legs.  
           [0014]    In another embodiment, addition of an upstanding rim about the perimeter of a platform will cooperate with other rimmed standoffs to enable stacking; the vanes of one standoff being laterally constrained by the rim of an adjacent and lower stackable standoff.  
           [0015]    In the case of wet carpet the vanes have a height sufficient to space the platform above the carpet, and form a plurality of pie-shaped air spaces between the vanes which enable moisture in the carpet beneath the standoff to evaporate and thus dry the carpet. The vanes are strong and do not penetrate the carpet. Preferably the carpet standoff is constructed of a sturdy, unitary, non-marking and mildew resistant material such as recycled plastic. Such a standoff is inexpensive and lightweight. The design of the standoff shape and the arrangement of the protrusions allow the standoff to carry a substantial weight. Ideally, once the carpet has dried, the standoffs are re-used in subsequent jobs by the cleaning service or for repeated use by a furniture owner. However, the simplicity and resulting low cost makes it economically feasible to abandon the standoffs after a carpet cleaning job, leave the furniture, and let the homeowners remove them once the carpet has dried. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a side view of one embodiment of the carpet standoff supported on pile carpet and supporting a furniture leg;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 2 a  is a bottom view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 b  is a side view of another embodiment of the carpet standoff having a rim formed about the platform (illustrated by hidden lines);  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 3 is an exaggerated perspective view of the embodiment of the carpet standoff shown in FIG. 2 b;  and  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 4 is a side view of two stacked standoffs of the embodiment from in FIGS. 2 b  and  3  supporting skirted furniture. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0021]    Having reference to FIG. 1, in a first embodiment, a carpet standoff  10  is provided for spacing furniture  11  off of a supporting surface. The standoff  10  comprises a planer platform  13  having an upper, furniture supporting surface  14  and lower surface  15 . The platform  13  is illustrated as circular, however, other shapes can be implemented, such as rectangular or polygonal. Protrusions or vanes  16  extend downwardly from the lower surface  15  and act to space the platform  13  from the supporting surface, such as a carpet  20 . Carpet  20  conventionally comprises a sheet of grid-like backing material with pile material  21  looped or threaded through the backing and all of which is laid on a carpet pad  23 . The carpet pad  23  rests on a supporting surface such as a subfloor  24 . After carpet cleaning, the standoff  10  is placed on and supported by the carpet  20 . An object, such as the leg  25  of furniture  11  is placed upon and rests on the platform&#39;s upper surface  14 . Some of the carpet&#39;s pile  21  may be bent or displaced as the vanes  16  engage the carpet  20 , but this is only temporary until the carpet  20  is dry and the carpet standoff  10  is removed.  
         [0022]    As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 a,  a plurality of radially extending vanes  16  are generally rectangular and are secured to the platform&#39;s lower surface  15  along upper linear edges  30 . The vanes  16  have lower linear edges  31  which are which parallel to the upper edges  30 , and which form a generally planer base  32  for the standoff  10 . The rectangular shape of the vanes  16  provide uniform support across the platform&#39;s lower surface  15  and distribute the supported load into the carpet  20 . The vanes  16  are significantly stronger than prior art columnar protrusions. Preferably, at least the lower edges  31  of the vanes  16 , or the entire vanes  16  are constructed of a moisture resistant (including being mildew resistant and non-marking) and structural material. More preferably, the entire standoff is of unitary high density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic construction. In one method of plastic manufacture, such as injection molding, the vanes  16  are slightly tapered from the vane&#39;s upper edge  30  the vane&#39;s lower edge  31 , forming draft so as to allow for easy removal of the carpet standoff  10  from a mold.  
         [0023]    As shown in FIG. 2 b,  the vanes  16  can connect or intersect at the center  26  of the lower surface  5 , further stabilizing the vanes  16  from buckling or collapsing laterally.  
         [0024]    It is understood that only three equi-spaced radial vanes are required to provided stability, however, dependent upon the material characteristics, more may be required. For example, a unitary HDPE plastic standoff having a circular platform diameter of about 38 mm, and a height of about 19 mm would have a load carrying capacity of about 180 Kg/standoff  10  when equipped with eight radial vanes; the vanes and platform each having a thickness of about 1.5 mm. Despite this high load bearing capacity the fact that it is distributed across a large base of radial vanes prevents damage to the carpet backing and underlay from puncturing; which is the case with the furniture support devices of the prior art which use points to distribute the weight of the furniture.  
         [0025]    In the case of eight radial vanes  16 , eight separate pie-shaped air spaces  34  are formed therebetween. The vanes  16  have a height greater than the height of the pile, typically more than twice the pile height, so that air can circulate into the air space carrying away moisture and drying the carpet  10 . Such a standoff  10  can raise the bottom of the furniture 12 mm or more above the carpet&#39;s pile  21  and the awkward appearance can serve as a reminder to remove them once the carpet has dried.  
         [0026]    Referring to FIGS. 2 b  and  3 , in another embodiment, whether used with wet carpet or merely for increasing the height of supported furniture (e.g. to elevate furniture  11  with skirting  102 ), multiple carpet standoffs  100  are provided which are stackable. A stackable standoff  100  (FIG. 2 a ) comprises a platform  13  and vanes  16  of the standoff  10  of the first embodiment. The platform  13  is additionally formed with at least one rim  101  which projects upwardly from the upper surface  14  and forms an upwardly projecting perimeter around the platform  13  to assist in stacking. The radial extent of the rim  101  corresponds and co-operates with the radial extent of the vanes  16  of another stackable standoff  100 . For example, for the HDPE plastic example above for the prior embodiment, with a platform diameter of a 38 mm and a 1.5 mm wide rim located at the periphery of the platform, there is a remaining upper surface  14  diameter of about 35 mm for which to receive the vanes  16  of an other stacked standoff  100 .  
         [0027]    Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 4, two stackable standoffs  100  are inserted between a furniture leg  25  and carpet  20 ; one upper stackable standoff  100   a  being stacked on top of an adjacent lower stackable standoff  100   b.  When stacked, the radial vanes  16  of the upper standoff  100   a  rest on the platform  13  of the lower standoff  100   b  and the vanes  16  of the lower standoff  100   b  rest on the carpet  20 .  
         [0028]    The upturned rim  101  of the lower stackable standoff  100   b  securely constrains the arrangement of the vanes  16  of the adjacent upper stackable standoff  100   a,  which constrains lateral movement between the individual stackable standoffs  100 . By stacking individual stackable standoffs, the furniture  11  that they support can be raised to a sufficient height so as to allow the furniture&#39;s skirting  102  to be raised above the wet carpet  20 ; or raised to even greater heights and thereby creating more clearance underneath the furniture  11 , 102  which is advantageous when using fans or blowers to speed up the evaporation process. In addition, the stacking feature of individual stackable standoffs  100  can be used in situations other than those involving wet carpet, such as when furniture  11  has to be securely raised above a supporting surface for any number of reasons.