Patent Publication Number: US-2009229203-A1

Title: Floor Joist Raceway

Description:
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/069,482 filed Mar. 14, 2008 and which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The disclosed invention relates to construction and building framing. More particularly it relates to a system and method providing a base plate component configured to support vertical walls and vertical studs overhead, which concurrently provides an unobstructed raceway or conduit within the finished wall for internal wires, networks, and other modern house and business wiring. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Normal wood frame construction wherein vertical walls are formed and mounted to a wood frame floor or a cement slab, conventionally affix the vertical walls of the structure to a base plate. This base plate is conventionally a planar board or member. 
     The conventional board member base plate consists generally of a single board which is bolted or nailed to the floor surface. On the top surface of this base plate, upright or vertical wall support boards are engaged to the base plate substantially perpendicular thereto, to form the skeleton for the finished wall. To this skeleton, surfacing such as drywall or plaster is secured to form the vertical exterior and interior walls of the structure. 
     Doors are generally placed to communicate through the formed walls. Wherever a door is placed, the bottom of the vertical wall terminates for the width of the door and consequently, there is no baseplate. (Best shown in  FIG. 2 , prior art) 
     Positioning wiring through the interior of such conventionally built walls presents a problem both during initial construction and especially in any retrofitting of building wiring. This is because the wires and cables communicating to the various sockets and network and telephone connectors must be run behind the drywall surface and through apertures formed in each of the upright boards forming the internal wall skeleton. Also, wherever a door communicates through the wall, modern framing techniques make it virtually impossible to run cabling and wires from the wall in which the door is situated, to the wall on the opposite side of the door, once the door is in place. This as noted is caused by the cessation of the wall at the bottom portion of the door, and the heavy reinforcement of the vertical members on either side of the door which support overhead weight. 
     In finished buildings installing new or additional wires and cables in the formed walls, after the drywall or plaster or other exterior surfacing has been attached is generally a nightmare. Removal of drywall is not a task that is easily undertaken since it easily disintegrates or is damaged and because conventionally a decorative texture is applied to the exterior surface. Once so removed to route new wires through and around interior vertical members, the drywall must be replaced and then the exterior surface must be matched to the surrounding surface at great expense of time and money. 
     Running new wiring and cables through existing walls without removal of the drywall, if possible, requires the employment of long drills and specialty tools to provide new passages for the cabling through the vertical supports. In many cases it is a necessity to run wiring from the attic above a room, through the heavy top header of the wall similar to the weight supporting header above a door, and then down the wall to the location of the new component or fixture to be located at the terminating end of the new wiring. This endeavor is frequently impeded by the risk of running into a horizontal member between the vertical members of the skeleton which functions as a fire block. Such fire blocks are frequently placed between vertical supports at odd or unpredictable locations further complicating the job at hand. 
     Despite the laborious and expensive consequences of retrofit wiring and cabling of framed walls, such conventional methods must be employed due to the nature of the frame wooden or steel skeleton of the wall described above. Accordingly, there is an unmet need for a method and apparatus for frame and wall construction, which will allow for conventional construction techniques, and conventional material use, thereby encouraging wide scale use by workers experienced in such construction. Such a device and method however should also provide a unimpeded interior raceway for the path of initial and subsequently placed cables and wiring through the interior of a framed wall. Such a device should be easily incorporated into conventional frame construction of buildings. Further, such a device and method should provide an easily accessed raceway for retrofit or additional cabling and wiring which may be necessary long after the building is finished, especially with the ever widening employment of networks and cabling for computers, phones, and the internet. Still further such a device should allow access to the raceway with minimum destruction or alteration of the drywall or plaster surface of finished walls to allow the easy communication of new wiring through framed walls as required in the future without costly damage to the decorative exterior surface. 
     It is thus an object of the invention to provide a device and method for the provision of an unimpeded wire raceway in a framed wall of a building which will alleviate the above noted current deficiencies in frame construction and wiring. 
     It is a further object to provide such a device and method of wall formation, which is employable in initial conventional frame construction, and subsequently provides easy retrofit or addition of wiring or cabling through the as-built framed walls in the building which may be long since finished but in need of new or upgraded wire and cabling. 
     Finally such a device should be capable of pre-manufacture and delivery to job sites, just like current lumber and studs and roof supports and the like to better enable widespread use without changing the normal construction or delivery methods. 
     These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of the formulation and method as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. 
     The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed method and device in a different manner or by modifying the invention within the scope of this disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view showing the raceway device installed in a typical wall and providing a permanent uninterrupted race at floor level and optionally around a typical door. (For wires run from above on both sides of a door). 
         FIG. 2  is a prior art rendering of the conventional manner of running wires in wood frame construction, where holes must be formed in vertical columns to accommodate wires there through. 
         FIG. 3  is sliced view along line  3 - 3  showing a finished wall with the device in place supporting vertical overhead wall studs. 
         FIG. 4  a second sliced view showing a narrower wall which employs the device and method herein at a base portion to support the vertical studs overhead. 
         FIG. 5  depicts the unique elongated stiffener component, herein disclosed, which communicates between a horizontal top wall member and horizontal bottom wall member of the device on a side opposite the vertical support member and with optional electrical box attached. 
         FIG. 6  depicts the device formed as a component of a typical frame wall and easily employed in new construction as a standard component. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring now to the drawings, wherein similar parts of the invention are identified by like reference numerals, there is seen in FIGS.  1  and  3 - 6 , various components of the device  10  which is employable as a component of conventional wood frame construction shown in  FIG. 2 . The base plate  12  of conventional construction shown in  FIG. 2 , will be provided or supported by a horizontal top member  14  of the device  10 . Vertical supports  11  for the internal wall skeleton of  FIG. 2  are therein supported overhead. 
     A horizontal bottom member  16  in the formed device  10  runs parallel to the top member  14  and is held spaced therefrom by a vertical support member  18  secured at both ends to the top member  14  and the bottom member  16  positioned in a plane between the top member  14  and bottom member  16  best shown in  FIGS. 5 and 6 . On a side opposite the support member  18 , a planar support wall component  20  is securely engaged to the top member  14  and bottom member  16  upon an outside edge  22  of both horizontal members and communicates between the top member  14  and bottom member  16 . Securement can be with one or a combination of conventional fasteners  17  including nails, screws, or adhesives. The support wall component  20  is best formed of plywood, laminate, or a material of sufficient sheer and support strength, to support the top member  14  spaced above the bottom member  16  and any intended structures positioned upon the top member  14 . The support wall component  20  so secured provides a means to both support the load overhead and prevent shearing. 
     The device  10  is preferably prefabricated into various lengths much like lumber is provided in various lengths, and then cut to finished length on the job site. This allows the device  10  to be employed by framers and carpenters much the same as regular lumber and without any learning curve as to use. 
     Between the top member  14  and bottom member  16 , and support wall component  20  and vertical support  18 , a cavity  24  formed. The cavity  24  is unimpeded for the length of the device  10  and defines a horizontal race through which wires or cables  26  may be threaded in both new construction, and any subsequent retrofit or remodel of the structure employing the device  10 . 
     In the preferred mode of the device  10  and method, the vertical support members  18  are formed of metal such as steel and are engaged opposite the support wall component  20  of the device  10 . The support members are best formed as preformed metal members having a first end adapted to engage the top horizontal member  14 , and a second end adapted to engage the bottom horizontal member  16  in a very secure and permanent fashion. The current preferred means of such engagement of the two ends of the horizontal member  16  to the respective top and bottom horizontal members employs a planar endplate  28 . These endplate  28  are preferably formed as an “L” shaped endplate  28  to thereby allow for engagement of two surfaces of each of the top member  14  and the bottom member  16  thereby increasing structural integrity. Fasteners  17  including one or a combination of nails, screws, or other means of attachment of the metal endplate  28  of the metal vertical supports  18 , to the horizontal top member  12  and bottom member  16  are employed through apertures  30  therein, to hold the endplate  28  proper position. So positioned, the device  10  has a substantially open side  32  opposite the vertical support wall component  20 . The use of the “L” shaped endplate  28  is especially preferred in that a horizontal portion  33  provides vertical support to overhead loads and a vertical portion  35  provides shear and sideways support to the device  10 . 
     Optionally, and in a particularly preferred mode of the device  10 , the metal vertical supports  18  may also have one or a combination of apertures  38  preformed therein at the proper height from the base member  16  for the connection of electrical boxes  40  or network junction boxes or the electrical or cable boxes attached between both ends of the vertical support  18  at a mounting point  44 . This mounting point  44  of the electrical boxes would be predetermined by the apertures  38  properly positioned to engage with the electrical boxes  40  which the thereby properly position to specifications of local building codes an eventual electrical socket, network plug, phone plug, or other electrical outlet which would mount inside the electrical box  40  and communicate through the finished surface such as drywall  50 . Such positioning of the apertures  38  to provide this engagement of electrical boxes  40  in proper positions will save much time and many mistakes by subsequent communications and electrical contractors who currently must measure and place the box  40  into walls. 
     Prior attempts to provide preformed wall raceways required special tools or were made from metal or materials requiring special glues or unconventional means for attachment to conventional industry standard construction. Consequently they have not been well received in the construction industry. 
     Because the device  10  forming a baseplate or floor joist raceway herein disclosed, is pre-manufactured in appropriate lengths and widths, and substantially from wood products or plastic or combinations thereof, they lend themselves to standard construction practices using standard construction tools and can be accepted as a product that is easily incorporated into existing construction and material channels of trade. 
     While all of the fundamental characteristics and features of the improved disclosed and described floor joist raceway with reference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification, various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoing disclosure and it will be apparent that in some instance, some features of the invention will be employed without a corresponding use of other features without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth. It should be understood that such substitutions, modifications, and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Consequently, all such modifications and variations are included within the scope of the invention as defined herein.