Abstract:
The present disclosure describes a suspended cabinet system having a base cabinet affixed to a wall with a leveled mounting bracket for suspending the cabinet from the floor surface to provide a level counter top surface regardless of imperfections or uneven floors. Further, an adjustable kick plate may be mounted under the cabinet to enclose the lower exposed recess. Still further, one or more side panels may be utilized to cover the exposed sides of the cabinet to provide a finished and a more aesthetically appealing appearance.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present disclosure generally relates to a cabinet system and methods of use and, more particularly, to a suspended cabinet system having an adjustable toe plate for the level installation of prefabricated and/or custom cabinetry regardless of imperfections of and/or uneven surfaces of the surface underneath or behind the mounted cabinets. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0002]    For a further understanding of the nature and objects of the instant disclosure, reference should be had to the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like elements are given the same or analogous reference numbers. 
           [0003]      FIG. 1  illustrates a side perspective view of one embodiment of the cabinet system in accordance with the present disclosure; 
           [0004]      FIG. 2  illustrates an end view of an embodiment of the wall support and the back flange in accordance with the present disclosure; 
           [0005]      FIG. 3  illustrates an end view of an embodiment of the back flange in accordance with the present disclosure; 
           [0006]      FIG. 4  illustrates an end view of an embodiment of the adjustable bottom plate in accordance with the present disclosure; 
           [0007]      FIG. 5A  illustrates a top view of an embodiment of the wallend adapter in accordance with the present disclosure; and 
           [0008]      FIG. 5A  illustrates a side view of an embodiment of the wallend adapter in accordance with the present disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
       [0009]    It has always been preferred to install cabinets as well as other apparatuses typically intended to be supported by a floor surface, in a substantially level manner. This is especially the case for cabinets which typically have a top surface which is generally mounted on the cabinet. Further, a cabinet surface may have a cutout provided for a sink, stove, or other object. This top surface virtually can not be level if the cabinet itself is not level. A primary obstacle preventing the leveled mounting of a cabinet or other object is the almost inherently uneven or sloping floor. Often floors are not plumb or perfectly flat, yet it is important that for all floor supported apparatuses, the legs or supports of the apparatus contact the floor to provide adequate support and to equally distribute the weight of the object. If all the legs do not contact the floor, many problems can develop. For example, the outer cabinet and frame of an apparatus may become distorted over time due to nonuniform weight support, thereby impairing the proper operation of the apparatus. Annoying “rocking” problems with an apparatus may also result where the legs do not all contact the floor. Moreover, installations that are not level may be aesthetically undesirable by the inability to match the heights of adjacent cabinets, other equipment, or work surfaces. 
         [0010]    Installers and manufacturers have attempted to resolve the leveling problem by developing approaches to compensate for uneven and sloping floors. These attempts have ranged from repairing or altering the floor surface, using adjustable legs or supports, using shims or wedges made of a suitable material under the legs or supports, attaching various leveling devices, and other approaches based on contact between the floor surface and the object to be leveled. These techniques have numerous drawbacks. Among them, the apparatus must be manually lifted while such level compensating devices are placed under the legs or supports, thereby often requiring more than one installer. This situation also increases the potential risk of back or other physical injuries to the installers. Further, the shims are not permanently mounted to the apparatus legs and may shift over time or become completely dislodged. The present disclosure eliminates the need to compensate uneven or otherwise unlevel surfaces in a manner that does not require contacting the floor surface for support. 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates a side perspective view of one embodiment of the cabinet system  10 . Cabinet  12  may be a conventional cabinet or a custom made cabinet. Typically, cabinet  12  is the type that may be installed in a kitchen. However, it should be appreciated that cabinet  12  may be installed in a variety of rooms in a house, an office, a work shop, or the like. It should be further appreciated that the cabinet system  10 , described herein, may also be applied to a variety of wall supported cabinetry, desks, and other furniture. It should be understood that cabinet  12  may be of a variety of materials and designs and that the specific design and/or use of the cabinet  12  does not form a part of this specification. However, the mounting features (the cabinet system  10 ) described in detail herein do form a part of the disclosure and may be adapted to most conventional and or custom cabinetry and other wall supported furniture like structures. Preferably, cabinet  12  will have an upper surface  14 , a back surface  16 , side surfaces  18 , a front surface  20  and a bottom surface  22 . 
         [0012]    Upper surface  14  is typically topped by a countertop (not shown). The countertop may be of a variety of conventional materials as well as special order materials which may be aesthetic, resist wear, scratches, heat, be chemical resistant and the like. Thus, the countertop in and of itself does not form a part of the specification herein and will not be described in detail. Upper surface  14  may also have a cutout  24  therein. Cutout  24  may be for the insertion of a sink (not shown), a stove top (not shown), a storage area, or a variety of other apparatuses that may be desired to be within and/or flush with upper surface  14  or any type of countertop placed thereon. Thus, it should be appreciated that upper surface  14  must be substantially level. Further, if the cabinet  12  is placed adjacent to an existing cabinet or adjacent to another new cabinet, upper surface  14  and any countertop attached thereto should be substantially the same in height and levelness as any adjacent cabinet. 
         [0013]    Cabinet  12  preferably has two side surfaces  18 . It should be appreciated that it is possible to have a cabinet  12  with less than two side surfaces  18 . It should be further appreciated that when cabinet  12  is installed adjacent to other cabinets a full side surface  18  may not be necessary or desired. It should be appreciated that typically side surfaces  18  are needed to provide support for the cabinet  12  structure. It should also be appreciated that if cabinet  12  is to be installed where side surface  18  is completely exposed, side surface  18  or a facade attached to side surface  18  may extend to the floor surface  28 . 
         [0014]    Preferably, attached to the bottom surface  22  is a support  26 . Support  26  is preferably recessed from the front surface  20 . Support  26  is typically of the same material as cabinet  12 . However, support  26  may be of other material as desired. For conventional cabinets  12 , the support  26  may be recessed, from the front surface by three (3) or four (4) inches. It should be understood, by those skilled in the art, that support  26  is typically the attachment place for the toe plate  32 . The unique toe plate  32  of the instant disclosure is described more fully hereinbelow. Preferably, support  26  makes no contact with the floor surface  28 , directly or indirectly. However, it should be appreciated that it may be desired, in some circumstances that support  26  does contact the floor surface  28  in order to share the weight support of the cabinet  12  with the back support flange  34 . 
         [0015]    Still referring to  FIG. 1 , back surface  16  preferably mounts adjacent wall  30 . It should be understood that wall  30  can be any surface against which cabinet  12  is mounted. Preferably, back support flange  34  is attached to wall  30 . It should be understood that the back support flange  34  can be attached to wall  30  in a variety of ways including, but not limited to, screws, nails, bolts, glue, and the like. Preferably, back support flange  34  is of a wooden material. However, it should be appreciated that the back support flange can be of a variety of materials with a suitable strength to at least partially support cabinet  12 . Back surface  16  defines a mounting groove  42  which preferably mates with back support flange  34 . It should be understood, by those skilled in the art, that there should be some space tolerance between the mounting groove  42  and the back support flange  34  to compensate for any unevenness or waviness of wall  30 . 
         [0016]      FIG. 2  illustrates further detail of back support flange  34  and mounting groove  42 . Back support flange  34  is illustrated as being attached to wall  30  in a preferred mode of screws  48 . Preferably, screws  48  are attached to studs (not shown) or other structural supports behind wall  30 . It should be appreciated that if wall  30  is of sufficient strength to at least partially support cabinet  12 , the mounting screws or other desired attachment devices can be attached to wall  30  without the need of studs or other structural supports. Back support flange  34  preferably has an upper flange support system  50 . The upper flange support system  50  preferably includes at least a contact surface  38  and an upper flange lip  36  which extends substantially perpendicular to contact surface  38 . At the top of the upper flange lip  36  is a second contact area  40 . It should be appreciated, that in use, cabinet  12  is at least partially supported on contact surface  38  and/or second contact area  40 . 
         [0017]    Referring now to  FIG. 3  mounting groove  42  is illustrated in further detail. Mounting groove  42  preferably extends substantially the entire length of back surface  16 . The upper end of mounting groove  42  includes a back lip  44  which preferably extends downward and substantially parallel to back surface  16 . The back lip  44  is spaced apart from back surface  16  a distance that is slightly greater than the width of the second contact area  40 . Further, back lip  44  is preferably of a width that is similar to the width of contact surface  38 . Thus, when the back support flange  34  is mounted to wall  30 , lip contact area  46 , of back lip  44 , will at least partially engage at least part of contact surface  38  and be supported thereby. Still further, it should be understood that this arrangement will allow cabinet  12  to slide along the back support flange  34  for optimal positioning as well as to compensate for wall waviness. 
         [0018]    Referring again to  FIG. 1  and more particularly  FIG. 4 , there is illustrated a toe plate  32 . Toe plate  32  is novel in that it can be used bi-directionally depending on the width of the space between the floor  28  and the bottom support  26 . Further, toe plate  32  is so designed is to allow adjustment between a levelly installed cabinet  12  and an uneven and/or sloped floor  28 . A conventional cabinet is typically designed with approximately a 3½″ recess from the front surface  20  to the toe plate  32 . Further, in the conventional cabinet the bottom of the front surface  20  is approximately 4″ above the floor  28 . Thus, the conventional toe plate is typically a one piece planar board that is approximately 4″ in height. It should be understood that the dimensions recited herein are for ease of understanding and are not intended as being limited. It should be further understood that these dimensions may vary due to personal preferences, locations of the cabinets, as well as desired cabinet height and positioning. 
         [0019]    The novel toe plate  32 , described herein, preferably includes two (2) planar sections  60 ,  62  joined so as to be substantially perpendicular to each other. As described hereinabove for materials of the cabinet  12  and the back support flange  34 , toe plate  32  is preferably wood but may be of a variety of materials. It should be understood, by those skilled in the art, that the joining of the two planar sections  60 ,  62  can be made in a variety of conventional means as well as utilizing unique or custom methods. Preferably, one of the two planar sections  60  is substantially the height of a conventional one piece planar toe plate and the second section  62  is of a height greater than the height of a conventional one piece planar toe plate. Thus, the second section  62  is made to be adjustable in situations where an uneven or unlevel floor  28  prevent a conventional toe plate from evenly contacting floor  28 . It should be understood, by those skilled in the art, that in a conventional cabinet installation, wherein, the cabinet is supported by floor  28 , an uneven or unlevel floor  28  presents many difficulties with cabinet installation. Typically, cabinet installers must somehow compensate for the unevenness of floors in a variety of time consuming methods. The simplest method is to level the cabinet with a series of shims, attach the toe plate and then add some moulding between the bottom of the toe plate and the floor to hide the unevenness of the floor. However, the methods may become increasingly difficult, expensive, and time consuming if the floor is very uneven or very unlevel. These methods may include, but are not limited to, custom making moulding to hide the floor imperfections, cutting/altering the bottom side edges of the cabinet until a “close enough” fix has been obtained. 
         [0020]    The toe plate  32 , disclosed herein, eliminates the need for expensive and time consuming methods for hiding any floor imperfections. Preferably, toe plate  32  is attached to bottom support  26 . Depending on the condition of floor  28 , either planar section  60  (substantially the conventional toe plate height) or planar section  62  (adjustable height) is attached to bottom support  26 . The method of attachment, of the toe plate  32  to the side surface  64  of the bottom support  26  can include a variety of fastening devices such as, but not limited to, nails, screws, bolts, glue, pins, and the like. The exact method of attachment of toe plate  32  to bottom support  26  is not intended to be read as a limitation herein. It should be understood, by those skilled in the art, that a further advantage and novelty of toe plate  32  rests in the adjustability of the cabinet system for special adaption such as, but not limited to, meeting the height of an adjacent existing cabinet, meeting disability standards for heights, and the like. In a typical installation, if a cabinet is too short, it is shimmed to meet the desire height. However, if the cabinet is too tall, the exterior sides of the cabinet must be trimmed at the respective bottom edges. This becomes very time consuming and expensive and can result in damage to the cabinet which results in even further expense. However, by utilizing the suspended cabinet system  10  in conjunction with toe plate  32 , the cabinet height is easily adjusted and the adjustable toe plate  32  is used to compensate for the distance between the cabinet  12  and the floor  28 . Thus, cabinet system  10  used in combination with adjustable toe plate  32  results in a substantially, aesthetically perfect installation. 
         [0021]    Referring now to  FIGS. 5A and 5B , there is illustrated a wall adapter system  76  which preferably eliminates the need for additional side moulding required by many conventional installations. Once the cabinet  12  is suspended and installed there may be a gap between the side surfaces  18  and a wall, existing or other cabinet, or some other furniture, appliance, apparatus, or the like. This gap needs to be aesthetically covered while maintaining the ease and economical benefit of the suspended cabinet system  10 . The wall adapter system  76  preferably includes a slide adapter  72 . Slide adapter  72  is adjustable in order to substantially contact the wall  30  or other item adjacent to the installed cabinet  12 . 
         [0022]    Slide adapter  72  preferably adjustably mounts to the cabinet end section  74  (see also  FIGS. 1 and 4 ). Adapter piece  70  is utilized to allow adjustability and stability of slide adapter  72 . Preferably, adapter piece  70  is attached to the cabinet edge  74  through one or more screws through attachment holes  78 . It should be understood that a variety of connection methods such as, but not limited to, nails, pins, glue and the like can be used to attach adapter piece  70  to cabinet edge  74 . Still further, it should be understood that the attachment of slide adapter  72  to adapter piece  70  and/or cabinet edge  74  may be by a variety of connection methods and thus, the exact attachment of the wall adapter system  76  to cabinet  12  should not be viewed as a limitation herein. In another embodiment, wall adapter system  76  may have double slide connection capabilities. Thus, the double end wall adapter system  76  can aesthetically provide facades between cabinets  12  or other adjacent articles that are not the same depth (i.e. one or the other extends further from the wall  30  than the other). 
         [0023]    In operation the suspended cabinet system  10  saves time and expense for installing cabinets  12 . The cabinet  12 , the back support flange  34 , and the toe plate  32  are separately manufactured. Cabinet  12  is manufactured to include the mounting groove  42  and the back lip  44 . It should be understood that in certain cases it may be possible to retrofit mounting groove  42  and back lip  44  onto a conventional or custom made cabinet and as such should not be viewed as being outside the scope of the present disclosure. The back support flange  34  is can be manufactured in various lengths or can be made in a convenient length which may be cut to a necessary length at installation time. The toe plate  32  may also be manufactured in various lengths or in convenient lengths intended to be cut to desired lengths at installation time. Preferably, toe plate  32  is manufactured with one planar section being substantially the conventional length and the second planar section  62  being a width sufficient to allow adjustment to properly bridge the space between the bottom of cabinet  12  and the floor  28 . 
         [0024]    The back support flange  34  is mounted on wall  30 . It should be understood that the back support flange  34  is positioned on wall  30  at a height above the ground that will position the top surface  14  at the desired height. It should be further understood that the back support flange  34  is horizontally leveled against wall  30  using a conventional level. Cabinet  12  is mounted on the leveled back support flange  34  so that the back lip  44  engages contact area  38 . At this point, in the installation process, cabinet  12  is level. If so desired, cabinet  12  may be more permanently attached to the wall  30  and the back support flange  34  through the use of nails, screws, bolts, glue, pins, staples, and the like. 
         [0025]    Next the toe plate  32  is ready for attachment to bottom support  26 . It should be appreciated that this step requires substantially no advanced planning regarding the dimensions of toe plate  32  or any inconsistences of the floor surface  28 . The installer can visually place toe plate  32  adjacent to the side surface  64  of bottom support  26 . If the floor  28  is fairly even, planar section  60  may be attached to bottom support  26 . If the floor surface  28  is uneven or sloped, planar section  62  may be used. Planar section  62  is marked or scribed to reflect the floor  28  slope or unevenness and can be cut to aesthetically cover the space between the bottom of cabinet  12  and the floor  28 . It should be appreciated that if cabinet  12  has to be installed in a lower position or a higher position, relative to floor surface  28 , either planar section  60 ,  62 , may be used as the section to be trimmed for the proper aesthetic fit. 
         [0026]    Preferably, after cabinet  12  is positioned, wall adapter system  76  may be installed if necessary. Wall adapter system  76  will provide an aesthetic connection between cabinet  12  and any adjacent wall, cabinet, furniture, or other fixture and/or structure. It should be understood that depending on the cabinet configuration either a single slide adapter  72  or a double side slide adapter may be used. It should be further understood that additional facades may be added to one or both side surfaces  18  if they are to be exposed. Such facades will preferably extend to the floor surface  28 . 
         [0027]    Obviously, other modifications and variations of the disclosed system are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that changes may be made in the particular embodiments described above which are within the full intended scope as defined in the appended claims. 
         [0028]    While the present system and method has been disclosed according to the preferred embodiment, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that other embodiments have also been enabled. Even though the foregoing discussion has focused on particular embodiments, it is understood that other configurations are contemplated. In particular, even though the expressions “in one embodiment” or “in another embodiment” are used herein, these phrases are meant to generally reference embodiment possibilities and are not intended to limit the system or methods disclosed herein to those particular embodiment configurations. These terms may reference the same or different embodiments, and are combinable into aggregate embodiments. The terms “a”, “an” and “the” may also mean “one or more”. 
         [0029]    None of the description in this specification should be read as implying that any particular element, step or function is an essential element which must be included in the claim scope. The scope of the patented subject matter is defined by the allowed claims and their equivalents. Unless explicitly recited, other aspects of the instant disclosure as described in this specification do not limit the scope of the claims. Because many varying and different embodiments may be made within the scope of the novel concept(s) herein taught, and because many modifications may be made in the embodiment herein detailed in accordance with the descriptive requirements of the law, it is to be understood that the details herein are to be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.