Patent ID: 7404260

Claim:
A portable gauge for indicating an as installed property of a loose-fill insulation in a building cavity wherein the cavity has a given depth, an open front, a rear surface, and sidewalls defined by spaced apart framing members and the framing members have front surfaces that lie in a common plane with the open front of the cavity; the portable gauge, comprising: a rigid frame for extending between and overlapping the front surfaces of the framing members defining the sidewalls of the cavity so that the frame can be held against the front surfaces of the framing members defining the sidewalls of the cavity; the rigid frame having a front side and a rear side; a plunger assembly mounted on the rigid frame; the plunger assembly having a plunger that includes a plunger faceplate and a plunger stem with the plunger faceplate being on the rear side of the frame; the plunger being mounted on the frame for to-and-fro motion substantially equal to or greater than the depth of the cavity; the plunger assembly having a force generating mechanism for urging the plunger faceplate away from the rear side of the frame with sufficient force to compress a portion of a loose-fill insulation, located in the cavity between the plunger faceplate and the rear surface of the cavity, to a compressed thickness less than the as installed thickness of the loose-fill insulation in the cavity and to a compressed density, greater than the as installed density of the loose-fill insulation in the cavity, that is sufficiently dense to substantially stop further movement of the plunger by the force generating mechanism; and a readout means calibrated to indicate an as installed property of the loose-fill insulation within the cavity for a given as installed thickness of the loose-fill insulation; the readout means being calibrated to indicate the as installed property of the loose-fill insulation by correlating the compressed thickness the loose-fill insulation, with the rear side of the gauge frame held against the front faces of the framing members defining the open front of the cavity, to the as installed property of the loose-fill insulation.