Building including a roof manufactured with a plurality of composite wood boards each having alternating tongue and groove arrangements along pairs of edges
A rectangular composite wood board includes along each of its long edges an alternating tongue and groove construction, the tongue being insertable into a similarly shaped groove. In one embodiment, each of the short edges of the board is in contact with a groove at one end and a tongue end at the other, and each of the long edges includes an equal number of tongues and grooves. In another embodiment, each of the long edges has a groove at each of its ends and the grooves are equal to or longer than the longitudinal length of a tongue.
This is a continuation of pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/308,649, filed Dec. 3, 2002, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe subject invention relates to composite wood boards and, in particular, to boards having compatible tongue and groove arrangements.
Composite wood boards, such as plywood boards or oriented strand boards, are well-known in the construction industry. In fact, such boards are used in the manufacture of inclined roofs. To facilitate making the roofs, board manufacturers sell rectangular boards which are about four feet wide, eight feet long and about ⅜ to ¾ of an inch thick. One of the long edges of each of the boards includes a tongue protruding along the entire edge while the other long edge includes a complementary groove. Therefore, it is possible for the tongue of one board to engage the groove of another. In the manufacture of a roof, this process is repeated many times and the boards are, in addition, secured to the rafters of the building under construction. This construction technique works well but has the disadvantage (relative to roofs made with boards which do not have tongue and groove edges) that boards, which typically weigh sixty-five pounds, have to be manipulated into positions where tongue and grooves engage and manipulating these boards, particularly on an inclined roof, is risky.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIt is an object of the present invention to provide a rectangular composite board having tongue and groove arrangements along each of its two long edges, wherein either edge of such a board can engage either of the two long parallel edges of another similarly constructed composite board.
The invention herein may be summarized as a composite wood board having rectangularly disposed edges, each of the long parallel edges including an alternating tongue and groove arrangement. The arrangement permits engagement between the tongues and grooves disposed along one edge of a board and the tongues and grooves disposed on either of the long edges of a similar board. The boards are particularly useful in the home construction industry in the manufacture of roofs and flooring.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe above-mentioned and other objects of invention will become apparent by reference to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the present embodiment, each of the edges 11 and 12 includes six tongue and groove pairs. However, the edges can be modified to include more or less pairs.
Referring to
It should be noted that circumstances may exist wherein some lateral movement between engaged boards is desirable. In this case, the tongues can be narrower in the edge direction and the grooves can be longer. An example of this may be a board having six inch tongues and eighteen inch grooves. Such a board 10″ is shown in
Referring to
When constructing a roof, the line formed by the intersection of two roofing surfaces often results in the waste of parts of roofing boards. For example, with traditional tongue and groove boards, it is frequently necessary to cut a board along a line to allow the resulting edge to define part of a roof surface intersection. If, for example, all panels are laid with the tongues facing up, the utility of the part of the panel which was cut but not used is not immediately apparent and it may wind up as waste. In contrast, if a board according to the invention is used, it can be cut along a line to provide a section which forms part of one roof and an edge defining the surface intersection. The other board section can be flipped over and used on the other surface with the cut edge in abutment along the intersection, thus resulting in a more efficient use of the boards.
To manufacture a board 10, a tongue may be cut along each of the long edges of a four by eight feet oriented strand board. Thereafter, a cutter may be used to cut grooves on eight inch increments so that the board will have eight inches of tongue and eight inches of groove all the way down both of the long edges of the board.
Claims
1. A building structure including a roof section therein, wherein said roof section includes at least two wood boards contributing to the formation of said roof section, wherein said at least two wood boards each individually comprise:
- a first edge,
- a second edge parallel to the first edge of the composite wood board, the first and second edges having contiguous sections of equal length, each section having a groove and a tongue compatible with the groove.
2. The building structure of claim 1 wherein the length of the first edge of said wood board is a multiple of the length of a section.
3. The building structure of claim 2, wherein the length of the tongue in each section of said wood board measured in the longitudinal direction of an edge is less than or equal to the length of the grooves in each section.
4. The building structure of claim 3 wherein said wood board includes a third edge and a fourth edge parallel to the third edge.
5. The building structure of claim 2 wherein said wood board further includes a third edge which is substantially perpendicular to the first and second edges; a fourth edge which is substantially perpendicular to the first and second edges; the first edge having the grooves and tongues of the sections alternately disposed with a groove adjacent the third edge and a tongue adjacent the fourth edge; and the fourth edge having the grooves and tongues of the section alternately disposed with a tongue adjacent the third edge and groove adjacent the fourth edge.
6. The building structure of claim 5 wherein the length of the tongue in each section of said wood board measured in the longitudinal direction of an edge is less than or equal to the longest of the grooves in each section.
7. The building structure of claim 6 wherein the multiple of the length of the first edge of said wood board is at least 6.
8. The building structure of claim 6 wherein the distance between the third and fourth edges of said wood board is substantially eight feet.
9. The building structure of claim 6 wherein said wood board is an oriented strand board.
10. A method of constructing a roof section of a building structure comprising the steps of:
- a) providing a plurality of wood boards, wherein each said wood board comprises: a first edge, and a second edge parallel to the first edge of the composite wood board, the first and second edges having contiguous sections of equal length, each section having a groove and a tongue compatible with the groove;
- b) arranging said plurality of wood boards of step “a” in a configuration with each other such that each wood board connects to an adjacent wood board in relation to said compatible tongue and groove such that each connected wood board contributes both a tongue and a groove to the connection made between said adjacent wood boards.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 6, 2005
Publication Date: Nov 10, 2005
Inventor: John Bennett (Nicholson, GA)
Application Number: 11/145,696