Portable folding floor unit

Abstract

The portable folding floor unit has two or more sections, each of the sections being essentially identical rectangular planar sections. The sections are connected to one another along their lengths with the use of hinges, providing a flooring unit that can fold up in an accordion style for easy transportation and use. An alternate embodiment of the portable folding floor unit has two rectangular planar end sections with protruding hinge pieces along one length. A series of middle sections are provided with protruding hinge pieces along opposing lengths such that the two end sections and middle sections can be interlocked. A series of rods can be placed through the interlocking hinge pieces to produce the portable folding floor unit with an accordion style folding.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/702,661, filed Jul. 27, 2005.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to flooring structures, and more specifically to a portable folding flooring unit.

2. Description of the Related Art

Many homes and other dwellings are equipped with attics and other storage spaces that are often unfinished. For example, many attics do not have permanent flooring and, instead, the floor area is composed of the spaced-apart studs with exposed drywall or insulation in between. This arrangement makes it very difficult for someone who wishes to use the attic for storage to walk around in the attic area.

Often times, attic owners will lay out sheets of plywood or other materials over the top of the floor studs in order to create a passable floor surface. However, this in usually inconvenient because the access points to attics are often very small and do not provide enough space to allow the passage of these large sheets of plywood. Also, these sheets of plywood are not very sturdy and will not support a large amount of weight or movement.

What is desired is a portable, folding flooring unit that is capable of being easily carried into small areas, such as attics, and is sturdy enough to support a significant amount of weight. Thus a portable folding floor unit solving the aforementioned problems is desired.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The portable folding floor unit of the present invention has two or more sections, each of the sections being essentially identical rectangular planar sections. The sections are connected to one another along their lengths with the use of hinges, providing a flooring unit that can fold up in an accordion style for easy transportation and use.

An alternate embodiment of the portable folding floor unit has two rectangular planar end sections with protruding hinge pieces along one length. A series of middle sections are provided with protruding hinge pieces along opposing lengths such that the two end sections and middle sections can be interlocked. A series of rods can be placed through the interlocking hinge pieces to produce the portable folding floor unit with an accordion style folding.

These and other features of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an environmental, perspective view of a portable folding floor unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a portable folding floor unit in a position to be folded up according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of an alternate embodiment of a portable folding floor unit according to the present invention.

Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention is a portable folding floor unit, of which as first embodiment is shown generally as 10 in the drawings.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, portable folding floor unit includes sections 12 and hinges 14. Sections 12 are essentially identical rectangular planar sections. Sections 12 are connected to one another with the use of hinges 14. Hinges 14 are placed in alternating locations on portable folding floor unit 10 such that it may fold in an accordion style, making it easier to transport and carry into small areas such as attics. Fasteners 16 may be used to create a more permanent flooring structure by securing portable folding floor unit 10 into flooring studs found in an attic or other such storage area. In the preferred embodiment, sections 12 are wooden planks. In the preferred embodiment, hinges 14 are piano hinges.

FIG. 3 shows an alternate embodiment of the portable folding floor unit that includes two end sections 22, a middle sections 24, and rigid rods 26. Each end section 22 has one or more annularly apertured protrusions 32 longitudinally aligned along one edge of the end section 22. Middle section 24 has one or more annularly apertured protrusions 32 longitudinally aligned along opposing edges of the middle section 24. End sections 22 and middle section 24 is joined together such that the annularly apertured protrusions 32 in each are interlocked and co-axially aligned. Rigid rods 26 are placed through annularly apertured protrusions 32, creating a portable folding floor unit capable of accordion style folding. It is understood that one or more identical middle sections 24 can be used to create larger sized portable folding floor units.

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A portable folding floor unit, comprising:

two or more sections, the two or more sections being essentially identical rectangular planar sections; and

one or more hinges, the one or more hinges for connecting the two or more sections together longitudinally in a folding manner.

2. The portable folding floor unit according to claim 1, wherein the one or more hinges are piano hinges.

3. A portable folding floor unit, comprising:

two end sections, each end section being essentially identical rectangular planar sections, each end section having one or more annularly apertured protrusions longitudinally aligned along one edge of each end section;

one or more middle sections, the one or more middle sections being essentially identical rectangular planar sections, each middle section having one or more annularly apertured protrusions longitudinally aligned along opposing edges of the middle section, wherein each middle section is joined with another middle section or one of the two end sections such that annularly apertured protrusions on each middle section are co-axially aligned with the annularly apertured protrusions on another middle section or one of the two end sections; and

a plurality of rigid rods, each rigid rod extending through the co-axially aligned annularly apertured protrusions on the two end sections and one or more middle sections.