Roofing Tile Cutting Template
The roofing tile cutting template (20) is a guide for cutting roof tiles (38) near a valley intersection of two roof sections. The template is for use with tiles having a contoured surface. The template shares the contour of a particular type tile so that the template conforms to the surface of the tile when laid on the tile. The template includes one or more slots (22a, 22b, 22c, 22d, 22e) cut through the surface of the template to provide guides for ruling a cutting line on the tile. The template is positioned on a tile so that the slot corresponding to the geometry of the particular roof intersection intersects a mark placed on the tile indicating one dimension of the final cut tile. The lot is then used to rule an accurate cutting line on the tile.
The present invention relates to construction tools in general, and in particular to a roofing tile cutting template for cutting curved roof tiles to required shapes.
BACKGROUND ARTA popular roofing practice is the use of clay tiles as a roofing material. These tiles are typically rectangular in overall shape, but do not have flat cross sections or profiles. One popular form of tile is a tile having an S-shaped contoured surface. When arrays of these contoured tiles are placed together on a roof, the undulating shapes of the individual tiles provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance to the roof.
When installing these tiles, one labor intensive process is the cutting of tiles to fit in particular non-rectangular spaces on a roof. Generally, the majority of the roof is covered with complete tiles that do not need to be cut. However, in areas where an object on the roof or an edge of the roof requires covering a non-rectangular area or an area smaller than the size of a single tile, one or more tiles must be cut. A cutting tool, such as a diamond saw, is typically used to cut the clay tiles.
In areas where different sections of the roof come together at an angle, a large number of tiles near the intersecting area may need to be cut. Roof sections may intersect in valleys or hips. Valleys are intersections where the roof sections form a concave region at the intersection, while hips are intersections where the roof sections intersect to form a convex region.
Cutting tiles to fit in a valley region is particularly problematic. In a valley region, a tile cannot be placed flat on a roof section because of the interference from the other roof section of the valley. This makes trying to estimate by eye the desired place to cut the tile difficult to accurately accomplish. A second problem is that attempting to mark a line on the surface of the tile as a guide to cutting the tile is made difficult because of the shape of the tile. Straightedges, such as rulers, engineering triangles or T-squares, do not follow the curves of the undulating surface of a tile, thus making it difficult to draw a line on the tile accurately.
Yet another issue is that inaccuracies in laying out the tiles in valley intersections results in a particularly displeasing visual appearance, reflecting poorly on the workmanship of the roofer and detracting from the overall appearance of the home. Poorly laid out valleys can also result in water drainage problems, which can lead to roof leaks.
One commonly used technique is to perform an iterative fitting, in which the desired cut on the tile is estimated, and the tile is cut to an estimated shape. The tile is then test-fitted into the desired position, and then re-cut as necessary to obtain the desired fit. While this method provides a good fit, the repeated fitting and cutting steps are wasteful of time and labor. If a tile is cut too small, the tile must be either discarded, resulting in wasted material, or put aside with the hope of fitting it into a different spot along the roof.
Thus, a roofing tile cutting template solving the aforementioned problems is desired.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTIONThe disclosure is directed to a roofing tile cutting template for cutting tiles of a contoured shape. The tool has a contoured base adapted to conform to a surface of a roofing tile, the base has at least one slot that corresponds to the slope of a roof intersection for a roof of a particular pitch. The slot has a width sufficient to accommodate the marling end of a writing utensil.
Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.
BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTIONThe roofing tile cutting template is a guide for cutting roof tiles near a valley intersection of two roof sections. The template is for use with tiles having a contoured surface. The template shares the contour of a particular type tile so that the template conforms to the surface of the tile when laid upon the tile. The template includes one or more slots cut through the surface of the template to provide a guide for ruling a cutting line on the tile. The slots are wide enough to accommodate the writing end of a writing utensil. Each of the template slots is cut at an angle corresponding to the intersection between roof sections having a given pitch. The slots may be labeled with the pitch of the roof. In use, a mark is placed near one edge, indicating one dimension of the final cut tile. A slot is chosen on the template corresponding to the pitch of the roof sections, and the template is slid along the surface of the tile until the selected slot is over the marking. Once the tile template is positioned, the selected slot is used as a guide for ruling a line on the tile using a marking utensil, such as a pencil A template in accordance with the invention and its use is appreciated by referring first to
The tiles used to cover the roof, for example, the tiles 24a-24d, each have an S-shaped contoured surface so that the upper surface of the tiles is not planar in contour, but has a substantially undulating shape. The tiles located sufficiently far away from the valley intersection, such as tiles 24a, 24b, 24c, and 24d on the first roof section 30 and tile 34 on the second roof section, are full-sized tiles that do not need to be cut. However, roof tiles 26a, 26b, and 26c on the first roof section 30, and tile 42 on the second roof section, are each close enough to the valley intersection so that a fill-sized tile would overlap the valley intersection.
To cut a tile to fill the gap at position 28, first, a distance between the end of the last full tile near the intersection and the valley intersection is measured. The distance is measured in the direction along an edge of the tile space. The dimension A, shown in
Since it is desirable that the partial roof tiles not end exactly at the valley intersection, but leave a consistent gap for drainage purposes, a predetermined distance is subtracted from the measured dimension A. The resulting value is the dimension of one edge of the desired partial tile.
After obtaining the desired tile dimension, a tile 38 (shown in
A template 20 having the same profile as the tiles used for the roof is selected and placed on the surface of the tile 38. The template 20 includes a plurality of slots 22a, 22b, 22c, 22d, and 22e. Each slot is drawn at a different angle along the template 20 and corresponds to differing geometries of an intersection between roof sections. The proper slot is chosen based on the geometry of the intersection. The template 20 is slid along the surface of the roof tile until the chosen slot (slot 22a in exemplary
The selection of the proper slot may be determined using a variety of methods. The angle of the valley intersection is determined in part by the slopes or pitches of the intersecting roof sections 30 and 32, and also by the profile and contours of the tile. Since the shape of the tile is known for a given template, the shape and slope of the slots in the template may be calculated mathematically. Each of the guide slots may be marked with a roof pitch that corresponds to the resulting angle of intersection of a hip or valley. If the user knows the slopes of the roof section, the proper slot may be selected by choosing the slot corresponding to the known roof pitch. The template may be constructed of a transparent material to facilitate viewing marks made on the tile when aligning in preparation for drawing a guide line.
If the roof pitch is not known, the choice of the proper slot may be made using a two-measurement point process. By making a second measurement between the nearest tile to the valley intersection at a line along a second opposing edge of the tile space 28, shown as dimension C in
When a tile is to be cut for a roof section on the opposite side of the valley, such as tile 42 on roof section 32, the line of intersection has the opposite slope as that of a tile for the first roof section. Referring now to
Referring now to
Because of the lack of symmetry of the tile profile, the template 60 cannot simply be reversed to provide slopes of the opposite sense (rising to the right) because the reversed template would not conform to the surface of the tile. A second template, as pictured in
Referring now to
The template 74 is used to draw guide lines having the opposite slopes (rising to the right) to the template of
Templates designed for a wide variety of tile styles may be constructed in accordance with the invention, with the templates having a profile corresponding to the surface of tile. The template may have any number of slots. One or more edges of the template may be shaped for use as guide for marking a tile. For example, the lower edge of the template 20 shown if
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 roofing tile cutting template for cutting tiles of a contoured shape, comprising a contoured base adapted to conform to a surface of a roofing tile, the base having at least one slot cut therethrough, the slot having a slope corresponding to a slope of a roof intersection for a roof of a particular pitch, the slot having a width sufficient to accommodate the marking end of a writing utensil.
2. The roofing tile cutting template as recited in claim 1, wherein said at least one slot comprises a plurality of slots.
3. The roofing tile cutting template as recited in claim 2, wherein each of the slots extends along a different angle with respect to horizontal.
4. The roofing tile cutting template as recited in claim 3, further comprising first indicia formed on a first surface of said contoured base, the first indicia being formed adjacent each of the slots, the first indicia indicating the slope of the corresponding adjacent slot.
5. The roofing tile cutting template as recited in claim 4, further comprising second indicia formed on a second surface of said contoured base, the second indicia being formed adjacent each of the slots, the second indicia indicating the slope of the corresponding adjacent slot.
6. The roofing tile cutting template as recited in claim 5, wherein said contoured base is formed from a transparent material.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 25, 2006
Publication Date: Aug 20, 2009
Inventor: Jeffery S. Ai (Kahului, HI)
Application Number: 12/227,236