Floor And Tile With Padding
A flexible floor board with a pad attached to the bottom side of the floor board. The pad covers partially the bottom side of the floor board and extends beyond the floor board. The bottom side of the pad is covered with a restickable glue layer and the floor board has a male lock on one end and a female lock on the other end. A floor board is engages to an adjacent floor board by pressing down the female lock of the first floor board onto the male lock of the second floor board. The bottom side of first floor board that is not covered by the pad is placed into contact with the pad of the second floor board that extends beyond the second floor board.
The invention relates to wood flooring, and more particularly, to hardwood floor board.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONConventional engineered hardwood floors boards are usually glued down on subfloor. The glue down process is often messy because of easy contamination of the glue onto the floor surface. The glue down process affords a short time window for the floor boards to be installed before the glue starts to cure. This time window also depends on room temperature and moisture, which made the glue down process not easy to control, even for professional installers.
Furthermore, glue down floors often experience delamination problem that is nearly impossible to be repaired. The repair process most of often require tearing up the installed floor and reinstalled the whole floor again. When engineered floor boards are firmly glued down on subfloor, and the floor boards could not expand or contract as the glue strongly grip onto the floor boards. The expansion or contraction force deforms or tears up the multi-layers of an engineered floor and delaminates the engineered floor. The problems with the glue down process can be easily avoided by a floating process with floor board and mechanic locks. Floating installation allows floor boards to slide and move above the subfloor, which will avoid the delamination. However, floating installation often leaves hollow areas between the floor and the subfloor when the subfloor is not flat. This hollowness makes loud noise and thus making it not acceptable for most end users.
Furthermore, when water leaks through the floating floor, the water will spread underneath of the floor and eventually damages the floor. As the floor absorbs some water, the mechanic lock will likely to unlock or unable to re-lock.
Therefore, there is a need for a hardwood floor without the problems of both glue down and floating installation. A hardwood floor can be installed easily without messy glue, without a short installation time window, without delamination, without hollow area, and without quick water damage, and it is to this floor board the present invention is primarily directed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention provides a floor board. The floor board has a body, a pad attached to a bottom side of the body, and a glue layer attached to the pad. The body has top side and a bottom side, a first end and a second end. The pad covers partially the bottom side of the body and extends beyond the first end.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a ceramic tile. The ceramic tile has a body with a bottom side, a pad with a plurality of protruding elements attached to the bottom side of the body, and a glue layer attached to the pad. The pad covers partially the bottom side of the body and extends beyond the bottom side of the body.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention there is provided a method for a hardwood floor. The method comprises installing a first floor board with a pad extending beyond the floor first board, the first floor board having a male lock and a female lock, and installing a second floor board with a male lock and a female lock by engaging the female lock of the second floor board onto the male lock of the first floor lock and placing the second floor board on the pad that extends beyond the first floor board.
Features and advantages of embodiments of the invention will become apparent as the following Detailed Description proceeds, and upon reference to the Drawings, where like numerals depict like elements, and in which:
The present invention provides a hardwood floor board with a flexible pad with a layer of restickable glue and method of installation of such. The hardwood floor made from the hardwood floor boards of the present invention is easy to install and the flexible pad with the restickable glue serves as a cushion that provides soft feeling for people who walk on it. The flexible pad also eliminates the need for preparation of the underlayment or subfloor, which means that the hardwood floor boards can be installed on top of the subfloor that is not perfectly leveled. Because of the pre-installed flexible pad comes with a layer of restickable glue, there is no need for application of additional glue during the installation time; consequently, the installation process can be made easy and fast. The flexible pad also prevents spilled liquid to reach the underlayment and subfloor easily and thus preventing damage to the underlayment or subfloor. A hardwood floor made from the hardwood floor boards of the present invention can be disassembled easily if repair is needed and there is no delamination issued since the hardwood floor boards are not affixed firmly on the subfloor. The subfloor in the context of this application can be wood surface or a cement slab. The restickable glue is not liquid glue; it is a type of dry glue that takes a long time to cure. The restickable glue provides adhesion between the flexible pad and the subfloor and also enables the flexible pad, and the hardwood floor to which the flexible pad is attached, to be detached from the subfloor and glue back to the subfloor before the restickable glue cures.
The pad 106 is flexible and preferably made from ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA), polyurethane, polyethylene, PVC, or rubber. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the pad may also be made from other materials with similar quality. The restickable glue 112 preferably does not harden while maintaining its glue quality. The restickable glue 112 is spread on both sides of the pad 106. The pad 106 is attached to the floor board 100 through another layer of restickable glue 112 or a glue of another type. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the pad 106 may be attached by other means. The restickable glue 112 on the lower side of the pad 106 is covered with a protective film or paper before use. Alternatively, the pad 106 can be provided separately from the board 100 and with restickable glue 112 can be spread on both side of the pad 106. At the construction site, the installer can then attach the pad 106 to the board. The pad 106 covers partially the under surface of the floor board 100 while extending partially beyond the bottom surface of the floor board 100 as shown in
The body 104 of the floor board 100 is preferably made from several wood blocs 114. These wood blocs 114 are physically separated from each other but fixed to the top layer 102 closely adjacent to each other, thus allowing the resulting floor board 100 to be flexible. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that wood blocs 114 may be lined up in either X or Y direction or XY direction. Because of the floor board 100 is thin, the floor board 100 offers flexibility that enables the floor board 100 to better attach to the subfloor.
Two adjacent floor boards 100 can be engaged by pressing down the female lock 108 of one floor board 100 against the male lock 110 of another floor board 100. Because of this locking mechanism, one floor board 100 can be attached to another floor board 100 without sliding either of floor boards 100. This lack of sliding movement is particularly useful in view that the underside of the floor board 100 has a pad 106 with a restickable glue layer 112. The restickable glue layer 112 will attach easily to the underlayment or subfloor, thus making difficult to slide the floor board 100.
The structure described above and illustrated in
The floor board of the present invention has certain flexibility and this flexibility is provided through a unique construction of the body of the floor board. One unique construction is shown and described by
The same principle of the current invention can be easily applied to other floor coverings such as ceramic tiles.
The film layer 716 can be a membrane or foam that provides additional moisture sealing ability. The film layer 716 may be made from foam, plastic, rubber, or material similar to that of the pad 112. A layer of film, preferably plastic film, (not shown) can be affixed into the shallow recess 704 so that it is easier to glue the pad 710 to the bottom surface of the ceramic tile 702. Additional glue 718 may also be used to help attachment of one ceramic tile 702 onto the pad 712 of an adjacent ceramic tile 706. The film layer 716 and pad 710 help to improve impact resistance of ceramic tile 702. Similar to floor board described in
The floor boards and ceramic tiles described above can be used not only floor covering but also wall covering. The teaching of this application can be applied to wood floor boards made from high density fiberboard (HDF), medium density fiberboard (MDF), engineered wood, or solid wood. Because of the special construction of the floor board, the floor board can be made thinner, thus saving wood material.
The installation of hardwood floor or ceramic floor is made easy with the present invention.
As shown above, the present invention introduces a floor board with a pad, which provides soft feeling, absorbs sound, seals water, and serves as lock and glue. The present invention combines the advantage of glue down and locking flooring system and eliminating disadvantages from either of them.
The terms and expressions which have been employed herein are used as terms of description and not of limitation, and there is no intention, in the use of such terms and expressions, of excluding any equivalents of the features shown and described (or portions thereof), and it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims. Other modifications, variations, and alternatives are also possible. Accordingly, the claims are intended to cover all such equivalents. Dimensions in the drawings here presented are not to the scale unless otherwise indicated. It is intended that different features shown in different figures in this specification maybe combined interchangeably.
Claims
1. A floor board comprising:
- a body having top side and a bottom side, a first end and a second end; and
- a first pad attached to the bottom side of the body, the pad having a top side and a bottom side;
- a glue layer attached to the first pad,
- wherein the first pad covering partially the bottom side of the body and extending beyond the first end.
2. The floor board of claim 1, wherein the body further comprising a plurality of blocs.
3. The floor board of claim 1, further comprising a top layer.
4. The floor board of claim 1, wherein the body further comprising a plurality of slits distributed between the first end and the second end.
5. The floor board of claim 1, wherein the pad being recessed from the second end.
6. The floor board of claim 1, wherein the body further comprising a male lock at the first end and a female lock at the second end.
7. The floor board of claim 6, wherein the male lock further comprising a protruding element and the female lock further comprising a receiving recess.
8. The floor board of claim 7, wherein the male lock of the floor board engages the female lock of another floor board vertically.
9. The floor board of claim 6, wherein the body further comprising a third end with a male lock and a fourth end with a female lock.
10. The floor board of claim 6, wherein the male lock engages the female lock vertically.
11. The floor board of claim 1, wherein the pad is made from EVA material.
12. The floor board of claim 1, further comprising a glue layer covering the top side of the first pad extending beyond the first end.
13. The floor board of claim 1, further comprising a glue layer covering the bottom side of the first pad.
14. The floor board of claim 13, further comprising a protective film attached to the glue layer.
15. The floor board of claim 1, wherein the glue layer further comprising a layer of restickable glue.
16. The floor board of claim 1 further comprising a second pad attached to the bottom side of the body, the second pad covering the entire bottom side of the body and the first pad being attached to a under surface of the second pad, the first pad covering partially the under surface of the second pad and extending beyond the first end.
17. A ceramic tile comprising:
- a body with a bottom side;
- a pad with a plurality of protruding elements attached to the bottom side of the body, wherein the pad covering partially the bottom side of the body and extending beyond the bottom side of the body; and
- a glue layer attached to the pad.
18. The ceramic of claim 17, further comprising a cushion wrapped around the body.
19. The ceramic of claim 18, wherein the cushion being made from foam.
20. The ceramic of claim 18, wherein the cushion being made from rubber.
21. The ceramic of claim 17, wherein the pad being made from EVA material.
22. The ceramic of claim 17, wherein the glue layer being covered by a film.
23. The ceramic of claim 17, wherein the pad having a top side and a bottom side, the top side of the pad extending beyond the bottom side of the body being covered by glue.
24. The ceramic of claim 17, wherein the glue layer further comprising a layer of restickable glue.
25. A method for installing a hardwood floor, comprising the steps of:
- installing a first floor board with a pad extending beyond the floor first board, the first floor board having a male lock and a female lock; and
- installing a second floor board with a male lock and a female lock by engaging the female lock of the second floor board onto the male lock of the first floor lock and placing the second floor board on the pad that extends beyond the first floor board.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the female lock of the second floor board engages onto the male lock of the first floor lock by applying a downward vertical force.
27. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of installing the pad onto the first floor board.
28. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of removing a protective film from the pad.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 10, 2009
Publication Date: Feb 10, 2011
Inventor: David C. Liu (Marietta, GA)
Application Number: 12/538,634
International Classification: E04F 15/22 (20060101); E04B 5/00 (20060101);