WALL CLADDING PLANKS, CLIPS, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS OF INSTALLATION AND USE
A panel system provides a prefabricated exterior building façade. Various wall claddings and clips for hanging wall claddings are discussed. A wall cladding system includes: a building wall; a plurality of wall cladding planks; a plurality of fasteners extending through respective apertures in the plurality of wall cladding planks to secure the plurality of wall cladding planks to the building wall, in which each fastener has a head and a shaft, and the shaft mounts a spacer behind a rear face of the respective wall cladding plank to define a drainage gap between the wall cladding planks and the building wall. A wall cladding plank clip includes a fastener with a head and a shaft; a drainage gap spacer mounted on the shaft; and a front washer plate mounted on the shaft between the head and the drainage gap spacer. A pre-fabricated wall cladding plank has: a core of insulating material; a fire-resistant component; an integral drainage system defined on a rear face of the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank; corresponding tongue and groove profiles on opposing edges of the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank to mate with adjacent pre-fabricated wall cladding planks of identical dimensions; and an external decorative finishing layer.
This document relates to wall cladding planks, clips, systems, and methods of installation and use.
BACKGROUNDWall cladding systems are used to finish the exterior of a building. Such systems use a plurality of parts that are assembled on site, such as insulative panels, rainscreens, vapor barrier membranes, fire retardants, and finishing coatings such as paint.
SUMMARYA panel system is disclosed to provide a prefabricated exterior building façade. Various wall claddings and clips for hanging wall claddings are disclosed.
A wall cladding system is disclosed comprising: a building wall; a plurality of wall cladding planks; a plurality of fasteners extending through respective apertures in the plurality of wall cladding planks to secure the plurality of wall cladding planks to the building wall, in which each fastener has a head and a shaft, and the shaft mounts a spacer behind a rear face of the respective wall cladding plank to define a drainage gap between the wall cladding planks and the building wall.
A wall cladding plank clip is disclosed comprising: a fastener with a head and a shaft; a drainage gap spacer mounted on the shaft; and a front washer plate mounted on the shaft between the head and the drainage gap spacer.
A pre-fabricated wall cladding plank is disclosed comprising: a core of insulating material; a fire-resistant component; an integral drainage system defined on a rear face of the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank; corresponding tongue and groove profiles on opposing edges of the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank to mate with adjacent pre-fabricated wall cladding planks of identical dimensions; and an external decorative finishing layer.
A method is disclosed comprising mounting a pre-fabricated wall cladding plank on a building wall.
In various embodiments, there may be included any one or more of the following features: The plurality of wall cladding planks comprise a starter row of wall cladding planks mounted on a starter hanger that is secured to the building wall. The starter hanger comprises: a mounting strip secured to the building wall; and a flange that extends laterally off the mounting strip away from the building wall to support a base end of the plurality of wall cladding planks that form the starter row. The flange forms a hook that fits within respective slots in the base ends of the plurality of wall cladding planks that form the starter row. The starter hanger comprises a plurality of weeping holes. A base flashing strip mounted below the starter row. The plurality of wall cladding planks are arranged in two or more vertically stacked, horizontal rows. Each wall cladding plank of the plurality of wall cladding planks has corresponding tongue and groove profiles on opposing edges of the wall cladding plank and that mate with the corresponding tongue and groove profiles of adjacent of the plurality of wall cladding planks. The plurality of wall cladding planks are arranged in a plurality of stacked rows; the corresponding tongue and groove profiles of each wall cladding are located on opposing bottom and top edges of each of the plurality of wall cladding planks; and adjacent rows above and below one another connect by interlocking the respective corresponding tongue and groove profiles of the wall cladding planks of each of the adjacent rows. The building wall comprises in sequence from exterior to interior, a rainscreen, a drywall layer and a plurality of wall studs, in which the plurality of fasteners secure to the studs. Each of the plurality of wall cladding planks is a pre-fabricated wall cladding plank that comprises one or more of: a core of insulating material; a fire-resistant component; an integral drainage system; and an external decorative finishing layer. Each spacer may form part of a rainscreen. Each spacer comprises a sealing element that seals around the shaft. The sealing element comprises a resilient spool mounted coaxial with the shaft. Each resilient spool comprises a rubber spool. Each spacer comprises a coil spring mounted coaxial around the shaft and around the sealing element. Each spacer comprises opposed spacer washer plates mounted on the shaft adjacent opposed respective axial ends of the sealing element, with the coil spring mounted between the opposed spacer washer plates. Each spacer comprises a wall-facing washer plate at a distal axial end of the spacer. Each fastener comprises a front washer plate mounted on the shaft between the head and the spacer. Each spacer is axially spaced along the shaft away from the front washer plate and head to define a wall cladding plank receiving gap on the shaft. Each spacer comprises a head facing washer plate that is located at a proximal axial end of the spacer and that is spaced from the front washer plate to define the wall cladding plank receiving gap. The front washer plate and the head facing washer plate are rigidly connected. The front washer plate forms a wall cladding plank supporting lateral shelf. Each spacer has teeth at a distal axial end of the spacer. The drainage gap spacer comprises a sealing element that is structured to radially constrict under axial compression to seal around the shaft in use. The fastener is a self-tapping screw. The fire-resistant component comprises a fire-resistant layer between the core of insulating material and the external decorative finishing layer. The fire-resistant layer comprises fiberglass and poly-cement. The integral drainage system comprises drainage grooves contoured in the rear face. The drainage grooves run in one or more of overlapping curves, vertical lines, or lines angled between horizontal and vertical. The corresponding tongue and groove profiles are located on opposing bottom and top edges of the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank to, in use, mate with adjacent pre-fabricated wall cladding planks of identical dimensions below and above, respectively, the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank. A groove, of the corresponding tongue and groove profiles, is defined by an inner and an outer groove side wall, and the inner groove side wall defines a series of fastener apertures that extend to the rear face of the pre-fabricated wall cladding plank. Respective fasteners are passed through the series of fastener apertures. The front washer plate is mounted on the shaft between the head and the inner groove side wall. The head and front washer plate are inset within a fastener-receiving groove defined in the inner groove side wall. The insulating material comprises one or more of mineral wool, expanded polystyrene, and silica aerogel. The core has an R-value of 10 or higher. The external decorative finishing layer comprises a paint coating or a laminate layer. An external panel clipped on to the external decorative finishing layer. The external panel comprises a clip backing that grips opposed shoulders of an external panel seat defined in an external cross sectional profile of the external decorative finishing layer. The external panel comprises one or more of a glass panel, a lighting panel, a perforated metal decorative panel, and a solar panel.
These and other aspects of the device and method are set out in the claims, which are incorporated here by reference.
Embodiments will now be described with reference to the figures, in which like reference characters denote like elements, by way of example, and in which:
Immaterial modifications may be made to the embodiments described here without departing from what is covered by the claims.
In this document, various parts in the description are identified by reference characters, which appear in the drawings to identify the corresponding part or parts. In some cases, suffixes such as ′, ″, ′″, or ″″ are appended to reference characters in the description or drawings to differentiate between like parts. It should be understood that references to parts in the description, whether identified using such suffixes or not, may refer to the same part shown in the drawings, whether suffixes are used in the respective drawing or not.
Cladding refers generally to a layer or layers of material covering another providing a skin or layer. In construction, cladding typically refers to the materials that are applied in layers to the exterior of a building serving to provide a degree of thermal insulation, weather resistance and aesthetic finishing features. Cladding can be constructed using a variety of materials including wood, brick, metal, vinyl, cement blends, aluminum, and others. Broadly, cladding may be used as a control mechanism for varying elements including moisture, noise, heat, fire-resistance, and cold. Various types of barriers and layers may be used in a cladding system.
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Prefabrication may mean that the plank 12 is assembled or otherwise constructed at a location remote from the building site or wall 11, in some cases five, ten, or more kilometers away, for example at a distance sufficient to warrant machine transport of the plank 12 to the building site as the only practical method of transporting the plank 12 to the building site. A building site is a location where a building is situated or being constructed, for example containing one or more walls 11, whether internal or exterior walls.
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A rainscreen may be an exterior wall detail where the siding (wall cladding) stands off from the moisture-resistant surface of an air barrier applied to the sheathing (sheeting) to create a capillary break and to allow drainage and evaporation. The rain screen may be considered the siding itself, although the term rainscreen may imply a system of building. Ideally the rain screen prevents the wall air/moisture barrier on sheathing from getting wet. In some cases, a rainscreen wall is called a pressure-equalized rainscreen wall where the ventilation openings are large enough for the air pressure to nearly equalize on both sides of the rain screen.
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An air barrier, such as is also provided by membrane 30 in the example shown, may be configured to control bulk air movement through the wall. A vapor barrier or membrane 30 may be installed to control diffusion of water vapor through the wall assembly. An impermeable material may be used for this function. An air barrier system may be used generally to control the flow of air into and out of a building. Control of such airflows may be important to limit energy loss due to exfiltration, to reduce the potential for air leakage and associated condensation, for occupant comfort, and for indoor air quality.
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The clips 20 disclosed here may have various advantages. The clips 20 may form a structural component that holds the planks 12 in place. The clips 20 may create a drainage plane, air cavity, rainscreen system or other in between the plank 12 and the wall 11. The core (spool 38B) of the clip 20 may be made of a soft rubber like material, that, when put under pressure squeezes tight around the fastener 36 to create a perfect seal from water and air. The outer part of the core (rubber spool 38B) may be wrapped by a spring 38C that is welded to the mid and rear plates 38D and 38E. The spring 38C may allow the plates 38D, 38E to be put into compression, thus compressing and expanding the rubber around the fastener/screw creating an air and water seal. The spring 38C may allow for the leveling of the walls 11 with minor imperfections up to an ¼″ or wider.
The system 10 may reduce the amounts of fasteners 36 and washers that may otherwise be used to hold a mineral wool, z-girth application, thus reducing potential air and water leakage. The rubber air/water seal around the fastener 36 means the system may be used in lieu of other less expense weather proofing materials. The system may incorporate one or more of non-combustible, highly insulative, low profile (slim and lightweight) planking, a fastening/rainscreen system, and an easy and quick application process, thus forming a cost-effective architectural panel.
As the disclosed method shows a prefabricated system, quality may be consistent and installation time may be up to one third the time to install than current exterior cladding systems. Being the slimmest product on the market may make the installation and storage easier than competitive products, but over and above allows the user to leverage higher R-values than competitors with less material.
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A wall cladding system may be configured to provide fire retardant characteristics. Many fire-resistant exterior walls are clad in fire-resistant materials such as stucco, brick or concrete. A wall that is clad in less fire-resistant materials such as vinyl or wood siding may also use fire-resistant wallboard or other materials to supplement fire retardancy. Slentex™ may be used to provide a non-flammable material. Such material may be a Silica Aerogel technology that gets away from petroleum based plastic technologies to further reduce pressure on greenhouse gas emissions. Slentex™ is the lightest non-combustible, non-petroleum base insulation on the market making it preferential over a mineral wool or standard foam product. Two aerogel-based high-performance insulating materials are SLENTITE™ and SLENTEX™. However, a suitable fire-resistant component such as layer 16, may comprise fiberglass and poly-cement.
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Insulation may be installed to control the flow of heat (i.e. energy transfer) through the enclosure. Insulation cladding may serve many functions including thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, fire insulation, and impact insulation. Exterior insulation outboard may be installed as a continuous outer layer of a primary structure. Such a method may be more efficient than the traditional method of placing insulation between studs or inboard of the structural frame. A typical installation method may proceed as follows. Damp proofing or a waterproofing membrane may be installed on the exterior side of the foundation wall and footing. Rigid board insulation may be installed on the exterior wall from the top of the footing to the bottom of the cladding. An aluminum coil stock or sheet metal protective cover may be installed for the rigid insulating sheathing. Various types of insulation may be used, such as fiberglass, memory foam, or spray foam insulation.
Improving building insulation values may be considered by many the most effective approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At minimum, such may pay back by lowering energy costs and if properly considered during design, and may also reduce the size of heating and cooling systems required, thus saving additional costs. Such may also “Future Proof” the owner from rising energy costs. In some cases, the planks 12 disclosed here, minimize air leakage, thereby reducing heat loss and air leakage from buildings and thereby reducing carbon emissions. When looking at building envelope parameters to maximize a buildings ability save energy, one must look at the conduction, solar radiation and air infiltration. Conduction relates to the buildings ability to conduct or resist heat flow. Solar radiation relates to wanted heat gains through windows. Infiltration relates to the air leakage through the building envelope. Such are all important considerations for new construction or the retrofit market. The components of the plank 12 may include a core 14, currently made of 2.5″ thick thus giving the panels a R18.25 R-value. Slentex™ may provide the first silica aerogel insulation, and may be molded to specifications. Other compounds may be used, such as one or more of mineral wool, expanded polystyrene, and silica aerogel. The planks 12 may be manufactured in a suitable thickness, such as thicknesses up to 4″ or larger potentially giving the panel an R 29.2 thus exceeding current building codes with exterior insulating not including interior insulation. By contrast, a panel with an R Value of 3.3 it would take nearly 9″ of mineral wool to achieve the same R value. In some cases, the core14 has an R-value of 10 or higher.
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The plank 90 and rainscreen system may be stored or transported in a suitable fashion. The insulating plank 90, for example if made of aerogel, may be provided as a continuous sheet that is flexible to be dispensed over the building wall from a continuous roll of insulating plank material. In other cases, plank 90 may be provided in a stack of identical planks 90.
An aerogel is an insulative, lightweight component. An aerogel may be produced by extracting the liquid component of a gel through supercritical drying. This allows the liquid to be slowly dried off without causing the solid matrix in the gel to collapse from capillary action, as would happen with conventional evaporation. The first aerogels were produced from silica gels. Kistler's later work involved aerogels based on alumina, chromia and tin dioxide. Carbon aerogels were first developed in the late 1980s. Aerogel is not a single material with a set chemical formula, instead, the term is used to group all materials with a certain geometric structure. Despite the name, aerogels may be solid, rigid, and dry materials that do not resemble a gel in their physical properties. The name aerogel comes from the fact that the material is made from a gel.
Pressing softly on an aerogel typically does not leave even a minor mark, pressing more firmly will leave a permanent depression. Pressing extremely firmly may cause a catastrophic breakdown in the sparse structure, causing it to shatter like glass (a property known as friability), although more modern variations do not suffer from this. Despite the fact that it is prone to shattering, an aerogel may be very strong structurally. Its impressive load-bearing abilities may be due to the dendritic microstructure, in which spherical particles of average size 2-5 nm are fused together into clusters. These clusters may form a three-dimensional highly porous structure of almost fractal chains, with pores just under 100 nm. The average size and density of the pores can be controlled during the manufacturing process.
An aerogel is a material that may be 99.8% air or more or less. Aerogels may have a porous solid network that contains air pockets, with the air pockets taking up the majority of space within the material. The lack of solid material allows aerogel to be almost weightless. Aerogels may be good thermal insulators because they almost nullify two of the three methods of heat transfer—conduction (they are mostly composed of insulating gas) and convection (the microstructure prevents net gas movement). They are good conductive insulators because they are composed almost entirely of gases, which are very poor heat conductors. Silica aerogel is an especially good insulator because silica is also a poor conductor of heat—a metallic or carbon aerogel, on the other hand, would be less effective. Aerogels may be good convective inhibitors because air cannot circulate through the lattice. Aerogels may be poor radiative insulators because infrared radiation (which transfers heat) passes through them.
Silica aerogel may be used. Silica aerogel is silica-based and may be derived from silica gel or by a modified Stober process. A low-density silica nanofoam may weigh 1,000 g/m3, which is the evacuated version of the record-aerogel of 1,900 g/m3. By contrast, the density of air is 1,200 g/m3 (at 20° C. and 1 atm). The silica may solidify into three-dimensional , intertwined clusters that make up about 3% of the volume. Conduction through the solid may therefore be very low. The remaining 97% of the volume may be composed of air in extremely small nanopores. The air has little room to move, inhibiting both convection and gas-phase conduction. Silica aerogel may have a high optical transmission of ˜99% and a low refractive index of ˜1.05. Silica aerogel may have remarkable thermal insulative properties, having an extremely low thermal conductivity: from 0.03 W/(m·K) in atmospheric pressure down to 0.004 W/(m·K) in modest vacuum, which correspond to R-values of 14 to 105 (US customary) or 3.0 to 22.2 (metric) for 3.5 in (89 mm) thickness. For comparison, typical wall insulation is 13 (US customary) or 2.7 (metric) for the same thickness. SLENTEX™ material may be used. SLENTEX™ is a super hydrophobic product that may seal-seal to a penetrating fastener 36 sufficient to keep water out of the formed fastener bore without the use of adhesive being required.
Carbon aerogels may be used. Carbon aerogel may be composed of particles with sizes in the nanometer range, covalently bonded together. They have very high porosity (over 50%, with pore diameter under 100 nm) and surface areas ranging between 400-1,000 m2/g. They may be manufactured as composite paper: non-woven paper made of carbon fibers, impregnated with resorcinol-formaldehyde aerogel, and pyrolyzed. Depending on the density, carbon aerogels may be electrically conductive, making composite aerogel paper useful for electrodes in capacitors or deionization electrodes. Carbon aerogels may be extremely “black” in the infrared spectrum, reflecting only 0.3% of radiation between 250 nm and 14.3 μm, making them efficient for solar energy collectors.
Other insulative materials may be used. Metal oxide aerogels may be used. Aerogels made with aluminum oxide are known as alumina aerogels. These aerogels are used as catalysts, especially when “doped” with a metal other than aluminum. Nickel-alumina aerogel is the most common combination. Aerographite or aerographene may be used. Organic polymers may be used to create aerogels. SEAgel is made of agar. Cellulose from plants may be used to create a flexible aerogel. Chalcogel is an aerogel made of chalcogens (the column of elements on the periodic table beginning with oxygen) such as sulfur, selenium and other elements—metals less expensive than platinum have been used in its creation. Aerogels made of cadmium selenide quantum dots in a porous 3-D network or other arrangement may be used Aerogel performance may be augmented for a specific application by the addition of dopants, reinforcing structures and hybridizing compounds.
In use, the system 10 may be assembled upon a building wall 11, for example in a network or grid. Referring to
In some cases, from exterior sheathing of building wall 11 to the exterior of the system 10, an embodiment may have a weather resistive barrier (WRB), with the panel including drainage, drying cavity, double sided tape on the panel against the WRB, insulation, and an external finishing layer, forming an all in one finished product. Embodiments of the system 10 may have one or more of the following advantages:
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- 1) non combustibility;
- 2) continuous insulation to avoid thermal bridging;
- 3) drainage/air cavity;
- 4) double sided tape installed vertically against the rear of panel; and
- 5) a receiver cap with a thermal break.
Words such as above, below, over, under, horizontal and vertical, and others, are understood to be relative and not defined with respect to gravitational acceleration on the Earth, unless context dictates otherwise.
In the claims, the word “comprising” is used in its inclusive sense and does not exclude other elements being present. The indefinite articles “a” and “an” before a claim feature do not exclude more than one of the feature being present. Each one of the individual features described here may be used in one or more embodiments and is not, by virtue only of being described here, to be construed as essential to all embodiments as defined by the
Claims
1. A wall cladding system comprising:
- a building wall;
- a plurality of wall cladding planks;
- a plurality of fasteners extending through respective apertures in the plurality of wall cladding planks to secure the plurality of wall cladding planks to the building wall, in which each fastener has a head and a shaft, and the shaft mounts a spacer behind a rear face of the respective wall cladding plank to define a drainage gap between the wall cladding planks and the building wall.
2. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which the plurality of wall cladding planks comprise a starter row of wall cladding planks mounted on a starter hanger that is secured to the building wall.
3. The wall cladding system of claim 2 in which the starter hanger comprises:
- a mounting strip secured to the building wall; and
- a flange that extends laterally off the mounting strip away from the building wall to support a base end of the plurality of wall cladding planks that form the starter row.
4. The wall cladding system of claim 3 in which the flange forms a hook that fits within respective slots in the base ends of the plurality of wall cladding planks that form the starter row.
5. The wall cladding system of claim 3 in which the starter hanger comprises a plurality of weeping holes.
6. The wall cladding system of claim 2 further comprising a base flashing strip mounted below the starter row.
7. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which the plurality of wall cladding planks are arranged in two or more vertically stacked, horizontal rows.
8. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which each wall cladding plank of the plurality of wall cladding planks has corresponding tongue and groove profiles on opposing edges of the wall cladding plank and that mate with the corresponding tongue and groove profiles of adjacent of the plurality of wall cladding planks.
9. The wall cladding system of claim 8 in which:
- the plurality of wall cladding planks are arranged in a plurality of stacked rows;
- the corresponding tongue and groove profiles of each wall cladding are located on opposing bottom and top edges of each of the plurality of wall cladding planks; and
- adjacent rows above and below one another connect by interlocking the respective corresponding tongue and groove profiles of the wall cladding planks of each of the adjacent rows.
10. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which the building wall comprises in sequence from exterior to interior, a rainscreen, a drywall layer and a plurality of wall studs, in which the plurality of fasteners secure to the studs.
11. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which each of the plurality of wall cladding planks is a pre-fabricated wall cladding plank that comprises:
- a core of insulating material;
- a fire-resistant component;
- an integral drainage system; and
- an external decorative finishing layer.
12. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which each spacer comprises a sealing element that seals around the shaft.
13. The wall cladding system of claim 12 in which the sealing element comprises a resilient spool mounted coaxial with the shaft.
14. The wall cladding system of claim 13 in which each resilient spool comprises a rubber spool.
15. The wall cladding system of claim 13 in which each spacer comprises a coil spring mounted coaxial around the shaft and around the sealing element.
16. The wall cladding system of claim 15 in which each spacer comprises opposed spacer washer plates mounted on the shaft adjacent opposed respective axial ends of the sealing element, with the coil spring mounted between the opposed spacer washer plates.
17. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which each spacer comprises a wall-facing washer plate at a distal axial end of the spacer.
18. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which each fastener comprises a front washer plate mounted on the shaft between the head and the spacer.
19. The wall cladding system of claim 18 in which each spacer is axially spaced along the shaft away from the front washer plate and head to define a wall cladding plank receiving gap on the shaft.
20. The wall cladding system of claim 19 in which each spacer comprises a head facing washer plate that is located at a proximal axial end of the spacer and that is spaced from the front washer plate to define the wall cladding plank receiving gap.
21. The wall cladding system of claim 20 in which the front washer plate and the head facing washer plate are rigidly connected.
22. The wall cladding system of claim 18 in which the front washer plate forms a wall cladding plank supporting lateral shelf.
23. The wall cladding system of claim 1 in which each spacer has teeth at a distal axial end of the spacer.
24-65. (canceled)
66. A method comprising assembling the wall cladding system of claim 1 by mounting the plurality of wall cladding planks and the plurality of fasteners on a building wall.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 10, 2020
Publication Date: May 26, 2022
Inventor: John William Thomas Sherman (Edmonton)
Application Number: 16/989,872