AU2008100773A4 - A moulded cornice for internal and external corners - Google Patents

Description

O0 A moulded cornice for internal and external corners 0 FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improved cornices that are able to be used both for inside and outside corners with the cornices remaining flush with the wall.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is standard practice to use baseboard mouldings along the intersection of the floor and wall in residential and commercial construction. These cornice mouldings ousually extend at least some 90 mm along the ceiling and along the wall to effectively 0cover the corner. Most mouldings are therefore quite fanciful and typically include 0 patterns and configurations having fancy architectural styles. The reason for this is that they are installed on top of the wall and ceiling plasterboard and given that they are extremely visible are therefore made to look as attractive as possible.

Recently more contemporary dwellings have come to demand a clean and straight look with there being a clear 90 degree intersection between the ceiling and the wall. Such a look is quite hard to create and requires an experienced installer. For that reason simple and small cornices are still needed to cover the corner even thought they detract from the whole look.

Where a 90-degree inside or outside corner is caused by the intersection of two adjacent walls, it is the well-known and established practice to cut the adjacent moulding strips to result in an end surface at 45-degrees to the length of the moulding.

With the surfaces cut at 45-degrees and positioned adjacent to each other, the moulding strips form the required 90-degree angle. While this practice works well in theory, it is frequently the case that the workmanship of actual application contains visible flaws.

Thus the only way to create any sort of architectural feature is to use a cornice moulding that lies on top of the wall and ceiling plasterboard that departs from the clean sharp look that is desired by many. The only other alternative is to have a simple degree corner with no other architectural feature at all.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to overcome at least some of the aforementioned problems or provide the public with a useful alternative.

00 It is a further object of the present invention to provide for a cornice moulding 0 0 that can be integrated with the ceiling and/or wall plasterboard to provide for a clean N sharp look that still has architectural features such as grooves.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION tn In a first form the invention may be said to reside in a cornice including; a first and a second segment disposed at right angles to each other to define an internal corner each segment having an internal surface; at least one said segment having a recess on the internal surface and located at its outer 0 edge, said outer edge adapted to abut a plasterboard and define a volume to be filled 00 10 with joining material between the cornice and the plasterboard.

0 In preference the segment includes grooves on the internal surface. Typically these may be straight grooves along the longitudinal axis of the cornice or they may be decorative such as circular.

In a further form of the invention there is proposed a cornice including: a first and a second segment disposed at right angles to each other to define an external corner each segment having an external surface; at least one said segment having a recess on the external surface and located at its outer edge, said outer edge adapted to abut a plasterboard and define a volume to be filled with joining material between the cornice and the plasterboard.

In preference the segment includes grooves on the external surface. Again they may be straight or an other shape desired by the user.

In a still further form of the invention there is proposed a cornice including: a segment having an external surface; the segment having a recess on the external surface located at its outer edge, said outer edge adapted to abut a plasterboard and define a volume to be filled with joining material between the cornice and the plasterboard.

The use of a one segment corner may be appropriate where one abuts directly against a ceiling.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several implementations of the invention and, together with 00 the description, serve to explain the advantages and principles of the invention. In the 0 o drawings: O~0Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cornice according to a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a side view of the cornice of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a perspective view of the installation of the cornice of Figure 1; Figure 4 illustrates the installation of the wall sheets; oFigure 5 illustrates the flushing between the wall sheet and the cornice; 00 0 N 1 Figure 7 is a perspective view of the installation of a cornice according to a second embodiment of the invention; Figure 8 is a perspective view of the installation of the wall sheets; Figure 9 illustrates the flushing between the wall sheet and the cornice; Figure 10 illustrates the complete wall and cornice installation; Figure I11 is a perspective view of a cornice according to a third embodiment of the invention; and Figure I11 is a side view of the cornice of Figure 11.

DESCRIPTION OF THEF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. Although the description includes exemplary embodiments, other embodiments are possible, and changes may be made to the embodiments described without departing -from the spirit and scope of the invention. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same and like parts. Dimensions of certain of the parts shown in the drawings may have been modified and/or exaggerated for the purposes of clarity or illustration.

For the purposes of the specification the word "comprising" means "including but not limited to", and the word "comprises" has a corresponding meaning. Also a reference within the specification to document or to prior use is not to be taken as, an 00 admission that the disclosure therein constitutes common general knowledge in

C

o Australia.

0 )Referring now to Figures 1 to 6 there is shown a corner moulding 10 according to a first embodiment of the invention, where the moulding is used for and outer corner, C such as that in a bulkhead. The moulding includes a first straight segment 12 and a second straight segment 14 joined together in a shaped configuration and defining a corner 16 therein between. Each of the straight segments is generally some 10 mm in thickness, corresponding to the typical thickness of plasterboard used in the Australian 0 Sconstruction industry but with the segments tapering at the outer edges thereof to define 00 10 a recess 18 and recess 20 associated with the first and second segments. The recess is 0 o generally no more then 1-2 mm in depth and whose purpose will be discussed shortly.

Disposed within the outer surfaces of both segments are cosmetic grooves 22.

As illustrates in Figure 3 the mouldings are attached to a suitable area such as the outer corner of bulkhead 24 using well known techniques which will not be discussed here. In the case of a corner a three-dimensional cornice 26 is used. Once all the cornices have been attached to the bulkhead, wall panels 28 typically made of plasterboard and of the same thickness as the cornices are then fixed to the bulkhead and abut the edge of the cornice, as illustrated in Figure 4.

As is well known in the art where two plasterboards abut one flushes the area.

This is a process where you put a mesh or suitable paper 30 across the joins, apply a tough basecoat to lock them together and than apply a light top coat that can be easily sanded back to be flush with the sheets. The same process is carried out here.

The reader would appreciate that the recesses 18 and 20 allow, together with a recess in the plasterboard, for the paper and the heavy basecoat to fill out the recesses before sanding back and be flush whilst still providing strength to the join. Unlike conventional use of cornices that sit on top of the plasterboard, by providing a cornice as per the present invention the end result is a flush wall and corner cornice with no external protrusions (Figure 6).

It is to be understood that length of any sch cornice may be selected depending on the requirements of the builder. In addition the width of the recess in any such cornice may also be selected to be anything from 20 to 50 rmm.

00 In some situations, it may be advantageous to just have a cornice with one segment. This is illustrated in Figures 7 to 10 where cornice 32 only has one flat N segment 34. The segment still has attractive grooves 36 and a recessed portion 38 that abuts wall panels 40 and provides the necessary depth for good flushing achieve by applying appropriate material 30. The end result is a smooth wall (Figure 10) that has attractive grooves adjacent the ceiling. In such a circumstance you would just apply a very small amount of sealant where the ceiling is abutted by the cornice.

In a yet further embodiment of the invention and as illustrated in Figures I11 and o 12 there is provided an inner corner cornice 42 having two segments 44 and 46 at right 00 10 angles to each other. The inner surfaces of the segments include the grooves 48 and o each segment has a recess 50 and 52 that accommodated for the flushing of the cornice to the plasterboard.

Of course in some situations one may indeed make a cornice where only one segment has a recess, The present invention thus provides for a moulded cornice that acts to form part of the wal in a building rather then sitting on top of an existing wall as is the case currently. This enables attractive features to be part of the wail. Whilst only straight grooves have indeed been illustrated one may very well provide grooves in other shapes, such as sinusoidal and circular but to name a few.

Further advantages and improvements may very well be made to the present invention without deviating from its scope. Although the invention has been shown and described in what is conceived to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope and spirit of the invention, which is not to be limited to the details disclosed herein but is to be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent devices and apparatus.

In any claims that follow and in the summary of the invention, except where the context requires otherwise due to express language or necessary implication, the word racomprisfrng" is used in the sense of "including", i.e. the features specified may be associated with further features in various embodiments of the invention.

Claims (3)

1. 2. A cornice as in claim I wherein at least one said segment includes grooves on _the internal surface. 00
2. 3. A cornice including: 0 N a first and a second segment disposed at right angles to each other to define an external corner each segment having an external surface; at least one said segment having a recess on the external surface and located at its outer edge, said outer edge adapted to abut a plasterboard and define a volume to be filled with joining material between the cornice and the plasterboard.
3. 4. A cornice as in claim 3 wherein at least one said segment includes grooves on the external surface. A cornice including: a segment having an external surface; the segment having a recess on the external surface located at its outer edge, said outer edge adapted to abut a plasterboard and define a volume to be filled with joining material between the cornice and the plasterboard.