Interlocking floor
A modular floor includes a plurality of interconnected, uniform and elongated floor sections. Each floor section includes a wear layer, an upper subfloor panel, a lower subfloor panel and a plurality of parallel spacers sandwiched between the upper and lower subfloor panels. The spacers extend horizontally outwardly from three sides of the sections, including both longitudinal sides and one transverse side, but are recessed on the remaining transverse side. The parallel spacers extend into the recesses of adjacently located floor sections, alongside the corresponding spacers of those floor sections, along the longitudinal sides. At the transverse sides, each section has a spacer that extends into an adjacently located section in the same row and also receives a spacer from an adjacently located section in the same row. The sections have hardware connections that are concealed from view, and connecting each subsequent section requires two fasteners. The modular floor system of the invention is structurally rigid and uniform in appearance, but has lower installation, handling and manufacturing costs. Also, the uniform floor sections may be installed from the center of the floor.
1. A modular floor covering a substantially horizontal base comprising:
a plurality of like, elongated, rectangularly-shaped floor sections, the floor sections arranged end to end in parallel rows to cover the base, each of the floor sections further comprising:
a wear layer, the wear layer defining a pair of longitudinal sides and having a length and a pair of transverse sides having a width between the longitudinal sides, each of the longitudinal sides having a length and each of the transverse sides having a width,
an upper subfloor layer located below the wear layer;
a lower subfloor layer located below the upper subfloor layer, with a recess defined therebetween;
a plurality of spacers residing between the upper and lower subfloor layers and oriented transverse to the longitudinal sides, the spacers extending horizontally outwardly beyond the wear layer on both of the longitudinal sides, a first of the spacers extending along a first of the transverse sides and located inward of the respective first transverse side, and a second of the spacers extending along a second of the transverse sides and located outward of the respective second transverse side, such that the spacers are extendable into the recesses of adjacently located floor sections on both of the longitudinal sides and on one of the transverse sides; and
wherein the floor sections interconnect to one another, but are unconnected to the base during use.
2. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein the wear layer comprises elongated floorboards.
3. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein the spacers traverse the entire width between the longitudinal sides.
4. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein the floor sections in a row are arranged in a staggered configuration relative to the floor sections of an adjacently located row.
5. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein each of the sections has longitudinal and transverse dimensions of about 8 feet by 2 feet, respectively.
6. The modular floor of claim 5 , wherein each section has ten spacers.
7. The modular floor of claim 5 , each floor section further comprising means for removably connecting a first spacer of the respective floor section to a second spacer of an adjacently located floor section.
8. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein the first spacer extends along the entire first transverse side and resides inwardly thereof along the entire width between the longitudinal sides.
9. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein the second spacer extends along the entire second transverse side and resides outwardly thereof along the entire width between the longitudinal sides.
10. The modular floor of claim 1 wherein the lower subfloor layer has a generally planar bottom surface residing in direct surface to surface contact with the base.
11. A method for forming a floor, comprising:
arranging and then interconnecting a plurality of floor sections of the type recited in claim 1 , the interconnecting including moving the spacers of a floor section into corresponding recesses of an adjacently located floor section.