US2142181A - Covering material - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 3, 1939. M. CROCE 2,142,181

COVERING MATERIAL Filed Dec. 1, 1936 INVENTOR M04545 620:5.

'W f- F & 5'

ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 3, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE COVERING MATERIAL Application December 1, 1936, Serial No. 113,578

2 Claims.

This invention relates to covering materials, particularly to covering elements such as shingles and shingle strips made from sheet roofing material.

The object of this invention is to provide asphalt shingle elements which, when laid in the usual way, will produce a close simulation to shingle roofs of split or weathered wood shingles, being an article mu ch desired by the trade because of the soft and harmonious effect which such roofs naturally possess. Shingled elements of this character have already been produced by processes involving the use of molds or die-pressing apparatus which impress the body or base of the shingle with creases on its exposed surface made to imitate closely the grain of wood. When,

however, such methods are attempted to be employed on the well-known asphalt shingle, which is surfaced with mineral grit, the visual effect is not a good simulation of the real article. Faithful copying of the texture of a split or weathered shingle, as viewed close at hand and done by molding or die-pressing the grit surface, gives a very different and unsatisfactory effect when the shingles are in place on the roof and viewed from the normal distance.

I have extensively experimented with the optical effects of these grit-surfaced asphalt shingles to the end of creating the optical illusion that is necessary to give the appearance of wood shingles when the shingles are in place on the roof and viewed in the normal way and from the normal angle. I have found that the illusion can be best produced, and that an excellent imitation is created, by the use of a plurality of differently or randomly dimensioned curvilinear stripes of gritsurfaced asphalt superposed or overlaid upon the previously grit-surfaced felt base of the shingle element and disposed in substantially vertical arrangement across the whole exposed surface of the shingle, such stripes being of varying or random width from end to end and much wider than the natural ridges in the actual split shingle, and of varying or random degrees of separation from each other, and sufficiently elevated above the grit-surfaced felt base to create at least some shadow effect on the spaces intervening between the stripes, as will be hereinafter more particularly described.

In the drawing:

Figure 1 illustrates a roofing strip embodying the invention;

Figure 2 is a section on the line 2--2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 shows a modified embodiment of th invention.

In Figure 1 is illustrated a shingle strip l of the type having tabs 3 separated by cut-outs 4 upon the portion to be exposed of the shingle in 5 an assembly of shingles in courses in overlapping arrangement. Upon each tab, and in the particular embodiment illustrated in Figure 1 for substantially the portion of the width of the shingle which is coextensive with the cut-outs, are 10 formed stripes 6 extending in the direction transversely to the coursewise edge 8 of the shingle. The stripes 6 are in spaced relation to each other in the coursewise direction to leave exposed between the stripes a surface 9 of the shingle l. 15 In the particular embodiment illustrated the surface 9 may be produced, as in ordinary roofing shingles, by binding upon the base of saturated felt II by means of adhesive coating 12 a surfacing layer l3 of granular material. The stripes 20 6 are formed by applying overlay stripes of asphalt M to which adheres the surfacing of granular material 16, as in Figure 2. Upon the underside of the base sheet may be applied a protective coating of asphalt I8. 25

While in Figure 1 the stripes 6 are shown as extending from a lower coursewise edge 8 of the tab to substantially the inner line of the cutouts 4, in order to leave the portion of the shingle strip which is to be overlapped by a superadjacent shingle free of the separated raised portions lying thereunder, in some cases it may be preferable or desirable that the stripes shall extend upon the area of the shingle to be overlapped by a superadjacent shingle. This extension of the stripes may be merely sufficient to raise the edge of the overlapping shingle or may, if desired, be carried across the full dimension of the shingle transverse to the coursewise dimension. In Figure 3 is shown an individual shingle in which the stripes extend fully across the dimension thereof transverse to the coursewise dimension. All such variations are within the scope of the invention. I have found that the best simulation of split or weathered wood shingles can be obtained by the use of the overlay stripes as above stated all or most of which extend in curvilinear directions .and with irregular outlines so that each differs in width from most or many of the others and also varies in its own width from end to end, and the spaces between are correspondingly nonuniform with each other and individually nonregular. As indicated in the drawing, the total area of elevated or applied stripes preferably approximates the total area of the inters'paces between them. Notwithstanding that the ribs or ridges found on natural split wood shingles are commonly A" to high and rather close together, these overlaid grit-surfaced stripes do not require to be more than a quarter or a third of this height in order to perfect the illusion. At this height they are sufllcient to cast shadows on the margins of the interspaces which tend to accentuate the irregularity of their widths. They must, however, be broader than the natural ridges, each being from A," or to even 2" in its average width. The grit mineral with which they are surfaced may be and preferably is of a difierent color from the grit exposed in the interspaces, either lighter or darker. This color-contrast thus produced is also accentuated by the shadow eifects produced by the "overlay stripes, thereby improving the realistic eiiect.

Having thus described my invention I new claim:

1. In an asphalt shingle element, means for simulating the grain of split or weathered wood shingles, comprising in combination an asphaltimpregnated felt base surfaced with applied grit adherent thereto, and a plurality of differentlydimensioned, curvilinear, grit-surfaced stripes formed as overlays on said base in substantially vertical arrangement and across the full exposed width thereof, each of said stripes being of varying width from end to end and of varying degrees of separation from the adjacent stripes and of a different color-effect from the spaces intervening between them, said stripes also having a substantial elevation from said base sumcient to accentuate, by their shadows, the color contrast between said stripes and said intervening spaces and having a substantially greater average width than the ridges formed in natural split wood shingles.

2. In an asphalt shingle element, means for simulating the grain of split or weathered wood shingles, comprising in combination an asphaltimpregnated felt base surfaced with applied grit adherent thereto, and a plurality of dili'erentlydimensioned, curvilinear, grit-surfaced stripes formed as overlays on said grit-surfaced base in substantially vertical arrangement and across the full exposed width thereof, each of said stripes being of varying width from end to end and of varying degrees of separation from the adjacent stripes, said stripes also having a substantial elevation from said base suflicient to produce a shadow contrast between them and said intervening spaces and having a substantially greater average width than the ridges formed in natural split wood shingles.

MICHELE CROCE.

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