Support for manufactured housing

This invention relates in general to pier supports for structures, and more specifically involves a pier cap.

The main beam of a manufactured home is supported by a plurality of supports. A support comprises a pier having a top below the beam and various elements filling in the space between the pier and the beam to support the home. A pier cap is placed on top of the pier to interface the pier with typically smaller shims directly supporting the beam. Conventional pier caps are of wood and suffer from many shortcomings. Wooden pier caps shrink or expand depending on the moisture. Conventional wooden pier caps are quite heavy for shipping purposes. Some wooden pier caps are treated with chemicals which may be environmentally harmful. Wooden pier caps are subject to warping and splitting. Wooden pier caps are subject to insect attack, such as by termites. When conventional pier caps are stacked, they may easily slide on one another, which produces instability.

Therefore, there has been a need for an improved pier cap; preferably one made of plastic or other non-deteriorating material; one that weighs less than a conventional pier cap; one that will not change size due to changes in moisture; one that contains no environmentally harmful chemicals; and one that couples with stacked pier caps to prevent relative movement.

This invention is a pier cap for a pier of support for a structure, such as a manufactured home. In a preferred embodiment, the pier cap generally comprises a rectangular body having a generally flat planar top and support webs including a peripheral, downward extending wall and a plurality of internal webs defining an open interior in the body between the webs. Pier caps can be stacked. Coupling projections, connected to the body and rising above the top, couple with the webs of a cap stacked above to prevent sliding. The pier caps can be arranged in stacked layers of multiple caps. The webs are designed to be supported by the upper surface of a concrete block having vertical cells.

Other features and many attendant advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description together with the drawings wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout.

FIG. 1 is a top, left, front, perspective view of a pier cap of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation view thereof; the rear elevation view being a mirror image;

FIG. 4 is a left side elevation view thereof;

FIG. 5 is a right side elevation view thereof;

FIG. 6 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 7 is a bottom perspective view thereof;

FIG. 8 is a partially cut away, perspective view of a support for structure including a stack of pier caps of FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of an alternating stacking (or “cross stacking”) of pier caps of FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 10 is a partially cut away, perspective view of a support for a structure including the alternating stack of FIG. 9

Looking first at FIG. 8 , there is shown a typical environment of the pier cap 10 of the invention in use. FIG. 8 is a partially cut away, perspective view of a support 83 , such as small support 83 A, for structure, such as a manufactured home 80 . Manufactured home 80 includes a main support beam, such as beam 81 having a flanged bottom 82 . Support 83 A is disposed under beam 81 and may be directly supported by the ground or by a foundation, such as of concrete. Support 83 A generally includes a footing 84 , a pier 90 on footing 84 , a stack 11 of one or more pier caps 10 on top 97 of pier 90 , and shims 98 , such as wedges 99 on top of top pier cap 10 . Wedges 99 may be made of suitable strong material, such as wood or plastic.

Footing 84 is typically a concrete slab and is generally supported by the ground, but could be supported by a foundation. Pier 90 typically constitutes the majority of the height of support 83 . A typical pier 90 includes a stack of blocks 91 that may be made of any of many strong suitable materials. Blocks 91 may be solid or may be celled concrete blocks 92 including one or more cells 93 , shown in phantom. A typical two-celled concrete block 92 is substantially a parallelepiped having length of twice the width. Typical dimensions are approximately eight inches by eight inches by sixteen inches. Celled block 92 includes two vertical cells 93 , as shown in phantom, surrounded by a peripheral wall 94 and separated by a central lateral wall 95 . Peripheral wall 94 and lateral wall 95 have an upper surface 96 . Blocks 91 are typically built up to within a block height of beam 81 . Although a two-celled block 92 is shown and described, other cell configurations may be used. Although a finishing block having flat end faces is shown, a standard construction block having a concave end surface could be used.

Stack 11 of pier caps 10 , disposed on top of pier 90 , includes bottom pier cap 10 A connected to second pier cap 10 B. The height of pier caps 10 is typically one to two inches, much less than the height of block 91 , such that a stack 11 of pier caps 10 is used to fill in most the distance between the top 97 of pier 90 and flanged bottom 82 of beam 81 . Shims 98 , such as thin boards and wedges 99 , are inserted between top pier cap 10 , such as 10 B and beam 81 to prove overall proper height of support 83 . Wedges 99 can later be adjusted to finely adjust the height as conditions change, such as from ground settling.

With reference now to FIGS. 1-7 of the drawings, there is shown a preferred embodiment of a pier cap 10 with FIG. 1 being a top, left, front, perspective view, FIG. 2 being a top plan view, FIG. 3 being a front elevation view thereof, the rear elevation view being a mirror image, FIG. 4 being a left side elevation view, FIG. 5 being a right side elevation view, FIG. 6 being a bottom plan view, and FIG. 7 being a bottom perspective view.

Pier cap 10 generally comprises a body 20 having a top 30 , webs 49 including a peripheral web 50 and internal webs 60 (seen in FIGS. 6 and 7 ), and coupling means 40 , including projections 42 . Top 30 has an exterior surface 33 that is substantially a horizontal planar member, a periphery 31 and an interior surface 36 . Preferably, exterior surface 33 includes friction enhancing texturing 34 to aid in keeping shims 98 in place thereon.

Coupling means 40 , such as projections 42 , such as first projection 42 A connected to body 20 and projecting above top 30 and second projection 42 B connected to body 20 and projecting above top 30 , couples with webs 49 of a pier cap 10 stacked thereon such that the stacked pier caps 10 cannot slide horizontally with respect to one another. This will be explained more fully later.

Peripheral web 50 forms a substantially continuous vertical sidewall. In the preferred embodiment, pier cap 10 is rectangular in top view to correspond to the shape of block 91 , and peripheral web 50 includes a pair of side walls 51 defining the lateral direction as between side walls 51 and a pair of end walls 52 defining the longitudinal direction as between end walls 52 . Side walls 51 and end walls 52 join at corners 53 which are preferably curved or radiused, but could be sharp. As best seen in FIG. 7 , peripheral web 50 includes a top edge 54 connected to periphery 31 of top 30 , a bottom edge 55 , an interior surface 57 and an exterior surface 56 . Preferably, body 20 is adapted such that substantially the entire length of bottom edge 55 of peripheral web 50 is supported by top 97 of pier 90 , such as by upper surface 96 of peripheral wall 94 of concrete block 92 .

The plurality of internal webs 60 each include a top edge 65 connected to interior surface 36 of top 30 , a bottom edge 66 , and ends 67 connected to another web 49 , such as peripheral web 50 . Internal webs 60 include a longitudinal web 61 , and lateral webs 62 including a plurality of centrally located lateral webs 63 having bottom edges 66 adapted for being substantially supported by upper surface 96 of central lateral web 95 of said celled top block 92 . Internal webs 60 define an open interior 26 in body 20 between webs 49 .

Semi-circular corner webs 64 are internal webs 49 that join side walls 51 to end walls 52 at corners 53 and serve to strengthen corners 53 of peripheral web 50 and combine with corners 53 to form receptacles 46 for receiving connecting projections 42 of coupling means 40 . Preferably, projections 42 are located so as to not interfere with placement of shims 98 centrally on pier cap 10 . Therefore, projections 42 are disposed adjacent periphery 31 of top 30 and, even more preferably, at a corner 53 . Preferably, projections 42 are only along one side so as to better facilitate addition of shims from one side. Preferably, projections 42 will also couple with a stacked pier cap 10 if the stacked pier cap 10 is rotated one hundred eighty degrees.

Returning to FIG. 8 , pier 80 is comprised of a plurality of vertical cell concrete masonry units, blocks 92 . Stack 11 of pier caps 10 include bottom pier cap 10 A disposed on top 97 of pier 90 . Upper surface 96 of peripheral wall 94 and lateral wall 95 support peripheral web 50 and central lateral webs 63 of bottom pier cap 10 A. Second pier cap 10 B is disposed atop bottom pier cap 10 A such that substantially the entire length of bottom edge 55 of said web 50 and bottom edge 66 of internal webs 60 of second pier cap 10 B are supported by exterior surface 56 of top 30 of bottom pier cap 10 A. Projections 42 on bottom pier cap 10 A couple with receptacles 46 on second pier cap 10 B so as to hold second pier cap 10 B from horizontal movement. Although, stack 11 , shown, includes two pier caps 10 , stack may be one or more pier caps 10 . Shims 98 , such as adjustable shims, such as adjustable wedges 99 , are disposed on textured surface 34 of top or second pier cap 10 B and fill in the space to beam 81 .

Looking now at FIGS. 9 and 10 , FIG. 9 is a perspective view of alternating stack 11 of pier caps 10 of FIG. 1 , and FIG. 10 is a partially cut away, perspective view of a support 83 , such as large support 83 B, for a structure 80 including the alternating stack 11 of pier caps 10 of FIG. 9

Large support 83 B is representative of a support 83 that requires considerable height or needs to be stronger or more stable than small support 83 A. Support 83 B includes a footing 84 , a pier 90 on footing 84 , a stack 11 of one or more layers 12 , each having a plurality of pier caps 10 , on top 97 of pier 90 , and shims 98 , such as wedges 99 between stack 11 and bottom 82 of beam 81 .

FIG. 9 shows a partial stack 11 of rectangular pier caps 10 having a width of one-half the length. Bottom layer 12 A comprises a pair of bottom pier caps 10 A disposed on upper surface 97 of pier 90 such that side walls 51 of bottom pier caps 10 A are adjacent so as to form a square and such that corner projections 42 are in the four corners of the square.

Second layer 12 B of second pier caps 10 B are disposed on bottom layer 12 A and below beam 81 such that side walls 51 of the two pier caps 10 B are adjacent and the longitudinal axis 22 of each second pier cap 10 B is perpendicular to longitudinal axes 22 of bottom pier caps 10 A and coupling projections 42 of each bottom pier cap 10 A couple with webs 49 , such as receptacles 46 of second pier caps 10 B such that second pier caps 10 B cannot slide horizontally relative to bottom pier caps 10 A. If second pier caps 10 A are the top pier caps then it is preferable that any projections 42 thereon are disposed away from the central axes of stack 11 , such as at the corners 64 as shown, so as to be out of the way of shims 98 .

Preferably, pier cap 10 is made of plastic by the injection molding process. It may be made of petroleum base materials or composite materials, such as polymers, such as ABS, polypropylene, or polyethylene, or nylon. Because of the web construction, it is lighter in weight than conventional pier caps, which makes it cheaper to ship and easier to handle and place. It will not dry out, change shape, or rot. It does not shrink or expand from moisture. Stacked pier caps interlock in single stack or in double-wide stacks to prevent slippage. The textured top prevents slippage of shims.

Having described the invention, it can be seen that it provides a superior device for construction of a support for a manufactured home.

Although a particular embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, various changes may be made in the form, composition, construction, and arrangement of the parts herein without sacrificing any of its advantages. Therefore, it is to be understood that all matter herein is to be interpreted as illustrative and not in any limiting sense, and it is intended to cover in the appended claims such modifications as come within the true spirit and scope of the invention.