Building Structure

The invention relates to a building structure having upright members and mutually perpendicular horizontal members connected together by elongate fasteners.

Earlier freestanding play structures are found in such United States Patents as U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,516,659 to Kleid and 2,954,977 to Durlacher. Most such structures, including children's play structures, piers, observation decks, and fence posts are typically sunk into the ground and secured by poured concrete, a costly and time consuming operation.

Connection devices for building structures are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,654,120 to Ewing, 1,655,701 to Hyland, 4,096,674 to Kollar, 2,208,671 to Gerber and 4,154,036 to Moss.

However, these earlier patents do not reveal a building structure, such as a child's play structure, essentially comprising a plurality of upright and horizontal members of timber or the like and having a desirably simple and rigid connection between the horizontal and upright members such that the structure can be freestanding.

According to the invention, a building structure comprises upright members and mutually perpendicular horizontal members having notches at adjacent ends shaped to receive a corner of one said upright member. The means for connecting each said horizontal member to said one upright member is an elongate fastener extending from said each horizontal member into the one upright member in the direction of the perpendicular horizontal members and towards the centre of the one upright member. The fastener is at an angle of substantially 45.degree. with said each horizontal member.

The invention provides the advantage of an extremely rigid building structure formed by the upright members, horizontal members and the fasteners. The structure can be freestanding without the need of any cross bracing or special provisions such as concrete footings or fastenings to a floor. If desired, the entire structure can be made of standard timbers or logs and simple fasteners such as lag bolts or machine bolts and nuts. The invention is also applicable to structures made of steel components such as pipes, I-beams, channel beams or tubular beams, and other structural materials, such as plastics, acrylics and pre-cast concrete.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a child's play structure according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an upright member, a horizontal member and the connection therebetween of the structure of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the members and connection of FIG. 2 in plan.

FIG. 1 illustrates a child's play structure 1 having a plurality of upright members 3 which, in this case, are simple squared timbers. The upright members are in sets of four, for example members 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d, which are arranged at the corners of a horizontal square.

The upright members 3 are interconnected by a plurality of horizontal members 5 at different elevations. In this example, the horizontal members 5 are uniform logs. Members 5 are parallel to the sides of the squares defined by the positions of the upright members. The horizontal members 5 are arranged in mutually perpendicular sets, for example members 5a and 5b connected to the single upright member 3d.

The horizontal members are connected to the upright members in the manner exemplified by FIGS. 2 and 3. Each of the horizontal members has a right angled notch 7 formed at each end which is shaped to receive one of the upright members, for example, member 3d.

As seen, a lag bolt 9 having a head 11 and a threaded opposite end 13 provides means for connecting each of the horizontal members to one of the upright members. Each of the horizontal members has an aperture 15 extending therethrough at an angle of substantially 45.degree. for receiving the shank of the lag bolt 9. There is a countersunk bore 17 on each horizontal member for the head 11 of the lag bolt. The threaded ends 13 of the lag bolts are received in correspondingly tapped apertures 19 extending diagonally into the upright members. As seen best in FIG. 3, the lag bolt connecting each horizontal member, for example, member 5a, is connected to an upright member, member 3b in the example, by a lag bolt 9 which extends towards the centre 21 of the upright member and in the direction of the adjacent mutually perpendicular horizontal members, for example member 5b. This combination of lag bolts and notches provides an extremely rigid framework and a building structure which can be freestanding.

As the lag bolt, or other elongated fastener, is tightened, the two perpendicular faces of the notch of the horizontal member are pulled tightly against the two faces of the corner of the upright member, respectively, creating friction among faces and a firm positioning of the corner of the upright member into the vertex of the notch of the horizontal member, both generating structural strength in the mutual structure.

As seen in FIG. 1, the child's play structure may include such accessories as the ladders 23 and the slide 25, but the structure essentially comprises only three main components, the upright timbers 3, the horizontal logs 5 and the lag bolts 9.

The invention could also be applied to other types of structures such as log cabins, sundecks and free-standing moveable fences. Additionally, the wooden members could be replaced by steel members such as pipes. The horizontal members would have notches shaped to receive pipes and nuts and bolts would replace the lag bolts.