GB2217358A - Pitched roof of transportable building - Google Patents

Abstract

At least a portion (6-9) of the pitched roof 2 of a transportable building (1, Fig 2) (constituting one half of a complete building divided along the ridge line) is pivoted about hinges 10 from an erected position (as shown) to a transport position (overlying areas A-C) so as to reduce the overall height. On site, two buildings 1 are joined along the ridge line, the pivotable portions are pivoted to the erected position, and the roof of the completed building may then be clad. <IMAGE>

Description

"BUILDING" This invention relates to a building, more especially to a movable or transportable building.

Current British regulations for mobile homes specify that a 'mobile' or transportable building should be delivered to its intended site in not more than two parts. The regulations also specify the maximum width and length of the said parts of a mobile or transportable building.

Because it is desirable to make use of the two permitted parts in the most effective way, each part is generally employed as one half of a building which building is divided along a longitudinal vertical plane. The result is that each said part of the building has to be provided with its own integral roof portion, there being no possibility of a complete roof being built and delivered to site separately.

It will of course be appreciated that a part of a building which includes such a roof portion has a greater height than would be the case if the roof were not present. Since such building parts are usually delivered by road transport the maximum height of the building is determined by the requirement that a said part of a building should be capable of passing beneath road bridges and obstacles when being transported.

This in turn has meant that the pitch of the roofs of such buildings has conventionally been selected to be very shallow, i.e. not more than approximately 17". A building with such a shallow pitched roof however has a peculiarly dated look and is aesthetically unsatisfactory.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a transportable building which complies with all current British regulations for mobile homes and which has a roof the pitch of which can be greater than 17".

According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a transportable building which building includes a pitched roof and wherein at least a portion of the roof is pivotable between an erected or final position and a transport position, the transport position of the roof being such as to reduce the overall height of the building by comparison with the height of the building when the roof is in its erected or final position.

According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of constructing a pitched roof for a transportable building, in which method at least a portion of the roof is arranged to be pivotable , which method includes the step of pivoting said portion of the roof from a transport position to an erected or final position, the transport position of the roof being such that the overall height of the building with the roof in the transport state is less than the height of the building when the roof is in its erected or final position.

The term 'building' as employed in the foregoing definition and hereinafter is to be taken to include, where appropriate, a part of a building, divided for transport purposes.

The term "roof" is intended to include: firstly, a complete roof in the sense that it includes weatherproof roofing material, secondly the sarking of a complete roof, and thirdly, all the supporting members (e.g.

panels, trusses or the like) for receiving roof tiles, slates etc.

Preferably the roof is divided longitudinally with the upper portion of the roof being pivotable, relative to the lower half, between said erected and transport positions. At least said upper portion of the roof is preferably formed as a plurality of separately pivotable panels, thereby to ease erection and handling of the roof.

The building may have a hipped roof, the hipped portion of the roof too including a portion pivotable between an erected and a transport state. Where the building includes vertical gable ends these too may be arranged to be pivotable between an erected state and a transport state.

The roof may be constructed of any suitable material, such as metal, plastics, wood, etc.

It is preferred to employ timber as the material for the roof, e.g. plywood panels or fabricated trusses, preferably provided with sarking and/or tiling battens.

The pivoting of the roof portion(s) may be arranged simply by suitable disposition of one or more conventional hinges.

Generally means will be provided for supporting the roof in its erected state; such means may be in the form of attached and pivotable rafter members or joists, or in the form of separate rafter members or joists, or may be provided merely by using hinges which appropriately restrict the pivotability of the roof.

An embodiment of a building according to the present invention will now be described1 by way of example only, by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Fig. 1 is a plan view of part of a roof of half a transportable building; and Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic section of the part of the roof of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, there is shown in Fig. 2 one half 1 of a transportable building, such as a 'mobile' home. As shown, the building half 1 includes a half 2 of a pitched roof having a pitch of 300. In this embodiment the roof consists of 9mm plywood sarking 3 supported by timber roof members 4.

The roof half 2 is divided into a fixed portion 5 and panels 6, 7, 8 and 9, etc. which are pivotably affixed to respective areas of the fixed portion 5 by means of steel strap hinges 10 screwed to the roof members 4 through sarking 3. As may be seen from Fig.

1, panel 7 pivots between the erected position shown in Fig. 1, to a transport position in which it overlies area C of fixed roof portion 5. Likewise panels 8 and 9 fold respectively to overly areas B and A of fixed roof portion 5.

The panels 8 and 9 constitute a pivotable hip end to the roof half 2.

The fixed portion 5 of the roof half 2 may be of truss type construction or of panellised construction.

To erect a complete building a pair of complementary building halves are arranged contiguously to each other and thereafter the pivoted panels are moved to their erected positions to form the complete pitched roof.

Subsequently the pitched roof may be clad with roof tiles or slates and ridge tiles as necessary.

It is envisaged that, as an alternative to incorporating the pivot line in the pitch of the roof, the pivot line could be created at or adjacent the position where the roof meets the outer walls of the building, e.g. at the eaves. In such a case, however, the roof in its transport state may extend beyond the wall line to an unacceptable extent in which case it may be necessary to provide a further pivot line so that a 'topmost portion of the roof folds back onto the remainder of the roof so as to reduce the horizontal extent of the roof in its transport state.

In a preferred embodiment of the building of the present invention, the building is generally of timber construction. It is envisaged however that other materials may be used where appropriate, such as for example, precast concrete panels, etc.

It is to be understood that the present invention embraces not only separate parts of a complete building incorporating a roof arrangement as defined hereinbefore, but also a complete building assembled from one or more such parts.

In a preferred embodiment of a complete building according to the present invention, the respective parts of the building which are placed contiguously to each other to form the completed building are offset from one another along the vertical plane of division, thus to provide the complete building not only with the possibility of a porch or patio, but also to afford aesthetic variation and a degree of assymetry in plan.

It will be appreciated that by means of the present invention a mobile home or transportable building can be provided simply and easily with a roof having a greater pitch (e.g. from 20 to 310) than has been previously possible within the constraints of transportability and current regulations.

The invention may be performed otherwise than as described; the invention includes within its scope all changes that would be apparent to one skilled in the art.

Claims (11)

CLAIMS:-

1. A transportable building including a pitched roof, in which at least a portion of the roof is pivotable between an erected or final position and a transport position, the transport position being such as to reduce the overall height of the building in comparison with the height when the roof is in its erected or final position.

2. A transportable building as claimed in claim 1, in which at least one upper portion of the roof is pivotable relative to a lower portion about a hinge line between the upper and lower portions.

3. A transportable building as claimed in claim 2, in which there are a plurality of pivotable upper portions.

4. A transportable building as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the roof is a hipped roof.

5. A transportable building as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the pitch of the roof is 20 to 310, preferably 30".

6. A complete building, located on a site, the complete building comprising a tranportable building according to any preceding claim, with the roof in its erected or final position.

7. A complete building as claimed in claim 6, comprising two said transportable buildings joined along a vertical plane containing the ridge line of the complete building.

8. A complete building as claimed in claim 7, in which the ground plans of the two transportable buildings are offset along the said vertical plane.

9. A method of constructing a pitched roof of a transportable building on site, the method including the step of pivoting at least a portion of the roof from a transport position to an erected or final position, the transport position being such that the overall height of the building is less than the height when the roof is in its erected or final position.

10. A method as claimed in claim 9, further comprising cladding the roof.

11. A transportable building substantially as described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.