Modular lavatory construction

• US 4,171,545 A
• Filed: 07/19/1974
• Issued: 10/23/1979
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1974
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: The Charles Parker Company
• Original Assignee: The Charles Parker Company
• Inventors: Kann, Henry R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Levy, Stuart S.
• Application Number:
  US05/489,540
• Time in Patent Office: 1,922 Days
• Field of Search: 4/1-5, 4/8, 4/114, 4/166, 4/191, 4/192, 4/DIG. 7, 4/187 R, 4/167, 312/138 A, 312/245, 312/228, 52/34, 52/35, D23/49, D23/69, D 6/127, D 6/130, D 6/181, D 6/186, D 6/188, D 6/190
• US Class Current: 4/630
• CPC Class Codes: A47K 1/04 Basins connected to waste pipe E03C1/12; Jugs; Holding devices therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A47K 4/00 Combinations of baths, douches, sinks, wash-basins, closets, or urinals, not covered by a single other group of this subclass such combinations when connected to water supply or waste pipe E03C1/01

Abstract

The invention contemplates a modular wall-mountable lavatory unit, particularly adapted to side-by-side adjacent mounting in multiple, and comprising interrelated basin and other lavatory-utility features defined by intermediate and side panels and by the contoured wall and shelf elements by which the panels are integrally connected and mutually reinforced. The unit structure accounts for such complete wall coverage as to be directly applicable to (suspendable from) rough stud-framing of a wall and, if desired, to both sides of a single stud-framed wall. The unit structure is also directly applicable to a wall which externally mounts horizontal courses of water-service and drainage plumbing.

Claims

1. A unitary modular lavatory-wall unit for wall-hung mounting in side-by-side adjacent multiple, and having a generally rectangular front elevation between upstanding horizontally spaced side walls which extend forwardly of a wall-mounting plane, said side walls having elongate upstanding forward edges defining a front-access plane parallel to and offset from the wall-mounting plane, comprising a single-piece integral molded plastic structural combination wherein said side walls are upstanding parallel side panels of matching side-elevational contour, said combination including at least one upstanding intermediate wall panel between said side panels and of lesser side-elevational contour than said side panels, said intermediate and side panels being integrally connected by back panel and shelf elements and including a lavatory-basin formation as part of the integral connection of said intermediate wall panel to one of said side panels, said basin formation and said intermediate panel and panel and shelf elements being substantially fully contained within the geometrical volume defined by and between said intermediate wall panel and said one side panel, the rear edges of said vertical side-wall panels being locally recessed from the wall-mounting plane at regions intermediate the upper and lower ends of said rear edges and above and below said lavatory-basin formation, and unit-suspension means carried by said unit adjacent the wall-mounting plane, whereby a plurality of said modular units may be removably hung from a mounting wall equipped with horizontally elongate service-plumbing courses which are outside the geometric volume of the wall.

2. The modular unit of claim 1, in which the integral connection between said intermediate wall panel and the other of said side panels extends substantially the full vertical extent of said unit-height dimension and at a location relatively near the wall-mounting plane of said unit, thereby defining a garment-accommodating space.

3. The modular unit of claim 1, in which said combination is of laminated fabric-reinforced plastic construction.

4. The modular unit of claim 1, in which the lavatory-basin formation includes a horizontal front edge and integral continuous splash-limiting back-wall, side-wall and upper-wall surfaces above the plane of said front edge.

5. The modular unit of claim 4, in which connecting panel elements adjacent and above said upper-wall surface define a towel-retaining volume above the lavatory-basin formation, said upper-wall surface having a towel-discharge slot communicating with the lower end of the towel-retaining volume.

6. The modular unit of claim 4, in which said upper-wall surface has a water-supply opening rearward of the towel-discharge slot.

7. The modular unit of claim 1, in which the lavatory-basin formation includes upper and lower horizontal front edges, integral contiguous splash-limiting back-wall and side-wall surfaces extending between the horizontal planes of said horizontal front edges and below the plane of said lower front edge, and upper and lower surfaces respectively connecting said side-wall surfaces and said back-wall surface to said upper and lower front edges, said upper surface having a water-supply opening and said lower surface having a water-drain opening.

8. The modular unit of claim 7, in which said lower surface is generally flat and has a shallow slope downward and rearward from said lower front edge to substantially the location of juncture with said back-wall surface.

9. The modular unit of claim 1, in which the integral connection between said intermediate wall panel and the other of said side panels includes a shelf-divided article-storing cavity.

10. The modular unit of claim 9, in which said shelf-divided storing cavity is limited substantially to elevations which span and extend above said basin formation, said connecting elements defining a waste-receptacle recess beneath both said basin formation and said storing cavity.

11. In combination, a wall frame with a single elongated wall-mounted horizontal support rail on one side of said wall frame, and a plurality of modular lavatory units according to claim 1, the suspension-means of said units being all suspended in like manner and in side-by-side adjacency from said rail.

12. The combination of claim 11, in which said units and said rail have engaged lateral-position locating formations, the locating formations of said rail being at unit-width spacing, whereby adjacent units are retained in adjacency.

13. The combination of claim 11, further including a single elongated wall-mounted horizontal locking rail at an elevation substantially beneath that of said support rail, each said unit including means releasably engageable to said locking rail.

14. The combination of claim 11, further including an elongate horizontal course of water-supply plumbing external to and carried by said wall frame beneath said rail and above the elevation of the lavatory-basin formations of units suspended by said rail, said plumbing course being within locally recessed regions of the rear edges of said side-wall panels.

15. The combination of claim 11, further including an elongate generally horizontal course of drainage plumbing external to and carried by said wall frame beneath the elevation of the lavatory-basin formations of units suspended by said rail, said plumbing course being within locally recessed regions of the rear edges of said side-wall panels.

16. A unitary modular lavatory-wall unit for wall-hung mounting in side-by-side adjacent multiple, and having a generally rectangular front elevation between upstanding horizontally spaced side walls which extend forwardly of a wall-mounting plane, said side walls having elongate upstanding forward edges defining a front-access plane parallel to and offset from the wall-mounting plane, comprising a single-piece integral molded-plastic structural combination wherein said side walls are upstanding horizontally spaced parallel vertical panels of matching side-elevational contour, said vertical panels being integrally connected by upstanding back-wall panels in horizontally offset relation to the wall-mounting plane and by vertically spaced horizontal panels which are also integrally connected to said back-wall panels, the forward edges of at least two of said vertical panels being spaced less than the unit-width and being in substantial register with a vertical plane which slopes inwardly with respect to the wall-mounting plane, said connecting panels between said two vertical panels including a continuously formed lavatory-basin formation that is recessed rearwardly from the sloping vertical plane and being substantially fully contained within the geometrical volume defined between said two vertical panels, the rear edges of said vertical side-wall panels being locally recessed from the wall-mounting plane at regions intermediate the upper and lower ends of said rear edges and above and below said lavatory-basin formation, and unit-suspension means carried by said unit adjacent the wall-mounting plane, whereby a plurality of said modular units may be removably hung from a mounting wall equipped with horizontally elongate service-plumbing courses which are outside the geometric volume of the wall.