Flooring installation pull bars and methods

Abstract

Pull bars for the installation of flooring materials, especially tongue-and-groove flooring materials, having a removable anvil cap. In especially preferred embodiments, the pull bars of the present invention have an elongate tail piece, a header bar attached rigidly to a forward end of the tail piece, and a tail block assembly attached rigidly to a rearward end of the tail piece, wherein the tail block assembly includes a forwardly inclined tail post and an anvil cap removeably coupled to a terminal end of the tail post. The anvil cap may be formed of a metal or plastics material. In use, the pull bar may be employed to install flooring material by striking the anvil cap repetitively with a hammer or mallet until such time that the anvil cap becomes damaged due to receiving such blows. The damaged anvil cap may then be removed form the tail piece and replaced by an undamaged anvil cap.

1 . A pull bar to assist in the installation of flooring materials comprising: 
 an elongate tail piece;    a header bar attached to a forward end of the tail piece; and    a tail block assembly attached to a rearward end of the tail piece, wherein    said tail block assembly includes (i) a forwardly inclined tail post and (ii) an anvil cap removeably coupled to a terminal end of the tail post.    
   
   
       2 . The pull bar of  claim 1 , wherein the anvil cap is removeably threadably coupled to the terminal end of the tail post.  
   
   
       3 . The pull bar of  claim 2 , wherein the anvil cap includes a coupling flange with interior threads, and wherein the terminal end of the tail post includes exterior threads for removable threaded coupling with the interior threads of the coupling flange.  
   
   
       4 . The pull bar of  claim 2 , wherein the tail post includes a threaded aperture, and the anvil cap includes a rearwardly projecting threaded connection shaft which is threadably coupled with the aperture.  
   
   
       5 . The pull bar of  claim 1 , wherein the anvil cap and the tail post define registered apertures, and wherein the tail block assembly further includes an elongate attachment pin received within the registered apertures for removeably coupling the anvil cap to the tail post.  
   
   
       6 . The pull bar of  claim 1 , further comprising a cushion layer attached to a bottom surface of the tail piece.  
   
   
       7 . The pull bar of  claim 1 , wherein the anvil cap includes a rearwardly protruding attachment boss removeably received within the tail post.  
   
   
       8 . The pull bar of  claim 7 , wherein the attachment boss and the tail post define registered apertures.  
   
   
       9 . The pull bar of  claim 8 , wherein the tail block assembly further includes an elongate attachment pin received within the registered apertures for removeably coupling the anvil cap to the tail post.  
   
   
       10 . The pull bar of  claim 1 , wherein the header bar is attached to the forward end of the tail piece to allow for relative pivotal articulations therebetween.  
   
   
       11 . The pull bar of  claim 10 , comprising a position pin and apertures for receiving the position pin to adjustably position the header bar in one of a plurality of non-orthogonal angular orientations relative to the tail piece.  
   
   
       12 . The pull bar of  claim 10 , wherein the header bar includes at least one grip pin projecting rearwardly parallel to the tail piece.  
   
   
       13 . A pull bar to assist in the installation of flooring materials comprising: 
 an elongate tail piece;    a header bar attached to a forward end of the tail piece; and    a tail block assembly attached to a rearward end of the tail piece, wherein    said header bar includes at least one grip pin projecting rearwardly parallel to the tail piece.    
   
   
       14 . The pull bar as in  claim 13 , wherein the header bar defines a contact surface that is oriented at a non-orthogonal angle relative to the tail piece.  
   
   
       15 . The pull bar as in  claim 14 , wherein said header bar includes a removable angle block which defines the contact surface that is non-orthogonal relative to the tail piece, wherein the at least one grip pin projects rearwardly from the contact surface thereof.  
   
   
       16 . A pull bar to assist in the installation of flooring materials comprising: 
 an elongate tail piece;    a header bar attached to a forward end of the tail piece;    a tail block assembly attached to a rearward end of the tail piece, and    an angle block removeably attached to the header bar which defines a non-orthogonal contact surface.    
   
   
       17 . The pull bar of  claim 16 , wherein the angle block includes at least one grip pin projecting rearwardly parallel to the tail piece.  
   
   
       18 . The pull bar of  claim 16 , further comprising attachment bolts to removeably attach the angle block to the header bar.  
   
   
       19 . A method of installing flooring material comprising the steps of: 
 (a) providing a pull bar as in  claim 1;     (b) engaging the header bar with an edge of a flooring material piece to be installed;    (c) striking the anvil cap repetitively until the flooring material piece is installed;    (d) repeating steps (b) and (c) as necessary with additional flooring material pieces until the anvil cap becomes damaged; and thereafter    (e) removing the damaged anvil cap from the tail post; and    (f) removeably installing an undamaged anvil cap onto the tail post.    
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein step (e) includes threadably removing the anvil cap from the tail post.  
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein step (e) includes removing an attachment pin from registered apertures of the anvil cap and tail post, and thereafter removing the anvil cap from the tail post.  
   
   
       22 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising providing a cushion layer between the tail piece and the flooring material piece.  
   
   
       23 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising adjustably moving the header bar so it assumes a non-orthogonal orientation relative to the tail piece.  
   
   
       24 . The method of  claim 19 , further comprising attaching an angle block to the header bar, the angle block defining a non-orthogonal contact surface relative to the tail piece.