State of the Art: At floor laying of hard materials such as wood, laminate, and similar materials glue is generally used to fix the joints between the different materials, which can cause health problems when floor laying. The glueing also makes it almost impossible to relay or repair a floor and use the material that has already been glued once. A solution of this problem is known from Patent Application WO 93/25432, at which the floor laying material and the underlay are provided with towards each other turned surfaces of fibre flock, which besides eliminating the need of glue also can level unevenesses in the underlay and give some elasticity, sound damping, and insulation.

The technical Problem:

The problem that is solved by the present invention is to reduce or completely eliminate the need of glueing parts of floor surface material of hard or semi-solid type and still keep them securely together after the floor laying. Further¬ more a floor underlay that combined with the floor laying material gives leveling, sound damping, and insulation is achieved. The underlay also gives a fixing bed for various floor materials so that these can be layed in larger or smaller portions and remain on site but can when needed easily be adjusted or exchanged. Furthermore, the problem of pressing the fibre covered floor surface material pieces together when laying the floor is according to the present invention solved by using for the purpose worked out tools.

Prior Art:

Besides the already mentioned WO publication it is known that, in connection with gymnastic mats and the like, divided into a number of smaller sections, use of fibre flock or similar material on the undersides of the carpets and on an underlay in order to make the mats remain on site during exercises and be able to put them away in between, which is

evident from DE Al 24 27 712. In this publication nothing is disclosed that gives an indication of using a corresponding method to eliminate glueing in connection with a durable laying of floor material of hard or semi-solid type in order to form a permanent floor covering.

The solution:

According to the present invention the floor underlay is wholly or partly furnished with a fibre material on the surface facing upwards. The fibre material is composed of a needle-loom or another material of mainly long fibres oriented in different directions alongside the level of the surface. The fibres can be either straight or not straight, for example wavy or curly. The surface material of the floor is wholly or partly provided with fibre flock on the underside, at which the flock in a known manner includes short fibres that are mainly projecting from the underside of the surface material, mainly perpendicular to the surface. According to the invention these materials are used when floor laying, at which the above mentioned problems are solved and a safe fixation of the surface material at the underlay is achieved by that projecting fibres of the flock are fixed by the underlay' s long fibres that run alongside the surface. Alternatively, the fibre flock and the underlay material can change places, whereas the same effect is obtained.

The material forming the underlay should preferably be of very small elasticity alongside the directions of the surface of the material, whereby none or only a limited or temporary- fixation of the underlay material to the underlay is necessary so that the underlay material combined with the surface material can form a so called floating floor. The underlay material can also serve other purposes, like for example containing or being bearer of threads or foil material for electrical floor heating.

According to the present invention a tool can also be used when laying the surface material to facilitate and make the

joining of a new portion of the surface material with the already layed portion better.

Figure IA and IB demonstrates floor laying of a piece of floor material in shape of a matched laminate or wooden board, using an embodiment of a tool according to the invention. Figure 2 demonstrates floor laying according to figure 1 with a second embodiment of a tool according to the invention.

A floor underlay 1 is covered with a fibre material 2 that is not fixed to the bedding. A part of a matched wooden or laminate board 3 is on the underside coated with fibre flock 4 and is to be put on the underlay and thereby be displaced towards the already layed surface material (not shown) , which means towards the left in the figures, in order to receive a tight joint. Figures IA and IB demonstrate a tool 5A with a handle part 6A and a head with a thicker, partly cylindric part 7, and a thinner part 9. The thicker part 7 is on the partly cylindric surface provided with organs 8 in shape of spikes, clutches, or fibre flock that can grab the fibre material 2, and the head is also provided with a surface 10 aimed to bear on to the floor surface material 3 so that this is pushed to the left in the figure and the underlay material is affected by a force to the right by the spikes or the clutches 8 when the handle is moved upwards and to the left according to the arrow 11. When the underlay ihas been affected according to the arrow 12 and the tool 5A has reached the position according to figure IB the piece of surface material is pressed towards the underlay according to the arrow 13, after which the tool can be taken away. If the underlay shows any sign of elasticity it has been streched by the tool and now strives to return to its unstreched position and thereby holding the board 3 towards the already layed portions of floor surface material.

At the embodiment according to figure 2 the head 7, 9 is replaced by a block 15 with a groove for the board's tongue

at one end's surface 16, similar to such a hit block which is used when glueing floor boards. A handle 6B is fastened with a joint 17 at the block 15 and a little higher on the handle (by 21) a loop 20 is pivoted to the handle. At opposite sides of the loop 20 a plate 14 is arranged with a second pivot point 19. The underside of the plate 14 is provided with spikes or clutches 18, which can be made out of fibre flock or other materials. When the tool 5B is applicated according to figure 2 and the handle 6B is pushed downwards according to the arrow 22 the underlay 2 is pushed according to the arrow 23 by a force to the right and the board 3 is pressed to the left and its underside with fibre flock 4 is held a short distance above the underlay 2 until the board 3 is pushed on to the underlay and the tool is removed.

Other embodiments of the tool according to the invention are also possible within the limits of the following claims. Similar tools can also be used when the underlay material is formed by fibre flock and the underside of the floor surface material is provided with another fibre material. The tools demonstrated in the figures have lifted the board 3 a distance above the underlay in order to make the performance clearer. In reality the tools are conditioned and maneuvered so that the new laminate board 3 only is lifted high enough so that its bottom part not will hook to the underlay when joining with the already layed floor material.

The same or similar tools like the ones demonstrated in the figures can also be used in order to displace the laminate board in lengthwise direction. Alternatively, this displace¬ ment can be made in known way with a hammer and a hit block.

At an other embodiment of the method according to the invention, the floor underlay can be formed of the existing underlay in shape of chip boards, boards, cement floor, or other material that after needed levelling is directly coated with an adhesive in which the fibres are applicated so that they form underlay material in shape of fibre flock alternatively the other long fibred underlay. An existing

soft wall-to-wall carpet can also be the underlay material when the underside of the floor surface material is provided with fibre flock.

The floor material can be made out of practically all existing, mainly hard and stiff floor materials, such as certain plastic- and linoleum floorings, laminate and ceramic materials. One or several of the edge surfaces of the floor material can also be covered with fibre flock, whereby for example ceramic plates, wood or laminate can be fixed to each other not only alongside the level of the surface of the floor but also in a vertical level. Fibre flocked edges thereby can complete or completely replace joining with glue and other joining materials and they can cooperate with other fibre flocked edges or otherwise these can be provided with other fibre materials.

The fibre flock covered or of other fibre material covered surfaces of both the underlay and the surface material can be covered wholly. It is also possible that either one or both of them are only partly covered with respective fibre material without the function of the present invention being changed.

The method of covering a surface with fibre flock is well known. At a prefferred embodiment of the present invention a large amount of fibres is used that when electrostatically applied to a great extent will be fixed perpendicularly to the underlay. The density ot the fibres can amount to 50-300 fibres per square mm, prefferably more than 150 fibres per square mm, with a thickness of the fibres less than 0.1 mm, prefferably less than 0.05 mm and a length of 0.5-5 mm, prefferably less than 3 mm.

The invention is not limited to the above mentioned embodiments. It can be varied in different ways within the limits of the patent claims.