It is known to use a plurality of spaced apart piers to support a building.

It has been known to use an ant cap which by reason of a perimeter overhang providing a downwardly inclined underneath surface causes termites to take an exposed path if they are to get through to a building.

Such caps which are well known and are formed from light gauge sheet metal to have this outwardly extending and downwardly inclined perimeter overhang which will be functional for resisting passage there past of termites while being both economic to produce and in every way adequate for the function required.

More recently, it has been found necessary to be able to provide a tie down effect through the respective piers so that in addition to simply supporting the building, the piers can anchor the building in the event of high winds causing uplift.

In order to facilitate this, there has therefore been provided either a structural member or members that pass through an aperture cut within an ant cap where the structural member is or can be anchored to the underneath pier and at the same time then provide a structural connection to uppermost structural components of the building.

The problem that has been encountered and to which this invention is directed is that by cutting a hole through an ant cap, in circumstances in which such components will be ordinarily manufactured and with tolerances which are appropriate for components of this and at a cost appropriate for the building industry, leaves smaller or larger apertures between the adjacent edge of the cut hole in the termite cap and the structural member passing therethrough.

In experiments conducted thus far, it has been found that termites are able to

take advantage of even very small holes, and of course once there is one hole sufficient for a termite to pass therethrough, this then removes the integrity of the protection system entirely.

The question is - what can be done given that termites are known to attack and eat their way through many of the otherwise appropriate materials that could fill the gap. One possible answer is of course to attempt to weld the inner edge of the termite cap to the structural member but problems arise. One of these problems is that welding a light sheet metal in a way which will ensure continuous aperture free integrity, is not easy and the risk of even a small hole is implicitly very high and therefore such a procedure is relatively expensive apart from the high risk and therefore very high cost of failure.

Currently it is known to provide concrete piers which however have another problem. A typical weight of an individual pier adequate to provide a typical solution is in the order of 90 kilograms. Both the cost, the storage space and then the weight that has to be lifted or manhandled on site means that this solution is uneconomic, is of great concern regarding health and potential injury to workers and is not considered to be especially sightly.

Another pier currently being provided includes a threaded screw and nut whereby rotation of one with respect to the other lifts a top of the pier with respect to a supporting base. This solution is both expensive, vulnerable to wearing surfaces promoting a breakdown of protective surfaces such as zinc coating, and again in order to provide sufficient support strength and tie down strength, needs to be of substantial dimensions or a large number of these have to be provided.

The problem to be addressed by this invention then is to provide a light, low cost, easily adjustable pier which can also be made to be very long lasting in difficult environmental circumstances.

What then can be done? In accord with this invention, the termite cap itself has been reconsidered and in contradiction to what has always been the case hitherto, it is proposed that the ant cap be made from a sheet of material which has a thickness which is substantially thicker than that which has hitherto been used for this purpose

and which therefore can be used as structural component in its own right.

This immediately changes the whole logistics of the component because it then is no longer necessary to cut a hole through the cap at all and further, the cap can have welded thereto in a structural capacity, upper brackets and lower parts which will not therefore be difficult to weld thereto and there is no question of breaching termite access otherwise provided by the caps.

The surprising thing has been that the cost in using a structural thickness of material, is offset by not having to cut a hole through a termite cap, and in any event, by ensuring certain integrity against termites of the cap, this then provides very significant advantage by removing the risk of failure and this in turn assists the whole of the building industry.

In one form of the invention this could be said to reside in a pier head including a base, an ant cap secured to a top of the base, characterised in that the cap is a sheet of steel of a thickness sufficient to be a structural member between the base and securing means for a building attached directly to an uppermost surface of the cap.

In preference, the thickness of the sheet is at least 1.6mm.

In a further preferred form the thickness is at least 2.0mm.

In preference, the ant cap is a sheet of steel having a central part and a perimeter part, the perimeter part being shaped and supported by the central part so that there is an overhang past any supporting base of the pier head, and having an outwardly and downwardly inclined lowermost surface continuously extending around the perimeter of the central part to provide the termite barrier effect.

In preference, there is provided a bracket welded to an upper surface of the central part of the cap to which can be secured structural members of building.

In preference, the supporting base of the pier head is of tubular shape and is welded at an uppermost end continuously to the underneath side of the central part of the ant cap.

The purpose of the pier head is to provide level support for a building and as such is adapted to be located in a selected position with respect to a supporting post.

In preference, there is provided a pier assembly which uses two or more nested tubes, an upper one of these being closed so as to effect termine deterrents but such that the tubes can be extended one with respect to the other and at least an outer wall of an outer tube having a first aperture therethrough adapted to receive an engaging fastener. in preference there are a plurality of such fasteners which can be in the form of self drilling and self tapping screws.

By using tube, a significant problem of providing sufficient column strength for a very lightweight is achieved and further, all of the external surfaces can be treated with an anticorrosive surface such as zinc anneal.

Further, because the tubes can be located at any relative position one with respect to the other, there can therefore be an infinite control of the respective height of a pier and the fixing of the pier in such a position can be very economically and quickly achieved using cheaply available and easily used devices.

Provided then that the top of the tube is fully closed in the manner described to stop access of white ants in the otherwise hidden area within the tubes then solves generally the problem.

If the pier head has a downwardly depending tube open at its bottom end, then this can either be located within an upstanding tube supported or it can surround the upstanding tube.

In a further form of the invention, this could be said to reside in a method of building which includes the steps of anchoring, in spaced apart relationship, one with respect to the other, a plurality of piers including posts, in or on supporting earth, supporting on each respective top of a post, a pier head as in any one of the previously described references, the steps of the method including locating the pier head at a selected height with respect to the post, temporarily anchoring by passing a screw through or into respective engaging

walls of the post and the pier head, then effecting a substantial joining between the respective parts.

In preference, the substantial joining includes drilling matching apertures through the post and the base of the pier head and then having a bolt pass therethrough to effect the permanent joining.

In another preferred arrangement the substantial joining includes the use of suitable self-drilling screws of sufficient quantity and strength to adequateiy fix the head either as an alternative to the use of a bolt or in addition to use of a bolt.

In another preferred arrangement, the two components are welded together.

In preference, the supporting base of the pier head is tubular and is of a size so that it will fit over and around the top of a respective post so that the top of the post forming a pier will nest within the supporting base or in an alternative arrangement the base of the head nests within the upright pier.

Further, in preference, the shape in cross section of the supporting base is any one of circular, square or rectangular.

In preference, the range of thickness of a termite cap can lie within the range of 1.6mm to 4mm. The upper limit is simply selected because it is unnecessary and therefore uneconomic to go thicker.

For a better understanding of this invention it will now be described with the assistance of drawings wherein: FIG 1 is a perspective view of a pier head according to the embodiment; FIG 2 is a perspective view of the same pier head as shown in FIG 1 from however an opposite location so as to show the underneath side of the pier head; FIG 3 is a cross sectional view along the lines 3-3 as shown in FIG 1; and

FIG 4 is a perspective view of an assembled pier head with a post shown in two variations one of which on the left hand side is adapted to be located and embedded within a concrete pad within earth, and on the right hand side, the arrangement is shown to provide a base plate which can be anchored to a concrete or other supporting foundation.

Referring in detail to the drawings, there is accordingly shown a pier head 1 which includes a base 2, an ant cap 3 and a securing bracket 4. The base 2 is, at its upper end in the form of a hollow tube having a square cross sectional shape (in an alternate embodiment this can be round and, in a further embodiment, square), an upper end of which at 5 is welded around a full perimeter to an underneath surface of the cap 3 so that it is fully extending across an otherwise open top of the tube. In this way the top of the tube is fully blocked off and will therefore reliably block access therethrough to termites.

This means that the termites will have to track outside of the tube and attempt to go past the ant cap 3. The cap 3 then serves to expose the track of the termites which are therefore visible and can therefore be removed or the termites treated.

The cap 3 is a sheet of steel of 2.5mm thickness that has been formed by pressing into a shape substantially as shown in the drawings but which therefore includes a central part 6 which is substantially planar. Surrounding this central part, is a perimeter part 7 which extends continuously around the perimeter of the cap. In accord with its functional requirement providing effective termite barrier purposes, this then provides an outwardly and downwardly inclined underneath surface at 8 the angle of inclination being chosen as appropriate for termite guard purposes but in this embodiment is 45". As has been stated however the purpose is to ensure that the track of any termites is exposed.

Further, as is particularly shown in FIG 3 but is also applicable to the other drawings, the whole of the cap 3 is such that there is no aperture passing therethrough and that it acts to thoroughly block any access internally through the tube. Any attachments to the pier are achieved by welding to the appropriate upper or lower surface but so as not to prejudice an effective termite exposure effect of the perimeter part 7. The thickness of the sheet metal chosen in this embodiment is 2.5mm this thickness being indicated at 9.

Welded to an upper surface of the central part 6 of the cap 3 is a bracket 4 having apertures 10 and 11 which are appropriately positioned to assist in bolting thereto structural members of a building which is to be supported by a pier head as described.

As again will be seen clearly in FIG 3, the bracket 4 is welded at 12 so as to strongly be affixed to the termite cap 3 and such therefore that there will be able to be good connecting strength through the adequate welding to the now substantial thickness of the sheet material of the cap 3 as shown at 12 in connection with the bracket 4 and at 13 in connection with the top of the tubular base 2.

The tubular base 2 and the bracket 4 will be each chosen of adequately thick sheet metal materials so that the pier head 1 as a whole can therefore be treated as a structural member.

The use of the pier head 1 in an application is shown specifically in FIG 4 where there is a post 14 which has any one of three bases shown in the one instance at 15, in the other at 16 and a third which is not shown where the post 14 is secured by welding to a base.

Such posts are located in a distributed manner across an area on which the building is to be supported and in each case, the base such as in 15 is inserted within a pad of concrete and the outwardly extending tabs at 17 and 18 assist in locking the base 15 of the post 14 in a vertical supporting position.

In the other instance, the base 16 includes a base plate 19 and the bottom of the post at 20 fits over the upwardly extending spigot part of the base at 21.

There are two screws at 22 which pass mutually through the welds to ensure that the lower part 20 is secured for both support and against uplift.

In respect of the head 1 fitting with respect to the top of the post 14, the base 2 is of a size and shape so that it will fit over and around the top of the post 14 and therefore the top of the post 14 nests inside the tubular shape of the base 2. (In a further embodiment not shown the tubular shape of the base nests within the top of the post.) Accordingly, in using the head 1, the respective posts 14 are all placed in

position, and then each of the heads 1 are located so that their base 2 ride over each post and the height is then determined of each head with respect to the post and held temporarily by having self drilling screw (often referred to as a TEK screw) shown at 23 passing through a wall of the base 2 and into a wall of the post 14.

Then, a drill is passed through a pre-cut hole 24 and there is therefore arranged mutually aligned holes through both the base 2 and the post 14 through which a bolt 25 passes and is tightened to permanently secure the relative head 1 with the post 14 together.

In an alternative arrangement, the base 2 is simply welded to the post 14.

In a further embodiment which is not specifically shown the base 2 and the post 14 are permanently joined and held in relative place by self drilling screws (TEK screws).

This then describes the embodiments.

In practice, this invention has provided very significant advantage in both cost and facility in terms of buildings of a type which are to be supported on piers.