Pile or plastic tiles for flooring and like applications

Claim 1

A carpet tile adapted by assembling a plurality thereof to constitute a decorative floor covering of uniform thickness, which comprises a carpet member; a substratum member attached to the underside of said carpet member, said substratum member being flush with the carpet member along a first pair of adjacent edges thereof and being recessed in respect to the carpet member along a second pair of adjacent edges thereof; a first Z-shaped flexible thermoplastic strip member extending substantially entirely along said second pair of adjacent edges of said substratum member, one outside leg of said first Z-shaped strip member being attached to and in the same plane As the underside of said substratum member, the middle leg of said first Z-shaped strip member being disposed along one vertical edge of said substratum member, and the other outside edge of said first Zshaped strip member extending outwardly along the underside of said carpet member to the juxtapositioned edge of said carpet member; a second Z-shaped flexible thermoplastic strip member extending substantially entirely along said first pair of adjacent edges of said substratum member, one outside leg of said second Z-shaped strip member being attached to and in the same plane as the top side of said substratum member, the middle leg of said second Z-shaped strip member being disposed along one vertical edge of said substratum member, and the other outside edge of said second Z-shaped strip member extending outwardly from the plane of the underside of said substratum member for a distance substantially equal to the distance said other leg of said first Z-shaped member extends outwardly of said second pair of adjacent edges of said substratum member, said other outer leg of said first strip member having a plurality of longitudinal grooves to define downwardly directed hooked-shaped elastic projections and said other outer leg of said second strip member having a plurality of longitudinal grooves defining upwardly directed hook-shaped cavities with elastic walls which resiliently are engageable with said projection of said first strip member, said first and second strip members being selectively dimensioned so that two adjacent tiles can be interlocked: (A) with the adjacent edges of the two tiles in abutting relationship to conceal said first and second strip members from the top surface of two adjacent carpet tiles, and (B) with the top and bottom surfaces of two adjacent carpet tiles in coplanar relationship to provide a uniform thickness across two adjacent carpet tiles.