Ground covering element having raised portions at the useful side which are separated from one another by dummy gaps, a ground covering element group of such ground covering elements, and a method of producing such ground covering elements

Claim 1

A ground covering element adapted for positioning adjacent another ground covering element, comprising: a top surface, a bottom surface substantially parallel to said top surface and a lateral surface substantially perpendicular over its entire length to said top and bottom surfaces, the outer contour of the ground covering element forming projections and recesses about said entire periphery, said contour having corner projections which form the vertices of a rectangle and line portions all of which are oblique to the sides of said rectangle connecting said corner projections, at least two of the line portions connecting each of said vertices being of equal length and the remaining line portions having lengths which are integer multiples of the lengths of said at least two line portions of equal length; said element comprising a plurality of irregular spaced polygons projecting from said top surface to form raised portions, the majority of said polygons differing in shape from each of the other of said polygons; the edges of said raised portions being straight and separated from each other by dummy gaps having widths which vary linearly along the entire length thereof and from the periphery of said ground covering element by marginal dummy gaps, the edge of each raised portion adjacent the periphery of said element substantially following the contour thereof and having a distance therefrom such that the average distance between the edge of said raised portion adjacent said periphery and said contour is approximately one-half the average width of said dummy gaps between said raised portions, sand filling the space between said adjacent ground covering elements thereby effectively concealing said space from view.