Hollow wall construction

Claim 1

A hollow building wall which comprises: (a) a first vertical array of stacked, hollow building blocks, said array of building blocks having an inner surface and an outer surface; (b) a second vertical array of stacked, hollow building blocks, said second array of building blocks having an inner surface and an outer surface, each block in said first and second vertical arrays of building blocks: (i) being integrally formed and having an inner wall and an outer wall, (ii) having a plurality of cross walls to form at least one cavity within said block extending from top to bottom thereof, and (iii) being connected at each of its ends by positive attachment means with at least one horizontally adjacent block in the vertical array of building blocks with which it is associated, the blocks of each pair of vertically adjacent building blocks in said first and second vertical arrays of building blocks forming a horizontal joint between them, said second vertical array of building blocks being spaced from said first vertical array with the inner surfaces of both arrays of building blocks facing each other, each of said first and second vertical arrays of building blocks defining a plurality of grooves on its respective inner surface, each of said grooves: (i) being spaced from the ends of each building block of said array of building blocks by which it is defined, (ii) having reentrant side walls that provide a wider cross section at the rear of the groove than at the mouth thereof, and (iii) extending continuously, with a constant cross-sectional shape and area, from the top to the bottom of the vertical array of building blocks with which it is associated, each groove on the inner surface of said second vertical array of building blocks being opposite to and alinged with a groove on the inner surface of said first vertical array; and (c) a plurality of separately formed, rigid, elongated, separator splines each of which is inserted in and extends between opposite, alinged grooves on the respective inner surfaces of said first and second vertical arrays of building blocks, the edge portions of each of said splines being enlarged to substantially fill the grooves in which said edge portions are inserted, substantially the entire extent of each of said grooves being occupied by said spline edge portions, with each of said spline edge portions being in contact substantially throughout the length of said edge portion with the rear wall of the groove with which it is associated, each of said separator splines extending across at least one of said horizontal joints between vertically adjacent building blocks, said first and second vertical arrays of building blocks being free of any members interconnecting the same except for said separator splines and any insulation material that may occupy the space between said vertical arrays of building blocks.