TOOL FOR REMOVING SHINGLES FROM A SKIP SHEET ROOF
A tool for removing shingles from a roof having skip sheeting comprises one or more lifting blades attached to a shaft or alternatively to a blade plate attached to the shaft. A fulcrum bar attached to the back of the shaft, or optionally to the back of the blade plate, provides a bearing surface for rotating the tool to remove shingles and for sliding the tool along a sheeting board without lifting the tool. Some embodiments have two separate fulcrum bars for sliding the tool over fasteners protruding from a sheet board. Other embodiments have a fulcrum bar with a central slot. In some embodiments, a fulcrum bar has a length dimension selected to contact at least two adjacent sheeting boards.
This application is a Continuation in Part of application Ser. No. 11/890,593, filed on Aug. 7, 2007.
FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention relates generally to a tool for removing shingles from a building roof and more specifically to a tool for removing shingles from a roof having skip sheeting.
BACKGROUNDShingles on a building roof are generally attached with shingle fasteners such as nails, staples, or other removable fastening means to an underlying support layer known as sheathing or sheeting. Shingles are usually positioned on the sheeting with a portion of a shingle overlapping one or more shingles and shingle fasteners lower down the slope of the roof. One form of sheeting comprises rows of wooden sheeting boards with individual sheeting boards having a width of about four inches and a thickness of about one inch. Adjacent rows of sheeting boards are separated by a distance about the same as the width of a sheeting board. This form of sheeting, known as skip sheeting, is sometimes used in roofs having wooden shingles. Skip sheeting allows air to circulate underneath the shingles to improve drying of wet shingles.
After being exposed to wind, sunlight, temperature changes, impacts, and other stresses, shingles must eventually be removed and replaced to prevent or correct roof leaks. In roofs having skip sheeting, sometimes the shingles are removed by first removing the shingle fasteners from the row of shingles nearest the peak of the roof, then pulling up the loosened shingles to expose the next row of shingle fasteners down the slope of the roof. Removal proceeds down the slope of the roof until the last row of shingles are removed next to the lower roof edge. Sometimes a prying tool is forced under an edge of a shingle and the shingle is pushed away from the sheeting, pulling out shingle fasteners at the same time.
Several types of tools are known for removing shingles from roofs. Some tools are forced under a shingle and then cut or break a shingle fastener, thereby freeing the shingle for removal. Part of the cut or broken shingle fastener remains embedded in part of the roof. Other tools are forced between overlapping layers of singles or alternatively between a shingle and the sheeting, then rocked or twisted to separate the shingles. However, it may be very tiring to remove many shingles by repeatedly forcing a tool between tightly attached layers of shingles and sheeting and then applying sufficient force to pull out the shingle fasteners. Some tools cause a shingle to break or split during removal, resulting in additional effort to remove all the pieces. Part of a tool may catch repeatedly against nails that protrude from the surface of the sheeting board, making it difficult to slide the tool along the sheeting board without repeatedly extracting, lifting, and reinserting the tool. Furthermore, it is sometimes difficult to avoid gouging or splitting the sheeting during shingle removal, which may weaken the sheeting or make attachment of new shingles more difficult.
What is needed is a manual tool for removing shingles from roofs with skip sheeting that applies an amount of mechanical advantage to a force exerted by a person to quickly and efficiently remove a shingle, with the shingle preferably being removed in one piece, without damaging the sheeting, and without requiring the tool to be repeatedly forced between layers of shingles and sheeting. What is further needed is a tool that can slide easily over nails and other obstructions protruding from the top surface of a sheeting board.
SUMMARYThe present invention relates to a manually-operated tool to remove shingles from a roof having skip sheeting. In one embodiment, a shingle removal tool built in accord with the invention comprises a shaft, a transverse handle attached about halfway along a length of the handle to a first end of the shaft, a lifting blade attached on a back end of the lifting blade to a second end of the shaft, and a fulcrum bar attached to the shaft with a longest dimension of the fulcrum bar perpendicular to a longest dimension of the shaft. The fulcrum bar has a length greater than a distance separating adjacent rows of sheeting boards. Alternatively, a fulcrum bar has a length greater than a width of a sheeting board. A front end of the lifting blade is optionally wedge-shaped. Hand grips may optionally be installed over opposite ends of the handle. In some embodiments, a distance between a top surface of the lifting blade and an axis of the fulcrum bar is selected to position the upper surface of the lifting blade lower than a top surface of a sheeting board while the fulcrum bar is resting on the top surface of the sheeting board.
In some embodiments, the lifting blade is attached to the shaft by welding or equivalent strong attachment means. In other embodiments, the shaft and the lifting blade are formed from one piece of metal. In yet other embodiments, two lifting blades are attached to a blade plate and the blade plate is strongly attached to a handle. The lifting blades and blade plate may optionally be made as an integral unit, or the lifting blades may optionally be welded to the blade plate.
Some embodiments have one lifting blade and other embodiments have more than one lifting blade. A width of the lifting blade is chosen so that the lifting blade fits in a gap between adjacent rows of sheeting boards. For embodiments having more than one lifting blade, a separation distance between lifting blades is chosen to be larger than a width of a sheeting board. Some embodiments have a fulcrum bar that is long enough to contact more than two sheeting boards.
In some embodiments, a cross-sectional shape of the shaft and the lifting blade are approximately the same. In other embodiments, the shaft has a solid round or alternatively a hollow round cross section and the lifting blade has a rectangular cross section or other alternatively some other flattened shape. In some embodiments the shaft is straight and in other embodiments the shaft is formed with a curved surface.
In some embodiments, a lifting blade is formed from two pieces of metal joined together at an obtuse angle by welding. In other embodiments, the lifting blade is formed from a single piece of curved metal. In some embodiments having more than one lifting blade, a back surface of the lifting blade is attached to the fulcrum bar.
Embodiments of the invention are manually operated by placing a lifting blade between two adjacent rows of sheeting boards with a top surface of the lifting blade in contact with a back surface of a shingle and the fulcrum bar above the top surfaces of adjacent rows of sheeting boards. A person presses downward on the handle, causing a rotation about an axis through the fulcrum bar and thereby causing the lifting blade to push upward against the back surface of the shingle. A sufficient amount of downward pressure is applied to push the shingle and shingle fasteners away from the sheeting board. Neighboring shingles and their shingle fasteners may also loosened by a single motion of an embodiment of a shingle removal tool.
This section summarizes some features of the present embodiment. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the embodiments of the invention will become better understood with regard to the following description and upon reference to the following drawings, wherein:
Embodiments of the invention include a manual tool for removing shingles from a roof. Devices built in accord with the invention are particularly suited for removing wooden shingles from a roof having skip sheeting, although shingles made from other materials may also be removed. Some of the benefits of the embodiments of the invention include, but are not limited to, rapid and efficient shingle removal from roofs having skip sheeting, shingle removal without damage to sheeting boards, generation of a shingle removal force that is proportionally greater than a force applied by a person to a handle of an embodiment, removal of more than one shingle with a single operating motion of an embodiment, and operation of embodiments of the invention by a person in a standing, crouching, or kneeling position.
In an embodiment illustrated in
A preferred material for the shaft 3 and the lifting blade 4 is an alloy of steel selected for resilience, strength, and suitability for joining by welding. The handle 2 and fulcrum bar 5 may optionally be made from the same alloy of steel used in the shaft 3 and lifting blade 4, or a different steel alloy may be used. A preferred method of joining the lifting blade 4 to the shaft 3, the shaft 3 to the handle 2, and the fulcrum bar 5 to the shaft 3 is welding, but other strong attachment means such as bolting may also be used.
The embodiment of
A person manually operates the embodiment of
In the embodiment of
The handle 2 and the fulcrum bar 5 may be hollow cylinders as in
The positions of two sectional views are marked in
In some embodiments, the shaft 3 and the lifting blade 4 are formed as one piece. An embodiment having the shaft 3 and the lifting blade 4 formed as one piece is shown in
Removal of thin, brittle, split, or cracked shingles may be made easier by a shingle removal tool 1 having more than one lifting blade 4, as in
In
It is often the case that nails or other fasteners used to attach shingles to sheeting boards remain in place after the shingles are removed. If the fasteners protrude above the top surface of a sheeting board, they can interfere with sliding the fulcrum bar of an embodiment from any of the previous examples along the surface of a sheeting board. Some embodiments therefore provide for a fulcrum bar adapted to slide smoothly along a sheeting board having protruding fasteners. For example, the embodiment of
In
The fulcrum bar 15 is shown more clearly in
As shown in
In some embodiments, the left and right fulcrum bars of the examples of
The fulcrum bar 21 of
The present disclosure is to be taken as illustrative rather than as limiting the scope, nature, or spirit of the subject matter claimed below. Numerous modifications and variations will become apparent to those skilled in the art after studying the disclosure, including use of equivalent functional and/or structural substitutes for elements described herein, use of equivalent functional couplings for couplings described herein, or use of equivalent functional steps for steps described herein. Such insubstantial variations are to be considered within the scope of what is contemplated here. Moreover, if plural examples are given for specific means, or steps, and extrapolation between or beyond such given examples is obvious in view of the present disclosure, then the disclosure is to be deemed as effectively disclosing and thus covering at least such extrapolations.
Unless expressly stated otherwise herein, ordinary terms have their corresponding ordinary meanings within the respective contexts of their presentations, and ordinary terms of art have their corresponding regular meanings.
Claims
1. A tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting, comprising:
- a shaft;
- a fulcrum bar attached perpendicularly to said shaft; and
- a first lifting blade having a top surface and a back surface, wherein said back surface of said first lifting blade is attached to said fulcrum bar.
2. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 1, wherein an obtuse angle is formed between said first lifting blade and said shaft.
3. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 2, wherein said fulcrum bar and said top surface of said first lifting blade are separated by a vertical separation distance selected to place said first lifting blade beneath a shingle when said fulcrum bar is resting on the roof.
4. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 3, wherein said first lifting blade is integrally formed with said shaft.
5. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 3, further comprising a second lifting blade attached to said fulcrum bar.
6. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 3, wherein said vertical separation distance has a value in a range from 0.6 inch (15.9 millimeters) to 4.0 inches (101.6 millimeters).
7. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 3, wherein said obtuse angle has a value in a range from 120 degrees to 150 degrees.
8. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 3, wherein said length of said fulcrum bar is greater than a separation distance between adjacent sheeting boards.
9. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 5, wherein said first and second lifting blades each comprise two pieces joined by welding at said obtuse angle.
10. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 5, wherein said first and second lifting blades are each made from a piece of flat stock bent to said obtuse angle.
11. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 5, further comprising a handle attached at a right angle to an end of said shaft.
12. The tool for removing a shingle from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 5, wherein said fulcrum bar is a hollow cylinder.
13. A tool for removing a shingle from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting, comprising:
- a blade plate having a top edge, a bottom edge, a front side, and a back side;
- a shaft attached to said top edge of said blade plate;
- a first lifting blade having a flat top surface, wherein said first lifting blade is attached to said bottom edge of said blade plate and an angle between said first lifting blade top surface and front side of said blade plate is an obtuse angle; and
- a first fulcrum bar attached to said back side of said blade plate, wherein said fulcrum bar is adapted to slide over a fastener protruding from the sheeting board.
14. The tool for removing a shingle from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting of claim 13, further comprising a second lifting blade, wherein said second lifting blade is attached to said bottom edge of said blade plate and an angle between said second lifting blade and said blade plate is approximately equal to said obtuse angle.
15. The tool for removing a shingle from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting of claim 14, further comprising a second fulcrum bar attached to said back side of said blade plate, wherein said first and second fulcrum bars are separated by a distance that is less than a width dimension of the sheeting board.
16. The tool for removing a shingle from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting of claim 14, wherein said first and second lifting blades are integrally formed with said blade plate.
17. The tool for removing a shingle from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting of claim 14, wherein said fulcrum bar is formed with a central slot having dimensions selected to allow fasteners protruding from the sheeting board to pass through the central slot when the tool is slid along a top surface of the sheeting board.
18. The tool for removing a shingle from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting of claim 17, wherein said fulcrum bar has a length dimension selected to enable said fulcrum bar to be supported by two adjacent sheeting boards.
19. A method for removing shingles from a sheeting board in a roof having skip sheeting comprising:
- inserting a lifting blade on a shingle removal tool into a gap between two adjacent sheeting boards in the roof;
- positioning a fulcrum bar on the shingle removal tool above an upper surface of a sheeting board;
- positioning an upper surface of the lifting blade against a bottom surface of a shingle to be removed from the roof;
- manually applying a force against a handle of the shingle removal tool in the direction of the outer surface of the roof, causing the shingle removal tool to rotate about an axis through the fulcrum bar and causing a surface of the lifting blade to press against the bottom surface of the shingle; and
- increasing the amount of manual force applied against the handle of the shingle removal tool until the shingle is removed from the roof.
20. The method for removing shingles from a roof having skip sheeting of claim 18, further comprising sliding the fulcrum bar along the upper surface of a sheeting board until the lifting blade is positioned under a next shingle to be removed.
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 17, 2009
Publication Date: Jun 18, 2009
Inventor: David Haight (Oakland, CA)
Application Number: 12/372,667