Grating for a swimming pool

Abstract

A grate construction for a swimming pool placed at a top edge of the pool at its water level. The grate consists of a wet deck edging profile having a hollow grate bar at its forward edge. A finger grip groove follows the hollow grate inwardly, that is, away from the edge of the water further inwardly there is a flat section which is fastened to the concrete from which the pool is constructed. The flat section is being fastened to the concrete by way of a lag screw. Also, the flat section has two upstanding hook ribs thereon. Another hollow grate bar has at its bottom side two depending hook ribs thereon. The upstanding hook ribs and the depending hook ribs, when pressed together, will fasten the another hollow grate bar to the flat extension. A connector element will fasten two longitudinal grate bars together to extend its length. The material of the connector element has a different coefficient of expanding or retracting than the material of the grate bars to assure a water tight connection between adjacent structures.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The inventive concept pertains to swimming pool constructions, particularly it is directed to the overflow gutter concept. The over flow concept is increasingly being used in the United States and other countries. This overflow concept is not only being used in large swimming competition pools but also in leisure and residential pools. The perimeter overflow system is often called, deck level, overflow or wet deck. This type of construction involves a gutter which is located around the whole perimeter of the pool and placed at the deck level of the pool so that water can flow into the gutter and a grating covers the gutter opening which grating is placed at the deck level. The grating has to be rigid and strong enough to accommodate foot traffic near the edge of the pool.

Known gratings have connecting stays that run perpendicular to the pool wall. They are extruded, are somewhat flexible and can handle a radius in a pool that has curves therein. Straight grates straight grates are preferred in pools because they are parallel to the edge of the pool have a tendency the flow of water over the grate because the parallel present an obstacle to the water flow. Gratings are normally 12 inches and observations have shown that in this type of grate, the water travels at most over no more than 3 gaps. This way the water disappears quickly into the gutter below the grating resulting in a much dryer deck and resulting in less falls when bare feet move over the deck. Applicant's prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,968,665 is such a disclosure using grating bars that run parallel to the wall of the pool. However, it has been found that the disclosed construction is rather cumbersome and time consuming.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention simplifies construction of the pool grate to some great extent in that the pool grating and elements thereof have been extruded and are fastened to the pool side edge of the deck. As explained in the prior Patent, the installation of the grate improves the water flow over the grate while the deck surrounding the pool remains much dryer. The nose of the grating facing the pool has a finger grip groove provided therein which groove runs the full perimeter of the pool and aids the persons in the pool to quickly grab a hold of the deck if so desired.

FIG. 1 shows a rectangular pool including the top edge of the pool;

FIG. 2 is a cross section through the grate installed on the top edge;

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of FIG. 2 prior to installation;

FIG. 4 is a connecting piece to connect various length of elements together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a rectangular in ground swimming pool 1 including the top edge 2 whereupon the pool grating will be installed.

FIG. 2 shows the pool grating after it has been installed on top of edge 2 of the pool 1. The basic pool 1 is being constructed of concrete C₁ and has a liner of cement C on top and the pool side of the concrete C₁ to enable various items to be installed or attached thereto such as tile 3 being installed on its pool side surface. There is a drainage gutter placed into the C₁ somewhat near the top edge of the front edge of the deck. Only the pool side wall of the gutter is shown at 26. On top of the deck is installed a wet deck edging profile 4 which at its pool side edge has a downwardly extending overlap 4a, overlapping the top edge of the tile 4. The wet deck edging profile is hollow and has at its top thereof embedded ribs or web imprints 6 which altogether form a slip-proof surface. Adjacent to but just interior from the edge of 6 is a longitudinal recess 5 which will act is a finger grip groove for any swimmer in the pool. This is considered to be quite a safety feature. The wet deck edging profile continues inwardly away from its edge in a flat manner and has upstanding hook ribs 8 thereon with the hook parts facing outwardly. A longitudinal hollow grate bar 7 is placed over the flat area of the wet deck profile and has downwardly extending hook parts 9 thereon with the hooks facing inwardly. The reason for the outwardly 8 and inwardly 9 facing hooks is that the hollow grate may be snap-fitted onto the flat area of the wet deck edging profile. The wet deck edging profile 4 with its flat area may be fastened to the top of the cement C by way of a screw element. This is accomplished by way of a plastic sleeve 10 being embedded in both the concrete C₁ and the cement C at a predetermined location. A lag screw 11 is driven into the sleeve 10. The lag screw 1 has a head 12 with a washer 13 placed thereunder. The screw as well as the washer should be made of rust-proof material, such as stainless steel. Prior to placing the wet deck edging profile 4 onto the top of the cement C, strips of Sikaflex beds 14 and 15 should be placed under and at each end of the wet deck edging profile 4 to water proof and cushion the underside of the wet bed edging profile. Just past and inwardly of the edge of the wet deck edging profile 4 there is placed a grate consisting of a multiple of grate bars 6a and 6b and more. The first grate bar 6a is placed right at the edge of the drainage gutter. The inside wall is shown at 26. The grate bars 6a, 6b and more are connected to each in a lateral manner by connector bars 25, 25₁ etc. to form a complete grate that will span the gutter (only the right side is shown at 26). The tops of the grate bars 6a, 6b and 7 have ribs thereon to prevent slipping because of wet feet.

FIG. 3 is an exploded view of FIG. 1 and no new call outs have been used. It is believed that this FIG. 3 can be fully understood when compared with FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 illustrates a connection element 25 that will connect longitudinal wet deck edging profiles 4 together to accommodate the full length of the pool. It is important that the hollow interiors 16 and 17 of the grate bars 6 and 7 will be devoid of water therein because any accidental water therein will attain a foul smell over any period of time. The connector element 25 is molded from a plastic material having a composition Ethylene-Propylene-Diene-Terpolymer (EPDT). Using this material assures a water-proof connection because the material reacts to temperature changes. When there is a temperature change in the grate bars, the connector bars will also change but to a somewhat greater extent whereby the integrity of the leak-proof connection will stay intact. The connector element 25 has a center piece 18 which conforms exactly to the shape of the wet deck edging profile. The connector element has on both sides in the front grip extensions 19 and 20 and on the rear side grip extensions 21 and 22. The grip extensions 19 and 20 will be pressed into the hollow 16 of the forward grate bar and the grip extensions 21 and 22 will be pressed into the hollow 17 when assembling two longitudinal wet deck edging profiles together. This way, any length of pool can be accommodated.

It can now be seen that the above described pool construction improves the accuracy of the installation. The construction improves the water flow over the grate while the deck surrounding the pool remains much dryer while improving the safety aspect of the users of the pool, especially, with the presence of the finger gripping groove along the edge of the pool. The grate bars disclosed above can easily be extruded because they are made of a plastic material such as PVC.

Claims

1. A grating for a swimming pool constructed of concrete, The grating includes a wet deck edging profile located at a front of said grating facing the pool and at a same height as the level of water in said pool, a hollow grate bar is located at said water level, a finger grip groove is located next to said hollow grate bar in an interior orientation away from said water, said wet deck edging profile continues to extent toward said interior in a flat manner to thereby form a flat extension, a means for fastening is placed through said flat extension and into said concrete, another hollow grate bar is placed over said flat extension and fastened thereto.

2. The grating of claim 1, wherein said means for fastening is a lag screw driven into said concrete.

3. The grating of claim 1, wherein said flat extension has upstanding hooks thereon facing in one direction and said another hollow extension has hooks on its bottom side facing in another direction, whereby, when said hooks are snap-fitted into each other, the another hollow grate bar will be fastened to said flat extension.

4. The grating of claim 1, including a drainage gutter located in said concrete at an interior direction from said wet deck edging profile.

5. The grating of claim 4 including a grating spanning said gutter, said grating having a multiple of grate bars and a multiple of connector bars connecting said grate bars together to form a grid.

6. The grating of claim 1 including a connector element connecting longitudinal grate bars together to extend their lengths.

7. The grating of claim 6, wherein said connector element consists of a central plate having the same top profile as that of said wet deck edging profile.

8. The grating of claim 7, said central plate having grip extension on either side to be pressed into said hollows of said grate bars.

9. The grating of claim 6, wherein the material of said connector element has a different coefficient of expansion or retraction when subjected to temperature changes when compared to the material of the wet deck edging profile.

10. The grating of claim 1, wherein all surfaces of said grating bars have a friction increasing profile thereon.