RAIN GUTTER COVER

Abstract

A cover panel to overlie the upwardly-facing opening of a rain gutter trough to block the entry into the trough of leaves and other debris which would otherwise block or restrict the flow of water from a downspout opening formed in the gutter trough. The cover includes a curved outermost end that overlies and is spaced from a front edge of the gutter trough and around which water flows into the gutter trough. The cover also includes a plurality of longitudinally-extending, spaced, parallel ridges for spreading a substantially uniform flow of water over and across the upper surface of the cover, and a plurality of longitudinally-extending rows of openings on the downstream side of the flow path of water over the cover after it has passed the ridges, to allow water to fall through the openings and into the gutter trough.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a rain gutter cover for deflecting leaves and other debris from entering the rain gutter trough, to thereby allow unimpeded surface water runoff from a building roof without clogging of the gutter or of the associated downspout openings by leaves and other debris.

2. Description of the Related Art

Rain gutters for collecting rain runoff from pitched building roofs are generally U-shaped open troughs that are arranged along the roofline of the building, and in are oriented to catch the surface water that runs off from the roof and guide it to a downspout. Such gutters are usually connected to a fascia board on the building and include one or more downspouts to carry away the roof water runoff and direct it in a desired direction away from the building.

Rain gutters typically are open in an upward direction and will collect leaves and other wind-blown debris, in addition to the rainwater runoff from the roof. The accumulation of leaves and other debris within the gutter ultimately leads to gutter and downspout opening clogging, thereby causing undesired gutter overflow over the front edge of the gutter and along the adjacent building wall. Restoration of the proper water collection and disposal function of such upwardly-open gutters requires that the collected leaves and debris be manually removed, an operation that usually requires climbing a ladder and physically removing the collected matter, which is a tedious, time-consuming process, and one that is potentially dangerous because it involves climbing a ladder to the building roof line and could lead to a fall from the ladder.

Various gutter arrangements have been proposed and developed over the years in an effort to solve the rain-gutter-cleaning problem by blocking the entry into the gutter of leaves and debris. One approach involves the installation over the gutter top opening of a screen or mesh material. The screen or mesh has a number of small openings that are so sized as to allow water to enter the gutter trough while screening out or blocking leaves and other debris from entering the gutter. However, many such screening arrangements have the screening element positioned horizontally over the gutter top opening, or at a very slight inclination, thereby allowing the collection of leaves and debris on the surface of the screening, leading to external gutter clogging rather than internal gutter clogging. Further, the stems of leaves often extend into the screening openings, thereby serving to retain the leaves on the surface of the screening material, preventing their being blown off by the wind, and leading to partial or complete blockage of the screen surface and preventing the full flow of roof runoff to the downspout openings in the gutter base panel.

Another approach that has been developed to block the entry into gutters of leaves and debris is a flat cover that overlies the gutter top opening. The cover is intended to serve as a deflector of leaves and other debris so that they either are blown off the cover by the wind, or they fall over the front edge of the gutter, while allowing the rain water to flow over and around the outer edge of the cover and into the gutter for collection and disposal. Although several approaches to configuring and supporting a gutter cover have been disclosed, those approaches are either cumbersome and time consuming from an installation standpoint, are costly in terms of the amount of attachment materials needed, or are not particularly rigid in terms of the rigidity of the overall gutter structure or the rigidity of its attachment to a building surface.

Accordingly, there is a need for an improved rain gutter cover for deflecting leaves and debris from entering the gutter trough, and that does not involve the shortcomings of the previously-disclosed arrangements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly stated, in accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a rain gutter cover is provided for deflecting leaves and other debris from entering the gutter, to thereby allow unimpeded surface water runoff from a building roof without clogging of the gutter or the associated downspout openings by the leaves and other debris. More particularly, the present invention relates to a rain gutter cover that includes several rows of longitudinally-extending, flow-velocity-reducing ridges to decrease the water flow velocity over the upper surface of the cover, and several rows of openings in the surface of the cover downstream of the flow-reducing ridges to allow a portion of the surface water that flows over the cover upper surface to pass through the openings in the upper surface and to directly enter the gutter trough while the remainder of the water flow passes around a curved front lip of the cover and into the gutter.

The cover overlies the upwardly-facing gutter opening and is attached to and supported at an inner longitudinal end by the building fascia board and at an outer longitudinal end by brackets that are positioned within the interior of the gutter and are spaced along the length of the gutter. The cover includes a plate-like cover body that overlies the upwardly-facing gutter opening and is spaced above the gutter opening and is inclined relative to a horizontal plane to allow water to flow down the cover body away from the building wall and over a curved outer end of the cover and into the gutter. A rear wall of the cover includes a panel that extends upwardly along a rear edge of the cover body to define a contact surface for contacting and for connection of the panel of the rear wall of the cover to the fascia board. An inturned front portion of the cover defines the curved outer lip of the cover body and terminates at a longitudinally-extending inner edge for contact with and connection to the gutter brackets at a point between the cover outer end and the cover rear wall. The inner edge of the curved outer end of the cover body is secured to the brackets by screws. The upwardly-facing surface of the cover includes several rows of parallel, longitudinally-extending, flow-velocity-reducing ridges and several parallel, longitudinally-extending rows of longitudinally aligned openings in the surface of the cover that are downstream of the flow-velocity-reducing ridges, in the direction of water flow, to allow a portion of the water that flows over the outer, inclined surface of the cover to pass through the cover openings and to directly flow into and enter the gutter trough while the water that does not pass through the cover openings flows to and passes around the curved outer end of the cover and falls into the gutter trough. The surface openings of adjacent longitudinally aligned rows of openings are preferably longitudinally offset from each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The structure, operation, and advantages of the present invention will become further apparent upon consideration of the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary front perspective view of a rain gutter assembly attached to a building fascia board and including a gutter cover in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, but without the cover openings and without an end cap that closes off the end of the trough;

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the gutter cover shown in FIG. 1 and including flow-velocity-reducing ridges and cover surface openings;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the gutter cover shown in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a top view of the gutter cover shown in FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the drawings, and particularly to FIG. 1 thereof, there is shown an embodiment of a rain gutter assembly 10 that includes a gutter cover 36 in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Gutter assembly 10 is mounted against a vertically-extending fascia board 12 positioned on a side of a building 14 that includes a sloping roof surface 16. The lower edge 18 of roof surface 16 extends outwardly beyond the surface of fascia board 12 a predetermined distance, of the order of from about 1 in. to about 2 in., and gutter assembly 10 is positioned below roof lower edge 18 to catch rain water runoff from the roof.

Gutter assembly 10 includes a generally U-shaped cross section to define an open-top channel member or trough 20 that includes a rear wall 22, a bottom wall 24, and a front wall 26. Rear wall 22 is substantially flat and is adapted to lie against the outer surface of fascia board 12 and to be secured thereto by a number of spaced fasteners such as screws, nails, or the like. Bottom wall 24 is shown as substantially flat, but it could be curved, if desired, and it extends outwardly substantially horizontally from the lowermost edge of rear wall 22, in a direction away from fascia board 12, and as shown, it is substantially perpendicular to rear wall 22. Front wall 26 extends in a generally upward direction from the outermost edge of bottom wall 24. As can be seen from FIG. 1, front wall 26 can have a vertical extent that is less than that of rear wall 22.

Front wall 26 of trough 20 of gutter assembly 10 can have a cross section in the general form of a flattened “S,” as shown in FIG. 1, or it can be straight and extend upwardly parallel to or inclined relative to rear wall 22, or it can have any other desired convenient shape. The uppermost end 30 of front wall 26 includes an inwardly-extending lip 32 that terminates at a reentrant edge 34, or a loop-shaped flange that extends in a generally outward direction to define a hook-shaped structure.

Gutter channel or trough 20 can be formed from various well-known materials, including metals such as copper, aluminum alloy, or the like, as well as from plastics. An advantageous material is aluminum alloy sheet that can conveniently be supplied in the form of a coil formed from a narrow, elongated aluminum alloy sheet of a thickness of the order of about 0.032 in. The sheet can be formed into a gutter on-site by uncoiling the aluminum alloy sheet and drawing it through a suitable forming die to bend the sheet into an elongated, generally U-shaped trough or channel such as the form of channel or trough 20 shown in FIG. 1. Using such aluminum alloy coils enables the formation of a continuous, seamless gutter trough section of any desired length. When made from a plastic material, such as polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, or the like, the gutter trough can be pre-formed by extrusion of the plastic material through a suitably shaped extrusion die, cut into desired lengths, and transported to the building site. However, such plastic gutters might not be seamless, depending upon the lengths of the individual gutter sections and the length of the roof edge under which they are to be mounted, and suitable connection arrangements are needed to connect end-to-end troughs to provide a leak-proof connection.

As shown in FIG. 1, gutter assembly 10 includes gutter cover 36 that is secured to fascia board 12 by a plurality of fasteners 28. The fasteners pass through spaced openings formed in upwardly-extending inner edge 112 of gutter cover 36. Additionally, a plurality of support brackets 38, only one of which is shown in FIG. 1, are positioned within gutter trough 20 and are spaced from each other along the length of gutter assembly 10 at predetermined intervals. Support brackets 38 can be molded plastic and are connected to fascia board 12 to support gutter trough 20 and gutter cover 36 and to provide a strong, rigid gutter assembly. The connection of gutter cover 36 to brackets 38 is by means of suitable connectors, such as screws 108.

Gutter cover 36, which serves as a deflector of leaves, branches, twigs, and other forms of debris that could block or restrict flow of water through the gutter trough downspout opening, includes a substantially flat, elongated, sloping, plate-like panel that overlies gutter trough 20. The upper surface 120 of cover panel 36 extends outwardly from upwardly-extending inner edge 112 that is attached to fascia board 12 to a cover panel outermost end 104 that is spaced outwardly from fascia board 12. Cover upper surface 120 overlies substantially the entire upwardly-facing opening of gutter trough 20. Cover panel outermost end 104 is a horizontally-outwardly-facing, convexly-curved portion that defines a front outer end that has an outermost surface that is spaced from fascia panel 12 to overlie gutter trough lip 32 to thereby prevent debris from falling into trough 20. Outermost end 104 is spaced vertically above gutter trough lip 32 a predetermined distance to define a gap to allow water to flow into the gap. The gap defines an opening that can be of the order of from about ¼ in. to about ¾ in., which is sufficiently large to permit the flow of water around the cover lip and to allow entry of the water into the gutter, but also is sufficiently small to prevent the entry into the gutter trough of leaves and other undesired wind-blown debris.

Cover 36 includes a lowermost outer end defined by a longitudinally-extending end panel 106 that is bent to extend in a generally downward direction, toward gutter trough bottom wall 24. End panel 106 is a flat panel that is secured to respective support brackets 38, such as by screws 108, and includes a lower edge 110 that is received on respective stop surfaces formed on support brackets 38. The stop surfaces allow accurate positioning of end panel 106 of cover 36 so that cover forward end 104 is uniformly spaced from gutter upper end 30 along the entire length of the gutter trough when the gutter is fully assembled. The innermost end of cover 36 adjacent to building 14 includes upwardly-extending inner edge 112 that defines an inner end panel that is secured to fascia board 12 by a series of spaced screws 28. The inner end panel of cover 36 is in the form of a narrow panel or flange that extends upwardly from upper surface 120, relative to gutter trough 20.

Gutter cover 36 can be made from the same types of materials as gutter trough 20. As shown, cover 36 includes several longitudinally-extending, spaced, parallel, step-like ridges 118 formed in the upper surface of cover 36 and that extend upwardly along the length of the cover. Ridges 118 serve to slow the rate of flow of water over the upper surface 120 of cover 36, and to thereby spread some of the water to flow laterally over upper surface 120 in order for the flow of water to be distributed substantially uniformly along the length of the cover. After passage over ridges 118, the water flows downwardly over and around forward outer end 104 of cover 36. As it flows over outer end 104 the water tends to remain in contact with the curved surface at outer end 104 of cover 36 by the effect of the surface tension of the water whereby it tends to adhere to outer end 104, and to pass around the surface of outer end 104 toward end panel 106 and lower edge 110, whereupon it falls into gutter trough 20 by the force of gravity.

Cover 36 also includes several longitudinally-extending, laterally-spaced rows 122 of aligned, generally rectangular openings 124 that are not shown in FIG. 1 but are visible in FIGS. 2-4. Rectangular openings 124 have major and minor axes, and the major axes of the openings in a row are aligned with each other to be coaxial. FIG. 2 shows three longitudinally-extending ridges 118, and four longitudinally-extending, laterally-spaced, parallel rows 122 of spaced, generally rectangular openings 124. As can be seen in FIGS. 2 and 4, the generally rectangular openings 124 of adjacent rows 122 are longitudinally offset from each other. However, the longitudinal ends of the openings 124 of each row overlap the longitudinal ends of the openings 124 of the adjacent rows 122, so that a portion of the water flowing over the upper surface 120 of cover 36 passes into an opening 124. Thus, the flowing water does not have an unimpeded, continuous, straight and free flow path over the rows of openings formed in upper surface 120 of cover 36 as the water flows from longitudinal ridges 118 toward cover outer end 104.

As best seen in FIG. 3, each of the generally rectangular openings 124 includes a downwardly-extending guide panel 126 that is inclined relative to the upper surface 120 of the cover 36. Guide panels 126 serve by surface tension to guide the water that passes into the generally rectangular openings 124 and to direct it toward the inner surface of cover 36 adjacent to lower edge 110, whereupon the water flows into gutter trough 20. Guide panels 126 can be formed by a stamping operation that simultaneously makes cuts in the cover to form the opposed smaller edges of openings 124 and also the one of the longer edges of the openings that are closest to the outer end 104 of the cover, and then bends the cut portions of the openings inwardly about an axis defined by the longer edges of the openings that lie closest to the ridges in order to form the respective inwardly-directed guide panels 126. The uppermost surfaces of the guide panels serve as flow guide surfaces by virtue of the adhesion of the flowing water to the guide panels, to induce inward flow of the water toward gutter trough 20 and to carry a greater portion of the flowing water into the openings 124 than would flow therethrough if the entire generally rectangular openings did not include the downwardly inclined guide panels, because there would then be no adhesion-based inward flow effect, but merely the gravity effect acting on the water. The water that does not pass into the openings 124 continues on to the outermost end 104 to flow therearound and into gutter trough 20.

Although not shown in the drawings, an assembled gutter would also include end caps at each longitudinal end of the gutter trough, to prevent water flow laterally outwardly from the longitudinal ends of the gutter trough, so that the water flows into a downspout opening that is formed in the trough. The gutter end caps typically include an upper edge that extends horizontally from the gutter upper end 30 rearwardly to the gutter rear wall 22. For a gutter assembly that includes a cover 36, a suitable cover panel end cap can be provided to supplement the gutter end cap and would conform with the shape of the opening between the gutter end cap upper edge and the longitudinal end of the cover panel. There would therefore be no side openings whereby leaves or other debris could enter the gutter channel and clog the downspout openings. Instead of a two-piece end cap, the end cap can be formed in a single piece, such as by injection molding of plastic material, to conform in shape with that of the gutter assembly lateral openings at their longitudinal ends.

Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Accordingly, it is intended to encompass within the appended claims all such changes and modifications that fall with the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A cover panel for overlying a rain gutter trough, said cover panel comprising: an elongated sheet of substantially rigid material, the sheet having an upper surface and a lower surface and including a longitudinally-extending rear edge panel for connection to at least one of a building wall surface adjacent to a rain water runoff region and a gutter trough rear wall, and including a convexly-curved front surface, wherein the rear edge panel and the cover front surface are spaced from each other a distance that corresponds substantially with a gutter trough width over which the cover panel is adapted to be positioned in inclined, overlying relationship; a plurality of spaced, substantially parallel, longitudinally-extending ridges formed on the upper surface of the cover panel and spaced from the cover rear edge panel; and a plurality of spaced, substantially parallel, longitudinally-extending rows of spaced, aligned apertures positioned between a lowermost ridge and the cover front surface for allowing at least a portion of rain water that flows over the upper surface of the cover to flow through the apertures and into the gutter trough.

2. A cover panel in accordance with claim 1, wherein the apertures are rectangular.

3. A cover panel in accordance with claim 2, wherein the apertures have a major axis and a minor axis, and the apertures in a row have their major axes aligned with each other.

4. A cover panel in accordance with claim 1, wherein apertures in adjacent rows are longitudinally offset from each other.

5. A cover panel in accordance with claim 4, wherein apertures in adjacent rows at least partially overlap each other in the longitudinal direction so that water flowing over the cover upper surface and toward the front surface encounters and flows over at least one aperture.

6. A cover panel in accordance with claim 1, wherein the cover panel includes three ridges.

7. A cover panel in accordance with claim 1, wherein the cover panel includes four rows of apertures.

8. A cover panel in accordance with claim 1, wherein the apertures include respective downwardly-extending guide panels that are inclined relative to the cover upper surface for guiding into a downward direction water that flows into the openings.

9. A cover panel in accordance with claim 8, wherein the guide panels extend from longitudinal edges of the apertures that are on upstream sides of the apertures, relative to the direction of water flow over the upper surface of the cover.

10. A cover panel for overlying a rain gutter trough, said cover panel comprising: an elongated sheet of substantially rigid material, the sheet having an upper surface and a lower surface and including a longitudinally-extending rear edge panel for connection to at least one of a building wall surface adjacent to a rain water runoff region and a gutter trough rear wall, and including a convexly-curved front surface, wherein the rear edge panel and the cover front surface are spaced from each other a distance that corresponds substantially with a gutter trough width over which the cover panel is adapted to be positioned in inclined, overlying relationship; three spaced, substantially parallel, longitudinally-extending ridges formed on the upper surface of the cover panel and spaced from the cover rear edge panel; and four spaced, substantially parallel, longitudinally-extending rows of spaced, aligned apertures positioned between a lowermost ridge and the cover front surface for allowing at least a portion of rain water that flows over the upper surface of the cover to flow through the apertures and into the gutter trough, wherein the apertures are rectangular and have a major axis and a minor axis, and the apertures in a row have their major axes aligned with each other, and wherein apertures in adjacent rows are longitudinally offset from each other and at least partially overlap each other in the longitudinal direction so that water flowing over the cover upper surface and toward the front surface encounters and flows over at least one aperture.