Patent Application
20050279036
The present invention relates to improvements in eavestroughs or gutters and more particularly, relates to a corner piece for use with eavestrough guards.
Eavestroughs are commonly used with practically all residences as well as with many other buildings; they serve to collect rainwater runoff from the roof and forward the water to be discharged at a desired location. Normally, the rainwater is passed to a down spout where it is directed away from the building foundation to thereby minimize the possibility of the rainwater seeping back into the building.
One problem with conventional eavestroughs is the accumulation of undesired material therein. Thus, many residences and other buildings have trees thereabout and leaves can accumulate in the eavestroughs. Other materials such as pine needles, twigs, roofing shingle particles, etc can also collect in the gutter which in time can lead to blockages thereof. These blockages will cause the rainwater to flow over the edge of the gutters and thus cause damage to the lawn or foundation. It has also been known it the art for the gutter or down spout to become clogged with leaves and then freeze causing damage to the gutter system. In order to overcome this problem, eavestroughs must be routinely cleaned to remove the debris. In many residences, the roof is at such a height that it would be dangerous for the home owner to attempt to do so and therefore the job must be contracted out at a substantial expense to the home owner.
In order to prevent this problem, it has been proposed in the art to use various types of guards or other means to overcome the need for cleaning. Thus, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,684 discloses a cage type spout strainer device which is placed into the upper end of a down spout and which is meant to prevent leaves and other larger foreign material from entering the down spout. However, this does not prevent foreign matter from entering the eavestroughs and thus, regular maintenance must be performed to remove leaves or other extraneous foreign material therein.
It has also been proposed in the art to utilize a shield or a guard which consists of an apertured material and which fits over the top of the eavestroughs to permit the passage of rainwater while barring the passage of extraneous material into the eavestroughs. However, many of these guards do not function as desired and thus access must still be had to the eavestroughs for cleaning purposes.
Other proposals have included relatively complex structures which are mounted for movement such that they may be emptied when desired. Also proposed in the prior art are arrangements wherein a cover has an outer edge which curls downwardly and the water flow follows the curved portion due to the surface tension of the water and thereafter cascades into the eavestroughs. The eavestrough is thus protected from leaves and the like entering therein. However, this concept suffers from the fact that when the volume of the water becomes sufficiently large, the surface tension is insufficient to cause all the water to flow into the gutter. The rainwater will then overflow and cause the damages set forth above.
It is also known in the art to provide a gutter guard such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,388, the gutter guards having a common inventorship with the present invention.
When installing gutter guards such as shown in the above identified US Patent, the corners must be manually cut prior to installation. This naturally is somewhat time consuming.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a corner piece suitable for use with apertured guards for eavestroughs and which corner piece occupies a minimum of shipping space while at the same time being able to be formed into a corner on site.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a corner piece for a gutter having an inner wall adjacent a building structure and an outer wall with a bottom wall extending between the inner wall and the outer wall, the corner piece comprising first and second members each of the first and second members having first and second longitudinally extending sides, each of the first and second members having first and second ends, each of the first and second members having respective central apertured portions extending between respective ones of the first and second sides, and attachment means securing the first and second members together adjacent a corner formed proximate one of the sides and one of the end walls, the arrangement being such that the first and second members can pivot with respect to each other from a first position wherein the longitudinally extending sides of first and second members are substantially longitudinally aligned and a second position wherein the longitudinally extending sides of the first and second members are substantially perpendicular to each other.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided, in combination, a gutter having a gutter inner wall adjacent a building structure, a gutter outer wall, and a gutter bottom wall extending between the inner wall and the outer wall, the inner wall, the outer wall, and the bottom wall defining an open top gutter, and a corner piece for covering the open top gutter, the corner piece comprising first and second members, each of the first and second members having first and second longitudinally extending sides extending along the gutter inner wall and the gutter outer wall respectively, each of the first and second members having first and second ends, each of the first and second members having respective central apertured portions extending between respective ones of the first and second sides, and attachment means securing the first and second members together adjacent a corner formed proximate the first longitudinally extending sides.
According to the present invention, the preformed corner will, as above stated, comprise first and second members which are pivotably connected together. This arrangement permits the corner to be shipped in a more compact form and then easily installed on the gutter.
The corner piece is preferably formed of a sheet like material and may be formed either of a plastic or metallic material. It suffices to say that the use of such materials is well known in the art.
The corner piece of the present invention may be used in conjunction with the type of gutter guards shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,388, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference. However, they may also be used with many other types of gutter guards, or alone, as desired.
The pattern of apertures within gutter guards may be of any desired sufficient to permit drainage. The pieces may be secured together by any suitable means including embossing, mechanical fasteners, etc.
Having thus generally described the invention, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings illustrating an embodiment thereof, in which:
Referring to the drawings in greater detail and by reference characters thereto, a corner piece suitable for use on an inner corner is generally designated by reference numeral 10.
Corner piece 10 is designed to be used at a corner formed in a gutter or eavestrough and a typical arrangement is shown in
Corner piece 10 includes a first member generally designated by reference numeral 12 and a second member generally designated by reference numeral 14.
First member 12 has a central aperture portion 16 which has a plurality of apertures 17 extending therethrough. Preferably these apertures are arranged as shown and discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,427,388.
First member 12 includes an inner side generally designated by reference numeral 18 and which has a vertical sidewall 20 as may be seen in
Second member 14 likewise includes a central aperture portion 28 having a plurality of apertures 30 therein. At inner side 32, there is provided a vertical sidewall 34 while along outer side 36, there is provided a vertical sidewall 38 terminating in an outwardly extending flange 40. First member 12 terminates in a first member inner end edge 42 and a first member outer end edge 46. Similarly, second member 14 terminates in a second member inner end edge 44 and a second member outer end edge 48. The arrangement is such that inner end edges 42, 44 are located proximate each other while the outer end edges 46, 48 are at the distal ends of their perspective members. As it will be noted, inner end edges 42 and 44 extend at an angle of 45° with respect to their respective side edges. First member 12 and second member 14 are secured together by means of embossing 50.
As shown in
As described above, corner piece 10 is used in conjunction with an inner corner of a gutter or an eavestrough. The corner piece, may equally well be used with an outer corner and such a corner piece is shown in
It will be understood that the above described embodiments are for purposes of illustration only and that changes or modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
