Patent Application
20150292197
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The present invention relates to door sweeps and door thresholds, also known as weather stripping. More specifically, the invention relates to modified door sweeps having steel sheeting or steel mesh fully embedded in a flexible polymer as to provide an effective barrier between an area—such as a room in a home or a garage—and the outside, by preventing rodent destruction or circumvention of the sweep.
It is well known in the building industry that the lower edges of doors and windows spread more or less from the adjacent face of the threshold, making an opening which admits insects, rodents, cold air, sleet, snow, etc., into the building, room or garage at the floor level. To address this problem, weather strips are used to limit the passage of unwelcome entrants under or between doors and windows. Unfortunately, a weather strip is only efficacious to the extent it remains whole and properly positioned, and rodent degradation is a common hindrance to such efficacy. While current door sealing systems have generally proven to be satisfactory for their applications, each is associated with its share of limitations and almost all suffer from susceptibility to rodent damage, as rodents can effectively chew through most non-steel materials.
Weather stripping generally consists of a sweep, which is located at the bottom of most entry doors or windows to assist in sealing the opening between the door or window and a horizontal surface, and a threshold cap, which makes contact with the door sweep to seal and help prevent water, air and pests from passing beyond the threshold. As rodents chew at the edges of the sweep, the door sweep becomes deformed, losing its shape and ultimately leaving gaps in the seal thus compromising the integrity of the entire seal. This permits water, air and pests to pass beyond the threshold.
What is needed is an inexpensive, practical rodent-resistant version of the common door sweep that can be used on inner doors, entryway doors, garages and windows alike.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, provided is a rodent-resistant, reinforced weather strip that is reliably insusceptible to penetration and, thus, reliably aligns with the target surfaces and seal to prevent water, air and pests from crossing the threshold of a door.
A modified weather strip includes a threshold cap with means for attaching the weather strip to the door, garage or window (generally, the “barrier”) and a sweep, which effectively closes the gap between the barrier and the horizontal surface just below the barrier (generally, the “threshold”). Unlike other commercially available vinyl weather stripping, the sweep of the modified weather strip contains a strip of rodent-resistant material, such as steel mesh or steel sheeting, that is entirely embedded in the polymer and runs the full length of the sweep.
The embodiments described herein are illustrative of the invention, and it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description and drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. It should be further understood that the phraseology and terminology applied herein merely serve the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
In position, the modified weather strip attaches by the threshold cap just above the lower edge of the barrier as to extend the sweep downward, fully covering any opening between the barrier and the threshold and thereby impenetrably sealing off outside elements from crossing the threshold.
As to further discussion of the manner of usage and operation of the present invention, the same should be apparent from the above description. With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of this invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention, the use of which results in a conventional weather strip that prevents rodent degradation. Although the description presented heretofore contains specificities for the benefit of illustration, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments but rather as illustrative examples of some of the several embodiments.
