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[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]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.[0003]2. Description of the Related Art[0004]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.[0005]Rain gutters typically are open in an upward direction and will collect leaves and other wind-blown debris, in addition to ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009]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.

Problems solved by technology

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.

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.

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.

Images