Covered rain gutter assembly

Abstract

A rain gutter assembly including an overlying cover. A gutter trough is in the form of a channel having an upwardly-facing opening. The cover overlies the channel opening and includes a front edge that is spaced from the front edge of the gutter channel to define a gap therebetween to allow roof runoff to flow around the convex front edge of the cover and into the channel. A series of longitudinally-spaced support brackets are positioned within the gutter channel and support the gutter trough and the cover to provide a rigid gutter assembly. An end cap is provided at each longitudinal end of the gutter channel and overlies both the gutter channel cross section and the space between the gutter channel cross section and the cover, to prevent entry of leaves, twigs, and debris into the channel through the ends of the gutter trough.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a divisional of copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 861,635, entitled “Covered Rain Gutter Assembly,” filed on Apr. 12, 2013, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13 / 398,028, filed on Feb. 16, 2012, entitled “Rain Gutter Cover,” now abandoned, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 463,372, filed on Feb. 16, 2011, and the entire contents of each of those applications is hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if fully rewritten.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a covered rain gutter including a cover that is supported in overlying relationship with an upwardly-facing gutter trough opening. The cover serves to deflect leaves, twigs, and other debris and prevents them from entering the gutter trough and causing gutter clogging, while allowing free and unimp...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

The collected leaves, twigs, and other debris within an open gutter ultimately are carried by the roof runoff to a downspout opening in the gutter trough, which ultimately leads to clogging of the gutter downspout opening, thereby causing filling of the gutter trough with roof runoff and resulting undesired gutter overflow onto the adjacent building wall.

The manual removal of collected leaves, twigs, and debris is an unwelcome and tedious chore—one that is potentially dangerous because it involves climbing a ladder to the building roof line in order to access the upwardly-facing opening of the gutter trough to enable removal of the collected leaves, twigs, and debris, and whatever other material that may be blocking the downspout opening in the gutter trough.

The danger attendant with manual removal of the collected debris arises from the possibility of falls from the ladder if the person doing the debris removal is not careful.

However, many such screening arrangements have the screening element positioned horizontally over the upwardly-facing gutter opening, or at a very slight inclination, thereby allowing a collection of leaves, twigs, and debris on the surface of the screening element, leading to external clogging or blocking of the upwardly-facing gutter trough opening rather than internal gutter trough clogging at a downspout opening.

As a result, the retained leaves can serve to partially block the upwardly-facing gutter opening and thus limit the flow of roof runoff into the gutter trough for collection.

Although several approaches to configuring and supporting a gutter cover in overlying relationship to an upwardly-facing gutter trough opening have been disclosed, those approaches are either cumbersome and time consuming from an installation standpoint, or they are costly in terms of amount of attachment materials needed, or they are not particularly rigid in terms of the rigidity of the overall gutter structure, or the security of its attachment to a building surface.

Images