GB2245297A

GB2245297A - Flood barrier

Info

Publication number: GB2245297A
Application number: GB9103956A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Ivan John Farrow
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1990-02-16
Filing date: 1991-02-16
Publication date: 1992-01-02
Also published as: GB9103956D0

Abstract

A barrier fitted, or adapted for fitment, to a door frame of a building so as to front the door leaf adjacent the door threshold and temporarily block a lower region of the entrance bounded by the door frame and the threshold, comprises an imperforate sheet of water-resistant material fitting, in use, between respective sheet-opposite-end holding means to span the said entrance region in a substantially water-tight manner. The sheet being readily releasable from its in-use position to allow normally substantially uninterrupted entrance to the building through the door; and the sheet-opposite-end, and sheet- bottom-edge, regions of contact between the sheet and the entrance incorporating resilient water-resistant seals. The sheet is made of transparent coloured plastics. In an alternative embodiment the sheet is flexible and used like a roller-blind. A similar sheet is usable for blocking airbrick openings. <IMAGE>

Description

FLOOD BARRIER Field of the Invention The invention relates to flood barriers and is specifically applicable to barriers fitted, or adapted for fitment, to a door frame of a building so as to front the door leaf adjacent the door threshold and temporarily block a lower region of the entrance bounded by the door frame and the threshold.

Such barriers will be defined as barriers "of the kind in question Review of Art known to the Applicant Barriers of the kind in question are known in themselves. Several of the houses at risk from the tidal flooding of the River Ouse in the town of Kings Lynn, for example, have provision adjacent their front doors for simple wooden boards to be slid into place whenever there is a flood risk.

These, however, are not intended to be used alone. They are intended to be fronted by sand bags because they do not incorporate a sufficiently water-tight seal around their opposite-end and bottom edges. Like many premeditated flood preventative means, they are used more in the hope that the flood will go away pretty quickly, than to incorporate any really effective flood preventative construction. Even these, however, do have at least some limited effect. Eventually - and fairly rapidly in reality - the water seeps through the sand bags and then has no problem in breaching the edge-regions of the board to penetrate the door entrance. But most households in Britain are quite unprepared for any such emergency.The recent and still-current flooding of, for example, the houses in the flood plain of the Thames in the Maidenhead, Windsor and Marlow areas is a good illustration of just how unprepared the country as a whole is for these increasingly frequent extreme weather conditions.

Summary of the Invention According to the invention in its broadest aspect, a barrier of the kind in question comprises an imperforate sheet of water-resistant material fitting, in use, between respective sheet-opposite-end holding means to span the said entrance region in a substantially watertight manner in an attempt to prevent flood water penetrating the entrance; the sheet being readily releasable from its in-use position to allow normally substantially uninterrupted entrance to the building through the door; and the sheet-opposite-end, and sheet-bottomedge, regions of contact between the sheet and the entrance incorporating resilient water-resistant seals.

Such a barrier is intended to function in itself as an effective flood deterrent in (for example) domestic houses, without the need for sand bags or other reinforcement. If such reinforcement is provided, of course, then it literally does reinforce the effectiveness of the barrier. But the object of the invention is to provide a barrier which needs no such reinforcement in most instances.

The barrier may comprise a substant;al3ar rigid sheet of material which may optionally be a transDarent plastics sheet and, in that case, is preferably coloured-tinted to minimize the chance of a would-be entrant to the house inadvertently walking into the sheet when the sheet is in its in-use position.

The sheet may slide into and out of its in-use position but it may alterantively - or additionally - hinge into and out of position in front of the door leaf.

The sheet may be ribbed, preferably on at least its back face (ie the face adjacent the front face of the door leaf) to resist any tendency to buckle and hence to detract from the water-tightness of its edge seals under the weight of water pressing against it in use.

Instead of being a substantially rigid sheet, the sheet may comprise an inherently flexible sheet which when not in use is rolled to stow in the manner of a roller blind and which, when required for use, unrolls to span the entrance region; the sheet-oppositeend regions incorporating the necessary seals; and the sheet-bottomedge region of contact either also incorporating such a seal or having its seal effectively constituted by the stretched edge region of the sheet itself.

In any embodiment of the invention, the sheet preferably "slamlocks" into its in-use position.

In such a case, the lock is preferably releasable only from inside the barrier, ie from within the door entrance.

A barrier embodying the invention may further comprise an airbrick cover which, in use, temporarily blocks the normally open airbrick vents conventionally provided at or adjacent ground level in the wall of the building; the airbrick barrier being readily releasable from its in-use position to allow the airbrick to function normally when there is no flood danger; and the regions of contact between the cover and the edges of the airbrick incorporating resilient water-resistent seals.

Such an airbrick cover may be hinged to the wall so as to be kept permanently in place on the outside of the wall. This minimizes the risk of its being lost, damaged in stowage, or otherwise adversely affected by the need to remove it after each usage.

Alternatively, but for the same general reasons, the airbrick cover may be slideable into and out of its in-use place whilst again being normally permanently retained on the wall adjacent the airbrick itself.

These and other possible embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the description which now follows with reference to the drawings.

Brief Description of the Drawings The drawings themselves consist of the following figures: Figures 1 and 2 show a first embodiment of the invention, respectively in front elevation and in plan; Figures 3 and 4 show the construction of an airbrick cover also forming part of this embodiment; Figure 5 shows another embodiment, in diagrammatic perspective; Figures 6 and 7 show respective opposite-edge regions of yet another embodiment. Figures 8, 9 and 10 show an alternative form of sheet for use in the invention.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments The barrier shown in Figures 1 and 2 front the door leaf 11 of a building to span, and temporarily block, a lower region of the entrance bounded by the door frame 12 and the door thershold 13 in an attempt to prevent flood water penetrating the entrance.

An imperforate and essentially rigid sheet of water-resistent material (14) fits, in use, between respective sheet-opposite-end holding means in the form of channels 15 and 16 each of which is screwed to a respective one of the door frame uprights 12.

The sheet 14 slides up and down in the channels 16. Its downward movement is limited by contact with the threshold 13. But all the regions of contact between the sheet 14 and the adjacent channels and door threshold incorporate resilient water-resistent seals which, in this particular embodiment, are compression seals of the kind shown in enlarged detailed in Figure 7.

The sheet-opposite-end seals 17 are fixed inside the channels 15 and 16. The sheet-bottom-edge seal 18 is fixed to the bottom edge of the sheet 14 itself. The sheet 14 can be slid into and out of its illustrated in-use position, compressing the seals 17 and 18 as it does so, to give a substantially water-tight in-use fit around three out of its four edges.

When not required for flood prevention, the sheet 14 is stowed in any convenient place, having been removed from its illustrated positicn to give substantially uninterrupted access to the building through the door. The channels 15 and 16 can stay in place permanently since they need not be unduly obtrusive. They could be painted or stained, for example, to match the door frame members 12 to which they are screwed.

The sheet 14 "slam-locks" into place. In other words, the last amount of its movement automatically engages a latch (not shown) built into each one of the channels 15 and 16. The latch holds the seal 18 in compression but it can be readily released, preferably from inside the door entrance rather than from in front of the sheet 14 and channels 15 and 16, to allow the sheet 14 to be removed.

In Figures 3 and 4 an airbrick cover 19 is again a substantially rigid rectangular sheet of material and, like the sheet 14, slides into place in channels 21 (at each opposite side end region of the sheet) and 22 (along the bottom edge region). These channels are fixed to the wall in which the airbrick - which is not itself shown - is situated. They are fabricated as one stamped-out sheet metal unit in this particular embodiment, although they could be made separately from one another and then fixed into place.

Resilient compression seals 23 run in this instance around all four edge regions of the airbrick surround defined by the channels.

A knob 24 allows the cover 19 to be slid into and out of place, vertically, in similar manner to that described and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 with reference to sheet 14.

Figure 5 shows an alternative form of door entrance barrier, which could be used in conjunction with the airbrick barriers just described.

Here the sheet 14 is an inherently flexible rollable sheet which stows in its rolled state adjacent the right-hand door frame upright 12 of Figure 5. The leading edge 25 of the sheet is bounded by a cylindrical-section hard rubber elongate clip. The housing which holds the rolled sheet adjacent the front edge of the door frame member 12 incorporates a water-resistent seal, so that flood water cannot easily penetrate between the rolled sheet and the adjacent door frame upright. In use, the sheet is unrolled (as shown in chain line in Figure 5) and its bottom edge is stretched around the protruding edge of the door entrance threshold 13 until the rubber clip 25 can be force-fitted into a metal clip-receiving channel 15 fixed to the other door frame upright (not illustrated).

The fit between the rubber clip 25 and the metal channel 15 is a water-tight one. The stretched bottom edge of the sheet 14 in Figure 5 also effects a substantially water-tight seal between itself and the door threshold 13. When not in use, the sheet 14 can simply be unclipped and rolled to stow permanently in its illustrated position adjacent the right-hand door frame upright 12.

Finally in Figures 6 and 7 a hinged substantially rigid sheet 14 is illustrated. Also illustrated are two of the various kinds of seal that could be use in any or all of the necessary water-tight sealing regions of any embodiment of the invention. One of them has already been referred to (the one shown in Figure 7) and, referring back for a moment to Figure 2, another form of seal 26 is shown adjacent the bottom edge of the door leaf 11 to enhance the water-tightness of the entire barrier assembly.

As can be seen from Figures 8, 9 and 10 the sheet 14 may be formed with a pressed out centre region 27. This configuration of sheet 14 strengthens rigidity of the sheet 14 to withstand the pressure of flood waters.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A barrier of the kind in question which comprises: an imperforate sheet of water-resistant material fitting, in use, between respective sheet-opposite-end holding means to span the said entrance region in a substantially water-tight manner in an attempt to prevent flood water penetrating the entrance; the sheet being readily releasable from its in-use position to allow normally substantially uninterrupted entrance to the building through the door; and the sheet-opposite-end, and sheet-bottom-edge, regions of contact between the sheet and the entrance incorporating resilient water-resistant seals.

2. A barrier as claimed in Claim 1 further characterised in that the sheet is adapted to resist any tendency to buckle under the weight of water pressing against it in use.

3. A barrier as claimed in Claim 2, further characterised in that the sheet is ribbed on at least its back face.

4. A barrier as claimed in Claim 2 or Claim 3, further characterised in that the sheet has a pressed out central region.

5. A barrier as claimed in any preceding Claim, further characterised in that the sheet hinges into and out of position in front of the door leaf.

6. A barrier as claimed in any preceding Claim, further characterised in that the sheet "slam locks" into its in-use position.

7. A barrier as claimed in Claim 6, further characterised in that the lock is releasable only from inside the barrier.

8. A barrier as claimed in any preceding Claim, further characterised in that the sheet comprises an inherently flexible sheet which, when not in use, is rolled to stow in the manner of a roller blind and which, when required for use, unrolls to span the entrance region; the sheet-opposite-end regions incorporating the necessary seals and the sheet-bottom-edge region of contact has a seal thereon.

9. A barrier as claimed in any preceding Claim, further characterised in that the sheet is a transparent plastics sheet which is coloured/tinted.

10. A barrier as claimed in any preceding Claim, further Cu#ce characterised in that itlcomprises an air brick cover which, in use, temporarily blocks the normally open air brick vents conventionally provided at Or adjacent ground level in the wall of the building; the air brick barrier being readily releasable from its in-use position to allow the air brick to function normally when there is no flood danger; and the regions of contact between the cover and the edges of the air brick incorporating resilient water-resistant seals.

11. A barrier as claimed in Claim 11, further characterised in that the air brick cover is permanently mounted to the wall yet movable into and out of its in-use place on the outside of the wall.