US2824528A - Through-wall flashing - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 25, 1958 w. H. STOVALL THROUGH-WALL FLASHING Filed June '11, 1953 INVENTOR William Harold Stovoll ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,824,528 Patented Feb. 25, 1958 lice THROUGH-WALL FLASHING William H. Stovall, Richmond, Va.; Savings Bank and Trust Company, administrator of the estate or said Stovall, deceased Application June 11, 1953, Serial No. 361,006

Claims. (Cl. 108-26) This invention relates to flashing for masonry walls and, more particularly, to sectional interlocking throughwall flashing that is permanently adaptable for engagement and disengagement with a sheet material such as that of which a roof is made.

Through-wall flashing has been used in masonry construction for many years. It fundamentally consists of a sheet of waterproof material which is incorporated into a masonry wall within a layer of mortar between two courses of masonry to prevent the downward seepage of moisture through the masonry. This downward seepage of moisture is damaging to the masonry because it causes cracking and damage in freezing weather and also permits the entry of moisture into the building. EX- amples of flashing commonly used which extend completely through the wall are disclosed in the Cheney Patent No. 1,715,000 and the Orth Patent No. 2,182,877. A simple form of interlocking metal flashing is disclosed in Cheney Patent No. 1,871,585. Most of these types of flashing have raised configurations transverse to their longitudinal axis to serve as means for key bonding the mortar under the flashing to the mortar above the flashing thereby eliminating any possibility of longitudinal or lateral shifting of the masonry due to the presence of the flashing.

The use of the various types of through-wall flashing known to the art having transverse ribs or configurations for the purpose of key bonding two masonry layers together has been unsatisfactory in the respect that when a protruding portion of the flashing extends from the wall and is to be bent down to overlie a roof layer or window opening, the usual vicissitudes of a building operation result in repeated bendings and straightenings. This causes fatigue breaks at the stress concentration points located at the transverse ribs. Even after an installation is complete, it may be necessary to bend the throughwall flashing back and forth in order to remove sheet material of which a roof is made from under the flashing for replacement or repair. This fact creates the necessity of inspecting the flashing after each installation or repair job and soldering up each small separation that has developed along the edge from the bending.

I have designed an improved through-wall flashing retaining the valuable transverse rib construction, which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and easy to install and use and which eliminates the difliculties attendant with the use of the unimproved types of flashing referred to. 1 iv invention provides interlocking throughwall flashim that can be produced in sections of relatively short length and has an interlocking means which permits the mechanica joining together of the sections :so that there will be no moisture seepage through the jointures without the necessity of soldering the joint. In addition, it provides a. flashing which has a continuous uniform longitudinal groove or channel running along one edge so that roofin material or other sheet material may be inserted into and removed from the continuous ill) longitudinal channel without the necessity of bending the flashing.

The invention, therefore, comprises a flashing for masonry walls which is made up of a series of interlocking sections of flashing extending completely through the wall. Each section has incorporated within it transverse key bonding means to bond together the layer of mortar into which the flashing is incorporated and a longitudinal channel along one edge of each section into which a layer of sheet material may be inserted and removed. The channel of each section has a cut-away portion at each end so that the adjacent uncut-away end of the adjoining section will fit right into the cut-away portion when the sections are interlocked thereby producing a uniform channel along the entire length of the interlocked sections of flashing.

Specific embodiments of my invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. l is a perspective view of an individual section of my new interlocking flashing;

Fig. 2 is a partially cut-away perspective view showing in greater detail the cut-away portion of the channel;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional View taken along line 33 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view showing a channel construction alternate in cross-section but similar in cut-away to that shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

Referring now to the drawing in greater detail wherein like characters of reference denote similar parts in all the figures, Fi 1 shows a complete individual section 1 of my new flashing. The section 1 is made of a sheet material such as sheet aluminum or copper and has impressed upon it transverse configurations such as 2, 3, 4 so that when the section is imbedded in mortar the configurations will firmly key bond the flashing within the mortar and the mortar layers both above and below the flashing will be key bonded to each other. The specific key bonding structure illustrated is shown in U. S. Patent 1,715,000 and the interlocking between sections is similar to that shown in U. S. Patent 1,871,585. My invention, however, is not limited to these structures, but may be used with other transverse-ribbed flashing, for example, that shown in U. S. Patent 2,182,877.

A crimped flange 5 along one transverse edge of each section is provided to engage with the correspondingly crimped rib 6 spaced inward from and adjacent the other transverse edge of the immediately adjoining interlocking section (not shown on the drawing). On the longitudinal edge of each section 1, adapted to engage the roof or other sheet material 7 is a longitudinal channel aa which will form a part of a continuous channel extending the complete length of the flashing when the necessary numbers of sections are interlocked to produce the desired length. This uniform and continuous channel is produced by cutting out a portion L minus X of the channel aa' at one end of each section 1 so that the uncut-away portion L of the channel a-n' of the next section will be accommodated when interlocked.

The number of key bonding configurations such as 2, 3 or 4 is not a critical part of the invention and any number or size of these transverse configurations can be used as desired. However, in order to attain a proper interlock that will be a good mechanical jointure and keep moisture from penetrating through the joint to the lower masonry it is advantageous to form the interlock by making the uncut-away portion L of the channel a-a and the cut-away portion L'X the same dimensions. So long as the length L+X as shown in Fig. l is greater than the length L the sections will interlock properly and the channel aa will be uniform and continuous throughout the length of the. entire flashing.

Fig. 3 shows the most advantageous form of my invention having the channel a on the outside of the flashing section 1 so that sheet material 7 is easily inserted into the channel a or removed when it is desirable to do so. i

Fig. 4 shows another embodiment of my invention which has the channel a on the inside and the sheet material 7 is brought up in the inside and engaged with the section 1 by bending over the end of the sheet material 9 and hooking it in the channel a.

In the construction of a masonry wall flashing section such as 1 are interlocked by engaging the downwardly crimped flange 5 with downwardly crimped rib 6 in such fashion that the uncut-away portion L of channel a-a' of one section fills the cut-away space L'X of the adjacent section. The length L overlaps the joint and provides a moisture-proof mechanical joint and eliminates the necessity of solder. The interlocked sections, such as 1, are then incorporated into a masonry wall. The edge of sheet material 9 such as roofing material or side flashing may then be inserted into the channel an throughout the length of the flashing and removed and replaced without the necessity of repeatedly bending the flashing back and forth. This eliminates completely the disadvantages of the commonly used types of flashing having transversely disposed key bonding means which develop separations at the points of multi-thickness from bending and rebending when the sheet material 7 is installed or removed.

While I have described new and novel through-wall interlocking flashing, it is understood that the drawing and description are to be interpreted in an illustrative rather than a limiting sense, since various modifications may be made within the spirit and scope of the invention defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A flashing for a masonry wall comprising interlocking sections of flashing, each of said sections having an embedded portion for extending substantially through said wall and a downwardly extending counterflashing portion substantially perpendicular to the embedded portion, a channel opening downwardly and extending longitudinally along the counterflashing portion adapted to receive an inserted edge of sheet material, said channel having a segment cut out of one end thereof of L length, S'fold key-bonding means extending substantially trans verse to said wall across the embedded portion for'keybonding the adjoining masonry layers together and continuously across the counterflashing portion, the S-fold key-bonding means at the uncut-away end of the section being of L width and the S-fold key-bonding means at the cut-away end of the section being greater than L width and having a downwardly disposed flange extending across the entire section at the end thereof adapted to interlock with the first S-fold of the adjacent flashing section.

2. A section of interlocking through-wall flashing for a masonry wall comprising an embedded portion for extending substantially through said wall and a downwardly extending counterflashing portion substantially perpendicular to the embedded portion, a channel opening downwardly and extending longitudinally along the counterflashing portion adapted to receive an inserted edge of sheet material, said channel having a segment cut out of one end thereof of L length, S-fold key-bonding means extending substantially transverse to said wall across the embedded portion for key-bonding the adjoining masonry layers together and continuously across the counterflashing portion, the S-fold key-bonding means at the uncut-away end of the section being of L width and the S-fold key-bonding means at the cut-away end of the section being greater than L width and having a downwardly disposed flange extending across the entire section at the end thereof adapted to interlock with the first S-fold of the adjacent flashing section.

3. A building construction comprising, in combination, a masonry wall; an edge of sheet material; a flashing of interlocked sections, each of said sections having an embedded portion for extending substantially through said wall and a downwardly extending counterflashing portion substantially perpendicular to the embedded portion, a channel opening downwardly and extending longitudinally along the counterflashing portion adapted to receive an inserted edge of sheet material, said channel having a segment cut out of one end thereof of L lengths, S-fold keybonding means extending substantially transverse to said wall across the embedded portion for key-bonding the adjoining masonry layers together and continuously across the counterflashing portion, the S-fold key-bonding means at the uncut-away end of the section being of L width and the 3-fold key-bonding means at the cut-away end of the section being greater than L width and having a downwardly disposed flange extending across the entire section at the end thereof adapted to interlock with the first S fold of the adjacent flashing section.

4-. A sheet material flashing structure for use in masonry walls comprising a plurality of similar interlocking and overlapping sections, each of said sections being formed from a continuous sheet and including an embeddable portion normally extending generally horizontally substantially through the wall embedded in the mortar of a joint thereof, a counterflashing portion normally extending generally vertically and downward from said embeddable portion along a face of the wall, S-fold for key bonding the mortar layers above and below the flashing extending continuously across both said embeddable portion and said counterflashing portion normally generally transverse to the wall, and a channel normally extending generally vertically having substantially parallel sides formed in said counterflashing portion by bending the material thereof along one or more bend lines substantially perpendicular to said folds, all of the material forming said counterflashing portion up to the bend line nearest the embeddable portion being cut-away for a pre determined distance from the overlapping end of each section whereby the channel on each said overlapping end is provided with a recess to receive the unreccssed end of the channel of the adjacent and underlying section and to form therewith a continuous substantially uniform channel the entire length of the flashing structure, and the distanee from the underlying end of a section to the 8-fold in said section adjacent thereto being substantially L, the distance for which the counterflashing portion is cut'away from the overlapping end of a section being substantially L, and the distance from the overlapping end of a section to the 8-fold in said section adjacent thereto being greater than L by at least the width of an S-fold, whereby an overlapping section may be interlocked with an adjacent underlying section without disturbing the latter or distorting the former.

5. A flashing structure according to claim 4 in which the edge of each section at the underlying end is formed with an upwardly extending crimped flange continuously thereacross and the edge of each section at the overlapping end is formed with a downwardly extending crimped flange continuously thereacross.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,715,000 Cheney May 28, 1929 1,728,955 Cheney Sept. 24, 1929 1,871,585 Cheney Aug. 16, 1932 1,947,131 Levow et al. Feb. 13, 1934 2,182,877 Orth Dec. 12, 1939 2,469,840 Orth May 10, 1949 2,641,203 Coleman June 9, 1953

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