WO1991014840A1

WO1991014840A1 - A roofer's safety aid

Info

Publication number: WO1991014840A1
Application number: PCT/GB1990/000454
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ray Digweed
Original assignee: Ray Digweed
Priority date: 1990-03-27
Filing date: 1990-03-27
Publication date: 1991-10-03

Abstract

A roofer's safety aid consisting of a freestanding seat with adjustable leg heights allowing the seat to sit astride a roof hip or ridge, because the legs sit firmly in the hollow of adjacent roof tiles such that angles of leg emplacement prevent the seat from falling. All four legs (1) can contain inner metallic tubes that telescope and are lockable at varying heights and have rubber non-slip pads (6) as feet. Seat perforations permit air circulation in hot weather and drainage of rain in bad weather. Relocation of the device is fast and easy during work, and the lightweight design allows one-handed carriage up and down ladders. A roof worker has full freedom of movement safely. Faster completion of the work with less fatigue for the roofer and no time wasted attaching equipment to building or scaffolding has obvious advantages. This simple but fundamental invention concept achieves major improvements in speed, safety, convenience and comfort for the worker and hence the employer. Some extra minor modifications permit the device to be used on old roofs having slate and other tiling materials, these include a central leg with large wide rubber cushion fitting over an entire hip or ridge tile and swivel leg atttachments with large surface area rubber pads to spread weight load, of merit with any tile material.

Description

A ROOFER'S SAFETY AID

This invention relates to a simple, freestanding device whereby a roofer can work in comfort and safety when replacing hip or ridge tiles and repointing chimneys. The device consists of a four legged stool with telescoping legs which may be locked into position independently so that each leg is the required height for maximum stability when the seat is astride a roof hip or ridge. The seat attached to the legs is comfortable but also designed for adverse weather usage. The legs have non-slip rubber grips attached to improve stability. However the entire concept relates to the fact that modern style roof tiles adjacent to the hip or ridge are of ^' concrete construction with a hollow that the seat legs firmly slot into at an angle that prevents the seat from falling. The seat may be positioned in various ways to cater for the roof pitch, worker's size and other variables.

Traditionally attempts to create aids for similar purposes have concentrated on scaffolding variations and platforms that are temporarily attached in some way to main scaffold or the building itself. This emphasis on temporary attachment of some kind has limited scope for a simple invention. Whereas scaffold-type approaches increase time spent on putting equip¬ ment up and down the freestanding approach virtually eliminates lost time and by virtue of speeding up the work it reduces leg fatigue to the roofer.

This present invention therefore has a design that is lightweight and permits carrying the seat single-handedly up and down ladders. Working location may be changed quite rapidly merely by dropping the seat down several tiles or horizontally several tiles along. Telescopic legs allow fast setting of an appropriate height for the individual legs, and also allows convenience in storing or for general transport purposes. The seat is intended to permit drainage in rainy weather or air circulation in hot weather, via the perforations. When working on older style tiles such as slate or other materials than concrete better stability is attained by use of an additional fifth leg centrally attached to the seat and having a large rubber pad which fits directly over the hip or ridge. Also the use of swivel fittings to the base of the telescopic legs permits use of larger rubber pads, which may be suction type or not, and this spreads weight better which is clearly advantageous on any material but especially for weaker slate tiles.

The advantages of this particular design are that a roofer has complete freedom of movement in safety, can relocate in seconds, completes the job faster with less fatigue, losing no time in attaching equipment. In short there are major improvements in speed, comfort, safety and convenience.

A specific representation of the invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the drawings:

Figure 1 shows the manner in which the seat sits on a roof hip with feet firmly gripping the adjacent roof tiles because of angular differences and tile hollows. Two shaped tube arms 1 are shown displaying one short and one long leg each. Tubes are made of alloy or light steel and are welded or fastened to a seat 2, the legs crossover and are connected to each other beneath the seat to give extra security.

Seat legs contain telescoping inner metal tubes 3 both inner and outer tubes being drilled at various intervals to create different heights at which the telescoping section may be locked 4 by a threaded nut and bolt or other fastener 5.

Figure 2 shows a cross section of the safety seat from above and emphasizes the crossing of the shaped leg tubes in the centre below the seat.and also the perfor¬ ations in the seat cover 7.

Figure 3 illustrates two of the various ways of positioning the seat astride a hip which is represented by the dotted line. In the left diagram the roof pitch is not very steep and upper legs would be partly extended, in the right diagram where pitch is steep the upper legs be almost fully retracted.

Rigure 4 shows the seat looking down at the shorter legs when the telescoping legs are fully retracted, clearly evident is the crossing over of the leg arms 9 and seat connections 8 to the legs. The long or extended legs are seen in background.

Figure 5 is a sideways view indicating the apposition of long and short legs, and showing connection holes 4 at which a locking bolt or clip 5 is inserted in order to lock the extension tube at a certain height.

Figure 6 represents a view upwards to the long or fully extended lower legs, usually in fully extended position.

Figure 7 represents the preferred foot system which involves a rubber pad 11 wide enough to spread weight and with some suction capability, attached to a tele¬ scoping leg 3 by a swivel connector 10, all slightly extended from leg 1. This system permits good weight distribution and truer grip to roof tile, regardless of tile type or material of tile, because rubber pad alighns fully with tile.

The full version of the device is therefore a light seat of strong material and suitably perforated, welded or otherwise permanently attached to the crossing shaped tubes. All tubes are telescopic and each extension tube has the swivel type of rubber foot pad. More economic versions would be with only two legs extendable and with extension tubes having a simple rubber pad for the feet as used on walking sticks. For long term durability the whole device would be coated in a plastic paint for protection against the elements.

Claims

1. A roofer's safety aid comprising of a seating device which is freestanding and able to sit astride a roof hip or ridge securely because the legs of the seat fit firmly into the grooves of adjacent roof tiles and prevent the seat from falling. The unit is transportable with one hand, and can be easily repositioned when in use replacing hip or ridge tiles or repointing a chimney. The device consists of a pair of shaped metal tubes connected at a crossover and also attached to a seat. All four legs have telescopic metal tube inner components, which may be locked into various positions via numerous drilled points in outer and inner tubes. When legs are locked at appropriate heights with simple threaded fasteners, and leg feet fitted with rubber non-slip pads/the seat will sit securely. Being freestanding and lightweight for carriage up and down, work is done fast and with minimal leg fatigue, convenient, safe, fast and comfortable.

2. A roofer's safety aid as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the seat is perforated to allow for air circulation in hot weather and rain drainage in bad weather.

3. A roofer's aid as claimed in claims 1 or 2, wherein the rubber footpad on the telescoping legs is attached to the telescoping leg inner tube by means of a connection able to swivel so that a large rubber pad, possibly with suction capability^ able to contour exactly with the pitch of the roof tiles leading to greater contact and therefore stability.

4. A roofer's aid as claimed in claims 1-3, wherein a fifth and central leg is attached and has a long cushion of rubber which fits well with the hip or ridge tile below the centre of the seat, this extra support particularly in combination with the swivel suction pad as claimed in claim 3 may spread weight sufficiently to enable work safely on older types of tiles such as slate which will not ordinarily tolerate much weight.