Roof Saddle

When a flat roof is constructed and provided with peripheral or central drain openings or a slanted roof construction is provided including drain openings spaced along below zones of the slanted roof construction, roof saddles are often utilized to reduce the tendency of puddling of water on the roof in areas spaced from the drain openings. However, the present method of forming a roof saddle on a roof involves the molding of the saddle from light weight concrete, asphalt fill or other commonly used materials and requires three to four hours time. Light weight concrete saddles must dry before the final roofing material may be placed over the saddle, inasmuch as moisture beneath the roofing material is a negative factor in such roofing and is generally not allowed. Also, when molded roof saddles are utilized, they must be each molded in place on the particular roof on which it is to be used. Therefore, there is no way to standardize the manner in which molded roof saddles of different sizes may be constructed.

Roof structures including some of the general structural and operational features of the instant invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 853,897, 1,951,090, 2,160,642, 2,805,631, and 3,090,162.

The roof saddle of the instant invention is composed of two sets of panels with the panels of the first set being rectangular in plan shape and constant in thickness and the panels of the second set being also of rectangular plan shape but tapered from one longitudinal marginal edge toward the other longitudinal marginal edge. The sets of panels are arranged in position on a roof surface so as to define a quarter, one-half or full saddle of diamond-shaped plan area and each quarter diamond-shaped roof saddle section includes an upper surface which is substantially planar and inclined relative to the undersurface of the saddle section. The quarter diamond saddle sections are right triangular in configuration with a height approximately three times its base and the slanted planar upper surface of the quarter diamond saddle section is slanted upwardly toward the intersection of the height and base edges thereof.

The main object of this invention is to provide a roof saddle which may be readily fabricated by utilizing two different sets of panels and which may be readily formed into quarter, half and full diamond-shaped roof saddles.

Another object of this invention is to provide a roof saddle of light weight construction.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a roof saddle which may be readily varied in size according to the size of roof saddle needed.

Still another important object of this invention is to provide a roof saddle of standard sizes.

Another very important object of this invention is to provide a roof saddle which may be readily constructed by roofers utilizing materials familiar to them.

A further object of this invention is to provide a roof saddle whose slanted upper surface or surfaces will be of uniform inclination.

A final object of this invention to be specifically enumerated herein is to provide a roof saddle which will conform to conventional forms of manufacture, be of simple construction and easy to fabricate so as to provide a device that will be economically feasible, long lasting and relatively trouble free in fabrication.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of the upper portion of a building utilizing a roof structure which slopes toward the longitudinal center line of the roof structure and which employs several of the roof saddles of the instant invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view taken substantially upon the plane indicated by the section line 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view illustrating the manner in which adjacent roof saddles may be utilized upon a flat roof structure;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view illustrating the manner in which the various panels of the saddle illustrated in FIG. 2 are adhered to the roof and each other by means of hot asphalt or the like;

FIG. 5 is a horizontally exploded plan view of four plies of a one-half diamond saddle and illustrating the manner in which each layer of panels of the half diamond saddle are arranged relative to each other;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of a quarter diamond roof saddle section;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of one of the constant thickness panels utilized in the construction of the roof saddle;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of one of the tapered panels utilized in the construction of the roof saddle;

FIG. 9 is a plan view illustrating the manner in which the roof illustrated in FIG. 1 is initially marked in preparation to fabricating the roof saddles thereon; and

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view of a roof structure of the type which slants toward the longitudinal side edges of the roof and utilizes quarter and half diamond saddle sections.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, the numeral 10 generally designates a building including a roof structure referred to in general by the reference numeral 12. The roof structure 12 includes a longitudinal center line 14 toward which the opposite side sections 16 and 18 of the roof structure 12 slant. The roof structure 12 includes a plurality of upwardly opening drains 20 spaced along the center line and a plurality of roof saddles referred to in general by the reference numerals 22 and 24 are fabricated on the roof structure 12.

With attention invited now more specifically to FIGS. 2 and 5-7, it will be seen that the roof saddles 22 and 24 are constructed of quarter diamond-shaped sections referred to in general by the reference numeral 26. The roof saddle 24 includes two sections 26 and the saddles 22 include four sections 26.

The saddle sections 26 are constructed of a plurality of first panels 28 and a plurality of second panels 30, see FIGS. 7 and 8. The panels 28 may be conveniently 24 inches in width and 48 inches in length. In addition, the panels 28 are approximately 11/2 inches in thickness and may be constructed of fiberboard or mineral board material. The panels 28 are rectangular in configuration. Also, it may be seen from FIG. 8 that the panels 30 are rectangular in plan shape. The panels 30 are approximately 18 inches in width and 48 inches long. Further, the panels 30 taper in thickness from 11/2 inches thick along one longitudinal edge to a feather edge extending along the other longitudinal side of the panel 30.

In order to form a saddle 22 on the roof structure 12, a chalk line 32 is formed between adjacent drains 20, see FIG. 9. Then the longitudinal center of line 32 is marked at 34 and the precut panels 28 and 30 are laid out in a bottom layer referred to in general by numeral 36, see FIG. 5. The panels numbered 1-6 in the layer 36 comprise panels 28 and the panels numbered 7-9 in layer 36 are formed from the panels 30. The roof structure 12 includes an underlying structural support referred to in general by the reference numeral 38, a roof deck referred to in general by the reference numeral 40 and an insulation layer referred to in general by the reference numeral 42 initially has a layer of hot asphalt 44 applied thereto in the area of the roof structure 12 in which a saddle is to be formed. Then, the layer 36 of the panels 28 and 30 is applied over the hot asphalt in a manner such that at least some of the hot asphalt 44 is squeezed upwardly between adjacent panels 28 and 30. Thereafter, the first layer 36 has hot asphalt 44 disposed thereover and a second layer referred in general by the reference numeral 46 of panels 28 and 30 is applied over the first layer 36. The panel sections numbered 4-6 in the layer 46 are constructed of the panels 28 and the panels numbered 7-9 in the layer 46 are constructed of the panels 30. After the layer 46 has been applied, a third layer referred to in general by the reference numeral 48 is applied over the layer 46 subsequent to its being covered by hot asphalt 44 and the panels numbered 3 in the layer 48 are constructed of the panels 28 and the panels numbered 7, 8, 9, 11 and 12 are constructed of the panels 30. After the layer 48 has been covered by hot asphalt 44, the final layer referred to in general by the reference numeral 50 including panels numbered 10 and constructed of the panels 30 is applied over the layer 48.

In constructing the roof saddles 28 at the opposite ends of the roof 12 one-half diamond saddles are fabricated using the layers 36, 46, 48 and 50 of FIG. 4. However, in constructing the roof saddles 22, a pair of half saddle sections are used.

Referring now more specifically to FIG. 10 of the drawings, there may be seen a second roof structure referred to in general by the reference numeral 54 which inclines toward the opposite side marginal edges thereof and includes side marginal edge drains 56. When applying roof saddles to the roof structure 54 quarter saddle sections referred to in general by the reference numeral 58 and half saddle sections referred to in general by the reference numeral 60 are used. Of course, the half saddle sections 60 differ from the half saddle sections comprising the roof saddles 24 in that the half saddle sections 60 comprise half sections resulting from constructing only one side of a saddle 22 while the saddle 24 is a result of constructing only one end of the saddle 22.

With attention now invited more specifically to FIG. 3 of the drawings, there may be seen a roof structure referred to in general by the reference numeral 62. The roof structure 62 is substantially flat but includes a plurality of upwardly opening drains 64 corresponding to the drains 20 and between which roof saddles referred to in general by the reference numeral 66 and corresponding to the roof saddles 22 are fabricated.

After each roof saddle has been fabricated, the flexible roofing material 68 is applied over the saddles and the insulation 42.

If it is desired to apply the saddles to a roof during a re-roofing operation, the old roof structure must be perforated before the saddles and the new roofing 68 may be applied thereover.

The layer 36 of FIG. 5 comprises the lower layer of one-half of a roof saddle which is 44 feet in length. If a roof saddle 36 feet in length is desired, only the layers 36, 46 and 48 are used and these layers are trimmed at the line 70 in FIG. 5. Still further, if a roof saddle of only 28 feet in length is desired, the layers 36, 46 and 48 are trimmed at the line 72 in FIG. 5 and if a roof saddle of only 20 feet in length is desired only the layers 36 and 46 are used and those layers are trimmed at the line 74 in FIG. 5.

As hereinbefore set forth, the panels 28 may be constructed of fiberboard or mineral board and the panels 30 are constructed of fiberboard. Further, the panels 28 and 30 are of 15 pound density.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.