GB2200389A - Domestic flood barrier - Google Patents

Abstract

A removable flood barrier for the temporary protection of domestic or commercial premises consists of a rigid baffle 20 spanning a doorway and having an elastically deformable seal 30 element around at least both sides and the bottom for bed-drug against the side walls and threshold. The top and bottom edges of the baffle are clamped in place by bars 32, 36 which span the baffle and are releasably secured to the side walls of the opening by fixings 34, 38 thereon, or bolts (40, figs 4, 5 not shown). The baffle may comprise two leaves joined by a vertical hinge to form a Vee adjusted to the width of the opening. <IMAGE>

Description

AN IMPROVED DOMESTIC FLOOD BARRIER This invention relates to domestic flood barriers.

The term "domestic" as used in this specification denotes not only private dwellings but also shops, offices, hotels, inns, guest house etc., in fact, any premises where people live or work which are vulnerable to flooding as a result of bad weather or natural or manmade disaster.

It has long been the practice to form barriers across doorways by piling sandbags in or across them.

They are heavy to lift, and even when scientifically built up into a wall against flood water, are liable to permit leakage or seepage. It is also known to fit a pair of inward-facing channels to the face of the wall flanking the opening to be protected and, when floods are imminent, to slot pre-cut planks into the channels to form a barrier. Such barriers cannot, of themselves, be water-tight, and are best used as a firm support for a wall of sandbags. When the emergency is past, the sandbags and the planks can be removed and stored for future use.

Each of the above arrangements for erecting a flood barrier across an opening in domestic premises has the disadvantage that heavy weights (sandbags) have to be lifted and transported. Not only does this call for muscular strength and stamina, but even when expertly laid, sandbags still do not afford reliable protection against leakage or seepage.

Furthermore, it takes time to move and stack enough sandbags to combat what often is a rapidly rising flood.

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above drawbacks.

According to the present invention, a barrier for protecting individual domestic premises against flooding consists of a rigid impervious baffle large enough to close at least the lower part of an opening such as a doorway in an external wall, and a flexible elastically deformable seal adapted to fit between at least the bottom and two side margins of the baffle and the adjacent wall surfaces. The baffle must, of course, be strong enough to withstand the pressure of flood water against its exposed surface. It must also be supported against the thrust of the flexible seal when the baffle is mounted in its working position.

This support is obviously required when the seal is mounted between the inward-facing surface of the baffle and an outward-facing surface of the wall surrounding the opening to be sealed. The outward face of the wall may be very smooth, but mostly its surface will be of a coarse texture with marked irregularities, and if an acceptably water-tight seal is to be made, a significant amount of pressure may have to be applied to the flexible seal. Where the flexible seal is edge-mounted on the baffle - as when the baffle is inset into the opening in the manner of a door - there will be a continuing risk that the baffle will be pushed inwards under pressure from the flood water, leading to rolling of the seal around the edges of the opening.

In these circumstances, the baffle must be locked in position against any bodily displacement, whether inward or outward, and further, the support will have to have a downward component of thrust in order to maintain adequate pressure on the section of the flexible seal which bears on the threshold of the opening.

Ideally, the flexible seal is inflatable so as to improve its capability of conforming to irregularities in the wall or floor surfaces.

Preferably, the baffle is locked in position by means of one or more rigid bars which span the opening, each end of each bar being releasably anchored to a permanent fixing on the surface of the wall surrounding the opening. In the case where the anticipated maximum depth of the flood water is, say, knee-high, it is a simple matter to lift the baffle into place and to lean over the top edge to secure the ends of a rigid bar to the appropriate anchorage fixings, especially where these are of the captive toggle type often found on pick-up trucks for securing tail boards in the erected position. Alternatively, a bar may be slid into saddles or dropped into open-topped socket fittings.

The material of the baffle must not only be of adequate strength but also watertresistant all combined with light weight. The elastically deformable seal may be permanently bonded to the margins of the baffle or separately fitted in a groove or channel so that, on dismantling of the flood barrier, it can be separately stored so as to reduce its vulnerability to accidental damage.

Practial embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of illustration only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a front elevation (partly broken away to reveal the seal element) of a first design of flood barrier placed across a doorway; Figure 2 is a section on the line II-II of Figure, ; Figure 3 is a sectional plane on the line III-III of Figure 1, and Figures 4 and 5 are views similar to Figures 1 and 3 respectively, illustrating a modified design.

Referring first to Figures 1 - 3, an exterior wall 10 of a building has a doorway 12 opening therethrough and bounded by upright facings 14, lintel 16 and threshold 18. These may be flush with, or may stand proud of, the external surface of the wall 10, and may be of stone, concrete, or other suitable material presenting a generally smooth exterior surface around the opening. A rigid baffle 20 is wide enough to span the facings 14, and of a height a little more than the maximum anticipated depth of flood water, As seen in Figures 2 and 3, the baffle 20 is of composite construction, consisting of outer and inner skins 22,. 24 on a rectangular frame 26. Each skin 22, 24 may be of marine grade plywood.Each marginal frame element is grooved at 28 along its inward edge which lies opposite the facings 14 and threshold 18, and into this groove is inserted a flexible, resiliently deformable seal element 30. As shown in the drawings, this is a continuous length of a cellular rubber or plastic material such as that popularly known as "sponge rubber", but it is preferred to make it an inflatable tube provided that the wall surface against which it will butt is not jagged and has no sharp edges or points to puncture the tube. A conventional tyre valve enables the seal element 30 to be inflated by a conventional foot pump.

or other inflator.

The baffle 20 is locked in place by means of an angle-iron bar 32, one. flange of which overlies the top edge of the baffle to hold it down. The ends of the bar are releasably locked in fixings 34 permanently secured to the wall 10 and which can be of any suitable design. So long as the top edge of the baffle 20 is below waist height, fixings of which the locking and release mechanism is accessible from outside the building are suitable, but if protection is required against deeper floods, some form of bolt mechanism operable from inside the building is preferred.

The bottom edge of the baffle 20 must also be steadied against lateral displacement, so a second bar 36, which may be of any preferred cross-sectional shape, is also secured in fixings 38 permanently secured to the wall. These latter can be upwardly open brackets into the jaws of which the lower bar 36 can be dropped prior to inflation of the seal element 30, or (if it is of cellular design) after it has been compressed against the threshold 18.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate a modification of the design shown in Figures 1 - 3 which is adapted to be mounted inside a porch or a passageway, between opposite parallel flat side walls 110. In this modified design, the seal element 130 is mounted on the side and bottom edges of the baffle 20 and the ends of the bars 32, 36 engage appropriate holes or sockets let into the surfaces of the side walls 110 - for example, by means of dead bolts fixed to the bars (represented schematically at 40).In order to facilitate the placing of the baffle 20 between the sie walls 110, the seal element 130 is of relatively large section and inflatable, so that the baffle can first be located with the seal element deflated, and when the bars 32, 36 have been secured the element is inflated to ensure a watertight seal against the walls 110 and floor 118 of the passage.

Since the floors of many passages become worn by continuous treading over the years into a concave or "valley" contour, the lower run of the seal element may be backed by a naturuily bowed resilient plate (not shown) spanning most of the length of the bottom edge of the baffle 20. This plate helps to depress the seal element into contact with the hollows in the floor.

In order to accommodate a variety of widths of passage, the baffle 20 may be hinged on a central vertical line so that it can be shaped into a Vee to fit between the walls 110 of narrower passages. The hinge is preferably made of, or covered by, a strip of stout flexible waterproof material such as a rubberised fabric. Since a straight inflatable tube will not tolerate much local angular deflection without kinking, the bottom edge of each leaf of a hinged baffle is preferably formed with a groove sufficiently wider than the seal element to allow it to adopt a natural curvature without kinking.

Where such a hinged baffle is fitted in a narrow passage, the apex of the Vee must be directed towards the flood water so that as the pressure of water builds up it will tend to flatten the Vee and hence to tighten the seal against the side walls of the passage. At least the top bar 32, however, must be rigid in order to provide an abutment for the pressure of the seal element 130 on the floor and must therefore remain straight. The location of the bar must also be such that, if part of the Vee projects on either side of the bar when the baffle is erected, tue bar must be aligned with approximately the mid points of the top edges of the leaves of the baffle.The simplest way of ensuring this is by fixing an upstanding pin at the mid point of each top edge and providig an elongated slot on the underside of the bar in which each pin fits. The bar may be of the correct length to suit the baffle when flat i.e. the condition of maximum width - and the appropriate portions may be cut off to fit narrower passages.

Alternatively, the bar may be made telescopic. The lower bar 36 may be mounted behind the leaves of the Vee and be coupled to the side edges of the leaves.

The construction of the seal element 30, 130 is optional. Thus, it may be a simple tube, resembling the inner tube of a tyre; or it may be a composite, oonsisting of an outer layer of resiliently deformable solid or cellular material and an inflatable tubular backing. Alternatively again, the seal element may be in two separate parts consisting, respectively, of a deformable body part adapted to engage the wall or floor surfaces and an inflatable tubular backing part whose function is primarily to exert an equalised sealing pressure on the body part throughout its contact with the wall and floor surfaces. Alternatively where a barrier 20 is tailored to fit between the walls of a particular porch or passageway, the lower edge of the baffle may be contoured to match the floor surface.

Claims (8)

1. A domestic flood barrier for the protection of individual premises against ingress of flood water comprising a rigid impervious baffle of a size to completely obturate at least the lower part of an opening such as a doorway in an external wall of a building, the baffle being of sufficient strength to withstand at least the static head of flood water which is liable to accumulate outside the. premises; means for anchoring the baffle against the walls bounding the opening; and means for locating an elastically deformable seal between the side and lower margins of the impervious baffle and the walls at least up to the level of the flood water against which protection Ss sought.

2. A barrier according to claim 1 wherein the elastically deformable seal includes a closed-ended flexible tube having means for its inflation after the baffle has been locked in place.

3. A barrier according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the baffle is tailored to a specific opening, such as by the shaping of the bottom edge to match a well-worn threshold.

4. A barrier according to claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the means for securing the baffle in place in at least the lower part of the opening comprises a rigid bar adapted to span the opening between the fixings mounted on the wall surfaces and to support the baffle against the upward thrust of the elastically deformable seal.

5. A barrier according to claim 4 wherein the baffle securing means is operable from the inward side of the baffle.

6. A barrier according to any preceding claim wherein the baffle is formed by two leaves connected by a water impervious hinge which is vertical in the erected position of the baffle between opposite side walls of a porch or a passageway, the leaves being relatively angularly adjustable so that the baffle fits snugly between the side walls of passageways of various widths not greater than the combined widths of the two leaves.

7. A barrier according to claim 6 wherein a rigid bar adapted to span the width between the side walls and to be releasably anchored thereto is engageable with the top edges of the two leaves at approximately the mid-point of each such edge so as to locate the baffle.

8. ~ A domestic flood barrier substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.