STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH

Not Applicable.

APPENDIX

Not Applicable.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to removing gravel from a roof, and more particularly to a device using a drive mechanism and a serrated blade to remove gravel from a roof.

Related Art

The present invention relates to removing gravel from asphalt-coated flat roofs so that they may be repaired. Such roofs, mostly on commercial buildings, are built according to a standard procedure where layers of asphalt saturated felt are laid upon the roof surface to create an asphalt deck and cemented together with a coating of hot-mop asphalt or tar with the top layer being a comparatively thick coating of hot-mop asphalt or tar covered with a layer of small generally uniform rocks such as pea gravel or the like. The rocks forming the layer of gravel embed themselves into the asphalt to protect the roof covering, the asphalt, and the underlying felt sheets against physical damage and weather deterioration especially by sunlight.

A good average life for such a roof may be approximately ten years, at which time it must be repaired and rehabilitated. The common procedure for removing the rock is by sweeping the roof with heavy brooms. This is a very onerous, slow chore where the workmen are required to wear dust masks because of the large amounts of fine dust stirred up by the sweeping and dumping the gravel from the roof to a truck.

Alternatively, a rotary planer, such as a Garlock rotary planar, is used by workers who push to propel the device, and apply downward pressure to this heavy machine to slowly and laboriously remove gravel from a roof.

There has been a desire for a more effective and easier to use device to remove gravel from a roof. More specifically, it is desirable to have a riding device that removes gravel from a roof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a device to remove gravel adhering to a roof that has a vertically mounted blade assembly attached to a drive mechanism. The blade assembly includes a horizontal serrated blade and, optionally, a horizontal smooth blade. More specifically, the present invention is a riding drive mechanism, such as a tractor, having vertically mounted on the front of the tractor a blade assembly that includes a smooth blade with a horizontal edge, such as used for snow plowing, and, mounted proximate and parallel to the smooth blade, a serrated blade. Either the smooth blade or the serrated blade, or both blades have an up position and a down position. In a preferred embodiment, the blade assembly includes a mechanism to move the blades from the down position to the up position and back. In the down position, the blade or blades engage with the gravel to remove it from the roof. In one embodiment, in the down position, the serrations extend below the lower edge of the smooth blade and in the up position, the serrations are even with or above the edge of the smooth blade. Optionally, mounted on the either blade is at least one weight to provide a downward force.

Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiment of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

