Leaf excluder for rain water guttering

Claim 1

A leaf excluder for a rain water guttering of channel for having a rear wall with a lower edge joined to a guttering bottom to provide a rear corner of the guttering and a front wall joined to the guttering bottom and having a free edge terminating in a curled bead and which when in use will have the ends of tiles or like roof cladding overlapping the guttering rear wall so as to deposit rain water over and forward of said guttering rear wall; and leaf excluder comprising a strip of flexible resilient sheet-like material with a plurality of bead engaging fingers along and projecting from a one edge and a plurality of water passing slots in the strip at an angle to the length dimension of the strip; the width of said strip as defined between the said one edge and an opposite edge of said strip exceeding the distance between said guttering rear corner and that portion of the bead proximal thereto by an amount such that when the leaf excluder is located in a gutting with said bead engaging fingers engaging said bead and said opposite edge engaged in said rear corner of said guttering there will be an upwardly bent barrier portion of said strip extending at least as high as the top of said roof cladding ends and presenting a face incorporating said slots, said face being disposed substantially at right angles to and in abutting relationship with said ends of the roof cladding over the length of said guttering.