Baby Safety Gates fitting nightmare

Mishomeister

With the little one due to start walking at any time now I need safety gates both at teh top and the bottom of the stairs. The troble is that all on sale assume you have a nice and flat surface on the both sides. This is unfortunately not the case in my house.
There are wooden railing on one side from the staircase which I have taken the below pictures of. I would be very greatful if anyone could suggest any solution.

MX5huggy

With that banister design you might be safer to let them use the stairs. We never used stair gates they are a trip hazard to adults carrying babies. And if you are falling down the stairs do you want to hit the gate at the bottom? They did have them on the bed room doors so they could not go off and do the stairs unsupervised. But to fit a gate.

Cut bits of wood and fill in the gaps at A and B or less neatly put a wood covering C top to bottom of the post.

The banister design is against modern building regulations (not that you have to comply retrospectively) the gap D is probably big enough for a child to slip or climb through (especially if they can't get to mummy as there's a stair gate in the way). And not the worst because it's only 2 rails not 3 they can climb over at E. Either replace the whole lot with a modern stair rail or cover it on the landing side with hardboard (mdf) so it is unclimbable. There should be no gap that a 100mm sphere can pass through.

peachyprice

Most pressure fit gates have pads that can be adjusted to different widths at the top and bottom of the gate.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4028796.htm

If you look at that photo the pad at the end of the screw part can be screwed out to different lengths top and bottom, pressure fit is fine for the bottom of the stairs. I wouldn't personally use pressure fit at the top.


This one screws to the wall for the top of the stairs but still has adjustable screw at top and bottom, you just need to fix the hinges on the wall side.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2289070.htm

phil24_7

peachyprice wrote: »

Most pressure fit gates have pads that can be adjusted to different widths at the top and bottom of the gate.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4028796.htm

If you look at that photo the pad at the end of the screw part can be screwed out to different lengths top and bottom, pressure fit is fine for the bottom of the stairs. I wouldn't personally use pressure fit at the top.


This one screws to the wall for the top of the stairs but still has adjustable screw at top and bottom, you just need to fix the hinges on the wall side.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/2289070.htm

Thy do not offer as much adjustment as the OP would need. Spacing with blocks of wood would be my choice...in fact it's what I did at my mums house.

We never had one at the bottom of our stairs, only at the top as a just in case measure (though now we use it so he doesn't go off wondering at 6:30 in the morning!). We also installed one at the door of the lounge so he could be contained as he was very active and was walking by 8 months!

Regards
Phil

glasgowdan

You should use one of the material pull out ones...any pressure fit gate is going to bend the wooden post back.

Stairgates are overrated anyway; it's not often we feel the need to use ours, and the wee guy is happy shuffling up and down himself now anyway at nearly 2. Any other time there's usually an adult about playing with him or we're in a room with the door closed.