Stairgate Advice

[Unkle_Paulie]

The wife and I recently bought two stairgates after much research. We tried to install them however came across a major problem. The areas we want to install the gates aren't sturdy enough e.g. stair banister / cupboard wall.

Does anyone know of an alternative that doesn't rely on two surfaces being solid or striaght?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

[Fuschia]

The gates that are like little roller blinds don't require two solid surfaces in the same way... Though you may need to fit a post of soem sort... it's also possible to buy some sort of attachment that lets you fic a gate to a round banister.

But have a look here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lascal-KiddyGuard-Safety-Gate/dp/B00009SS6B/ref=pd_sim_by_5

[Princess]

Sorry to crash your thread Unkle_Paulie but I know you won't mind ;-). Fuschia, we've been looking at these but they look a bit 'flimsy'. Are they really sturdy and how quickly does a toddler figure out how to open them?!

[snowboarder]

We have the lindam roller stairgates - I would say their ONLY positive is they take up so little room esp when open, which was essential for us. Otherwise they are totally annoying, tricky to fix, tricky to open and shut (so much so I rarely bother anymore!) and super expensive!

Princess I'm not sure a toddler would figure out how to open them. Most adult visitors to our house also seem unable to do either!

I'm not a fan....but they are doing a job I suppose...

[Fuschia]

I agree re the blinds, the difficulty with them is you can't easily go through and close behind you. We had in our old flat. But a toddler couldn't open it.

In our current flat we have bogstandard fixed to the wall gate and it's just as well as we go through it 1000 times a day (separates living room from kitchen and bathroom)

[Princess]

Thanks for the reviews Snowboarder and Fuschia. It sounds as if the roller blind solution is a lot of money for something that isn't really very practical.

Right Unkle_Paulie, it's back to the drawing board. There has to be a solution to our oddly shaped, paper thin walls and rickety old banister somewhere!

[The Nappy Lady]

I 'created' a stair gate (barrier really) on our top landing where a stairgate didn't work using a Baby Dan playpen - 3 of the panels with the door as the centre panel. Wouldn't work on the stairs but might on a landing or in the hall at the bottom of the stairs if you have room?

Molly

[njc97]

If you go for the fixed style of gate:

http://www.johnlewis.com/230767371/Product.aspx

then you only need to screw into the wall on one side. Rather than using the proper lock on the other side, you can jerry-rig something on the banister with some string - friends on mine have this and it's more than secure enough to keep their 18 month year old in.

Other idea is whether you can put them in a slightly different place, possible across a wider gap. We've got ours across the whole landing (rather than just top of stairs) so we could fit it between two walls.

[trinity]

Following on from njc97's idea can you put thenm across a doorway instead so that your lo can't get near the stairs at all. We had ours across bedroom or living room doorways.

[Princess]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We did think of relocating the gates into doorways. However, it would seem our door frames are hollow and the pressure just cracked and split the door surrounds (we now have some very attractive holes in the door frame. Grrr). Molly, I think your idea might work at the bottom of the stairs and that's my immediate concern for now. I think we'll just have to have very sharp eyes when it comes to the step down into the kitchen and hope that we move before he can escape and go anywhere near the top of the stairs without either of us being around!

[Fuschia]

Princess, are you using pressure fit gates? I think most doorframes would be OK with an old fashioned screw fix gate, esp if you strengthened it with a batten.

[The Nappy Lady]

Princess,

Just on the off chance it will make you feel a bit better about it all I do know of at least 2 friends who never bothered with stair gates and just kept a close eye and made their little ones do the stairs as much as possible (going up and down with them of course), and teaching them how to go down backwards as this is the safest way initially. Both families coped just fine, so it is possible......though I have to say there have been times I've been really glad of the gates because it does let you relax a bit more when they are at that age where you just seem to spend your entire time stopping them from doing insane things....

Really hope the Baby Dan thing works for you at one end of the stairs, and that maybe something else will solve the problem at the other end in due course.....

Molly

x

[Princess]

We were using pressure fit. After doing lots of research and looking at safetytots.com they seemed to be the ideal ones that looked like the solution to banister spindles and very wonky walls (an amazing 4cm wider at the top of the stairgate hole than at the bottom).

However, when they didn't work in the locations we needed them too (the pressure made the banister bow at an alarming angle every time you raised the catch) we tried them in the doorways where they destroyed the bloomin' door frame.

We have since passed the offending gates to a member of our NCT group whose house is clearly made of sturdier stuff than ours as they work perfectly. With our little one deciding today was the day he was going to start moving, albeit backwards, I'm aware we need to find an alternative solution quick smart!

[The Nappy Lady]

....lead weights in his nappy ;-)

[Princess]

I shall go and raid Unkle_Paulie's fishing box now!

[hpsaucey]

I got one of the Kiddyguard roller stairgates and have to say really love it. Blends into the rest of the doorframe. Got it when they weren't so pricy though!

But it fixed on really easily, and when you get used to it you can open it and close it one-handed! Meant to be used up to toddler age but it discourages our now 5-year old nicely. Having said that, if my kids really rammed it I'm not sure what would happen.

Would buy another though.

H

[marscapone]

We also have an awkward shaped space at bottom of curly stairs and our solution is to drag the toybox in front of the stairs. We can still step over it but baby couldn't crawl over it - until very recently!