Finding Unusual Stairway-ready Baby Gates

S.,
Not a brand recommendation here - if you can't find one you may need to get something that is for the doorways upstairs instead. It's not as much freedom, but it is safer.

Good Luck,
M.

Hello,
I don't know of a particular brand, but i have always had good luck with. One Step Ahead. They have a catalog or you can go to their website.
Hope you find one,
J.

Check out onestepahead.com they have alot of childproofing options!

hi S., a good friend of mine owns a babyproofing company, and the majority of his business is jobs just like yours. he does beautiful work, he will design custom gates/adaptors to your situation. here is his website, you can email him, ask for todd and tell him debbie r referred you. good luck. http://www.allsafechildproofing.com/babyproofqa.htm

http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

Don't know if that will work -- you can also call them or Evenflo and ask -- both of their staffs are pretty knowledgeable. We live in a 1941 Cape Cod and the moldings at the bottom were what threw us off. We ended up just having a slightly less safe gate at the stairs (a kid *could* wiggle under, with effort) and put a specific gate on our son's bedroom whenever possible.

It makes me wonder how any of us survived to adulthood -- not many of these fancy contaptions when we were little!

At toys r us they have one that you just screw in the wall and its adjustable. its by safty first but if an adult bumps into it hard it will break. it worked well with my kids but my husbands friend wasnt looking and tripped over it and it broke. So they cannt handle a lot of wieght

We also have a rounded banister, and plaster walls. There is no way a baby gate can be safely mounted at the top of those stairs. What I did was put the gate at my little guys' doorway instead. Now that my youngest one is 2 the gate is more of an obsticle, because he climbs over it. He's learning to climb the stairs better. Now would be a good time to start teaching your little how to go up and down the stairs properly, just in case he figures out how to climb the gate. That time will come before you know it.

we have a gate in the hallway upstairs. It is easier to mount to the walls than it is to the bannister, and I find it easier to step over because it is on a flat surface, not the stairs

Hi S.,
For the top of the stairs it really is best to have them screwed in and not the pressure mounted ones. The wall mounted gates give you so much more room to walk through too. There are several "adapter kits" that will let you screw into a board and then mount that around your banister. I did a quick yahoo search for baby gates and rounded banisters and came up with this one http://www.kidsmartliving.com/sagainkitfor.html I think even Kidco makes a kit. BuyBuyBaby should be helpful if there is one close to you.

If doing the work correct and safely is an issue look into a local handyman or if you there is childproofing business that comes to your house do the work.

I purchased a gate, along with an adaptor piece that wraps around the banister (so that you don't have to drill into the wall)at one step ahead, and it works great at the top of my stairs. The gate is an angle mount gate so I was able to fasten it to the wall on one side and to the banister via the adaptor piece on the banister side. I do have a squared banister pole, but the piece velcroes around, so I would think that it would work on a round one as well as long a it is tightly installed. here are the links for what I bought. good luck!
gate adaptor-
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

gate-
http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId...

We had a similar issue in that we do not have a wall at the top of our stairs on the one side. We mounted a configure gate in the hallway, giving us about a 4' square spot at the top of the stairs. Kept the boys out of the bathroom, too, because we mounted it between the bedrooms and the bathroom door. HTH

L.

not sure we have the same type of staircase, but at the top of our stairs, we drilled one side into the wall and the other (where the banister is), rather than drilling right into the banister, we attached a small piece of wood and then drilled into that. I guess there will be a nail hole in the banister from where we nailed the wood, but it will be better than a drill hole. We couldn't use pressure mounted. I'd never feel comfortable with pressure mounted at the top of a staircase anyway... in case the kids somehow pushed it over (which happens).

Hi S.. I have a gate at the top of my stairs. It is by Safety 1st. I bought it at Babies R Us. It has two separate pieces for mounting. To open it you must pull up the handle and it swings open. It also has a light on the one mounting piece as well as a locked/unlocked indicator. This was the only gate that I could find for the top of steps. It is on the Babies R Us website Safety 1st Smartlight Stair Gate
By: Safety 1st

*
* Our Price: $69.99
Hopefully this is what you are looking for. Good Luck.

Hi S. we also had this problem. Our gates aren't pressure mounted but my husband didn't want to ruin the woodwork putting gates all over the stairs. He mounted the gates to a piece of wood and then secured them to the banister with those tie-wrap things. It worked really well for us and hope that it might be able to help you. Good luck

Hi S.,

We had a similar situation. How we got around it was we mounted the swing gate (I believe it is Kidco) onto thin pieces of wood (using screws) and 'attached' it to the banisters by means of zip ties. I'm sure you know what I mean - the clear or white thin stripes of plastic used to bundle things together. It may sound bizarre but a professional baby proofer installed this way and it is very secure and avoids drilling into the banisters. Hope this helps.

R.

There are plenty of gates that at not pressure-mounted. In fact, you're never supposed to use a pressure-mounted gate at the top of stairs no matter what your house it like because it's a massive safety hazard if a determined child pushes it off - worse than if there'd been no gate there at all! So I've got no specific suggestions, but I know there are plenty out there. Any place that sells baby gates will have them. You'll need to screw the gate on.

This may not be the most perfect solution, but it's worked: I have friends who have the same problem and simply bought normal baby gates that they "closed" or rather strapped to their banisters with bungee cords. It's a cheap solution and keeps you from having to go through all of this complicated stuff. I very much doubt the baby gate people would endorse it, but it has worked for my friends.
best of luck!

I don't know if this idea will work for you, because it would adapt a pressure mount gate to your banister...
http://www.kidsmartliving.com/sagainkitfor.html

I agree, all the gates I have foudn are pressure mounted.

Dear S.,

You can get a custom gate built very economically...by your local fence shops. The ones that make garden gates and wooden fences. We had a similar problem, and managed to get a gate made almost matching our stair bannisters, and it was about the same price as a store bought plastic one.

K.

We used a dog gate that we purchased at petsmart instead of a baby gate. It works really well. Good luck!

yes, kidco is the brand you want. i think i bought mine through CSNbaby.com. check out their website, they had a lot of different gates. teh hardware is what mounts to the bannister and they have one that can mount on an angle. you should be able to find what you need. good luck.