Hi Ladies, I am seeking advice on high quality, SAFE baby gates for the top and bottom of stairs. We are getting ready to move to a 2 story house (we currently live in a single level). The stair spindles are wrought iron so this makes installing baby gates even more of a challenge. I have researched online and every gate I find has people that love it and people that hate it. If you have come across one that you feel is very safe and if you have installation tips for wrought iron spindles I would sure appreciate it. Thanks!
We got 2 of the Summer extra-tall gates and we love them. They are attractive, tall enough not to be easily climbed, and can be permanently mounted for stairs or temporarily mounted for other areas.
I had exactly the same problem. I looked for a very long time to try and find the perfect gate. I looked at the gates that had swinging doors, but with these I was afraid of someone tripping on the metal piece that is under the door of the gate. My problem was that these gates weren't wide enough for my stairs. I didn't want to pay a fortune, but would pay that for safety if I had to. I ended up getting the evenflo position and lock gate, you can google this and hit images to view this gate. This gate is great and I have 2, one for the top of the stairs and one for the bottom. Due to the spindles and railing on my stairs, I had to also buy the EZ Fit Adapter from the one step ahead website. I had to buy two of these kits altogether for the top and bottom of the stairs. I have a 2 year old and she can't get these down. I love these gates. The adapters don't have to be screwed into your wall or railings, which is great. I bought my gates at Walmart and they were only 15 or 20 dollars each. I hope this helps. I know how frustrating it can be to find the right one. Good luck!!
I was just reading about baby proofing and they made a point of saying that top-of-the-stairs gates must be screwed into the wall, not just pressure-fitted/what-not.
Guess that might be obvious, but thought I'd share.
we have used two, one that is wooden and kind of fold in on itself, but i don't remember the brand. it is the only one sold at babies r us that is rated for stairs. we have two inside. we have also really like the retractable baby gate on our deck outside. it is ugly, but it really works, and we felt safe with it.
http://www.retract-a-gate.com/
and they can't pinch their fingers in it.
fyi....if you're house is not level (as some older houses are not), you will have problems with the permanent installed ones. I found one at babys r us that is wide (like our upstairs) that worked just fine. It was a little more inconvienent to put up, however, it worked just fine.
Don't get one with the criss-cross style. As soon as my son was a year old, he was already climbing up them and able to put his foot up on the top. I'd go with one that has bars like a crib. He hasn't figured out how to get out of there yet so that would be my suggestion. Good luck...
We tried pressure mounted gates, wooden gates, plastic gates, etc, and wound up using the wooden ones we already had until our baby was standing up. Once he was doing that, we purchased one of these and LOVE it. I wanted to do one of the wooden/metal combination gates, but we also have a pet bunny that roams free and didn't want him to eat the wood. The only problem we found with this gate, was that it took several times of showing my parents how to use it, before they caught on. You have to push the button in on both sides of the handle, then push the lever down. But, it's definitely something that they baby won't figure out. And it will swing both ways. For putting it on the metal rods, my husband actually drilled holes in the metal and in the wall and we mounted it that way. They make some patching stuff that you can fill the holes with once you take them out and you can always paint the metal rods if you need to. We had to do that once already anyway since it's an older house. Hope this helps. See the link below for the picture of the gate.
I would look at www.cardinalgates.com. At our old house, we used the "Stairway Special" kind for both the bottom and top of the stairs. They worked wonderful. We screwed them into a piece of wood, which was then screwed into the wall for the one side. We had wooden spindles and my Dad built a replica of the square clamps that they offer on the site to use on the spindle side. You'll have to do some research to see if this clamps will work on your wrought iron spindles. I don't see why they wouldn't. The lock to open and close the gate is easy, but hard for kids to understand how to use. We've moved into a single level house and use the gates on our daughters bedroom doors, so they're versatile. Good luck with your search.
Hello,
I don't know what your house design is like, but we have a gate in the hallway just before the top of the stairs instead of blocking the stairs themselves. We have a pressure mounted gate that has a walkthrough swing gate bought it at Target. We also have a pressure mounted gate at the bottom of our stairs. Good luck with your gating!
