Help me gate these stairs!!!

[twowhat?]

This is the staircase in the house we are under contract to buy. Assuming all goes well, we need to gate these stairs at top and bottom - suggestions please!! The bottom of the stairs is all open floor space. The top will probably be easier since it's wall on both sides. And we of course don't want to mar the wood...

[KrisM]

Are you sure you have to do the bottom? For kids who are nearly 3, I would think you would be fine. We only gated the bottom when they were learning to do steps and by age 2 or so, we were done. Otherwise, I'd look at a pressure gate, since it looks like there is quite a bit of flat on the side pieces. Just bring the measurement that you need as a minimum to the store to be sure the pressure points are far enough apart.

[crl]

You could do retract a gate with two bannister kits.

Catherine

[bubbaray]

We took down our gates when DD#2 turned 3. Our stairs are carpeted, though.

[LearningAsWeGo]

You could do retract a gate with two bannister kits.

Catherine

:yeahthat:

We use these with great success.

[twowhat?]

Can anyone post a product link? I'm confused about banister kits and not quite sure what they look like...

[wellyes]

We made a homemade version for our bannister stairs:
http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz49/wellyes/829709687_p1000028.jpg

[justlearning]

We made a homemade version for our bannister stairs:
http://i812.photobucket.com/albums/zz49/wellyes/829709687_p1000028.jpg

My husband made something similar to this for us--worked great.

But I agree with the others regarding the age of your current kids. We had taken our gates down before DS turned 3.

By the way, your new house looks beautiful!!

[twowhat?]

OK, now I get it! Thanks!!

I wondered about the age and stairs...I think I'd feel better about just a top gate if the stairs are carpeted but these are not, and our girls are SERIOUS klutzes (like me). So I'm going to go ahead and gate both sides for now until they become more stable on stairs.

Thanks for the suggestions! Never would've been able to find banister kits on my own...now I am finding them on amazon. They even have gates that can attach to spindles!

[hillview]

You could do retract a gate with two bannister kits.

Catherine

LOVE those. We used about 6 sets of them
/hillary

[o_mom]

At our previous house, we used a Kidco Center Gateway with just the regular rubberized pads. We mounted it on the spindle that was at the back of the first stair and it held just fine without any banister kits.

[crl]

Can anyone post a product link? I'm confused about banister kits and not quite sure what they look like...

Here is a link to the retract a gate page which shows the bannister kit, if you scroll down.

http://www.retract-a-gate.com/prices-buy-retractable-safety-gate.html

Catherine

[jammytoast]

For those stairs I'd just slide a fabric "extendable gate" thru the bottom spindles and not tighten them on. Found ours at Walmart...

[ohiomom1121]

I didn't look at the previous links, but this is what we got for the bottom of our stairs (ours has spindles on one side and wall on the other).
Spindle kit
http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-Y-Spindle-2-Pack/dp/B000GEAKNM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1308573287&sr=1-1

Gate
http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-G15-Gateway-Through-Pressure/dp/B000058DJL/ref=pd_bxgy_ba_img_b

This is the top of stair Gate we have
http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Top-Stair-Plus-Gate/dp/B002W5RT9Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=baby-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1308573432&sr=1-1

[mnosky1]

Like PP, we just slid something through the bottom bannister slots (like a cheap expanable gate) to detour our LO from going up the steps. But we used a bottom gate for a very brief period if time -from independent walking until they were old enough to understand "dont go upstairs without us" or master stairs alone.

[SammyeGail]

We had wood stairs and took the gates down before we moved, maybe when the boys were almost 5. I was so scared they would fall down them, even a trip. I went down them once and it was horrible! We kept them open sometimes, it depended on what was going on, kwim?

Here are a ton of pics I took for someone. Yeah, some of the extra boards are uneven, we used what we had. There were planks from a bench I was re-doing. Industrial strength zip-ties from Lowes. Was great because we didn't have to drill into the banisters.

http://s449.photobucket.com/albums/qq217/sammyegail/Stair%20Gates/

[hbridge]

We had a "retractable gate" that worked great until DC was three. DC figured out how to scootche under the gate and it was deemed "worthless" for keeping her out.

Is there any other way to block off the stairs? We were able to put gates in hallways that were on either end of the stairway. The result was DC was not able to access the stairs or the front door...

[crl]

We had a "retractable gate" that worked great until DC was three. DC figured out how to scootche under the gate and it was deemed "worthless" for keeping her out.

Is there any other way to block off the stairs? We were able to put gates in hallways that were on either end of the stairway. The result was DC was not able to access the stairs or the front door...

Hmm, what brand was it? Ours can definitely be scooted under if it isn't locked, but even our Golden Retriever puppy can't get under if we remember to lock it.

Catherine

[WatchingThemGrow]

Is there any other way to block off the stairs? We were able to put gates in hallways that were on either end of the stairway. The result was DC was not able to access the stairs or the front door...
:yeahthat: A friend hired a professional babyproofer who did just that! He gated the hallway so that there was no fumbling with a gate right at the top of the staircase. It made complete sense to me!

And OP, I can see why you'd want to gate them if your previous home did not have a staircase AND you have 2yo twins to care for while you unpack. I would be doing the same thing!

[SammyeGail]

And OP, I can see why you'd want to gate them if your previous home did not have a staircase AND you have 2yo twins to care for while you unpack. I would be doing the same thing!

:yeahthat:

We gated our stairs before we even moved in! The twins were 18 months old, but I would have done it if they were 2 or 3!

Just my opinion, but hardwood stairs make me more scared than carpeted ones. Ours were high gloss, making them seem more slippery.

BTY, your staircase is absolutely beautiful!!

[twowhat?]

Thanks for all the suggestions and cool ideas! I like the one about just sliding a cheapo gate between the spindles - that might actually work because our girls are just not that persistent in testing barriers.

The wood scares me too a little, esp since there's not really a landing in the middle. And the girls are going to WANT to go up and down - every open house we went to had them making a beeline for the stairs because it's such a novelty. Our agent suggested doing a stair runner, which could still look pretty. We'll see. For now the stairs will just have to be off limits unless we can be supervising.

I thought about how we could gate off access to the stairs without gating the stairs themselves (one of my friends gated off their entire front entry, so you access the front door and the stairs through the gate, which happens to also be great for keeping your dogs from charging visitors at the front door!). Unfortunately won't work for this house. The stairs are almost urban-loft-like - right smack in the middle of the open living space. Makes for a really pretty staircase presentation though!

I like that retract-a-gate too! Nice so you don't have a gate swinging out anywhere!

[hbridge]

Hmm, what brand was it? Ours can definitely be scooted under if it isn't locked, but even our Golden Retriever puppy can't get under if we remember to lock it.

Catherine

DC had actually unhooked part of the gate and gotten under it that way. It was definitely a safe install, just no match for my super determined child :)