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Thanks for the links, ladies.
Would it work for stairs like the attached photo? I tried to snap all 3 spots that would be trouble spots, but there wasn't enough room on my SD card ... in one spot, I have a support wall for the staircase leading up to our 3rd floor; in the spot shown, the base of the stairs leading to the upper levels, there is a support post but it is not even with the other side of the banister. In the last spot, the gate would either be attached spindle to spindle or wall-to-spindle.
The spindles aren't the nice, attractive, wooden spindles in a normal house. No, these are builder-special, nasty modern metal ones. (Needless to say, they're on my list of things I want to change about my house.)
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For stairways, I am now convinced this is THE BEST GATE:
http://www.cardinalgates.com/ss30a.html
A professional babyproofer recommended it to us because no matter how we tried, we couldn't get our stair gates to install well. The Cardinal gate is a sturdy (but lightweight) aluminum, not heavy like the other metal gates out there. It has a great simple latch that confounds the kids(and some grandparents), but is easy to work for adults who know how. There's video on the website.
Even though we're onto toddler #2, and we had 2 highly-recommended and expensive gates already, we needed help. The main problem for us was that the studs at the top of the stairs did NOT run directly opposite each other, such that if you wanted the gate installed on the studs (which you do) the gate was at a 30-degree angle and didn't close properly. We tried installing at normal angle by using giant anchors. B/c of the weight of the gate, and 2 years of my now-3-year-old pulling on it. We now have giant patches over the giant holes in the walls from where those anchors pulled out. We probably didn't need to replace the gate at the bottom of the stairs, but we liked the ease of use of the Cardinal so much, we got a second.
NO more expensive than other gates. Get this one. It's the best. :thumbsup:
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Wondermom, that gate looks great. Did you have a handyman install it?
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I actually had the professional babyproofer install the two gates PLUS a bunch of new cabinet latches. He had steel-spring ones that I've NEVER seen sold anywhere, and they work so much better than the plastic ones that we installed ourselves because the plastic ones just keep breaking off. I used to think using a babyproofer was ridiculous, but he charged just $45 an hour, and was able to do in less than 3 hours what would've taken my husband or me 3 weekends of naptimes to do. Worth it.