pressure gate for top of stairs?

[Sarah1]

Does anyone use one of those pressure gates (as opposed to the kind you have to mount w/hardware) at the top/bottom of their stairs? If so, how do you like it? I'm trying to avoid installing a ton of hardware, since we probabyl will be moving out of our place within the next few years. Would love any input! Thanks!

[Momof3Labs]

Pressure gates are not for use at the top of the stairs because when someone (or baby) leans on them, they can give way and baby will tumble down the stairs. Be safe and install the hardware mounted gate (it's only four mounts, not a "ton" of hardware) - drywall can be patched!!

[August Mom]

We have a hardware-mounted gate at the top of the stairs and those are the type that are recommended for this application. However, we have a pressure mounted gate at the bottom of the stairs, the Center Gateway by Kid Co., that according to Kid Co. (the box anyway) can be used at the top of the stairs as well. http://www.kidco.com/gate_dis.cfm?Gate_ID=g15 If you do go with the pressure-mounted type, please choose a quality, sturdy gate. Some of those pressure-mounted ones are really flimsy.

[jal]

We have some of the kidco g15 gates (but we don't have any stairs to worry about.

If the mounting surfaces are VERY SOUND, these gates should work great for you. The instructions pretty much tell you to tighten the bottom portion of the gate as tight as it will go. It then takes a little finess to get the top done right.

We took the gates with us on a recent vacation where we staid in a multi-story cabin where we did have to worry about stairs. I would not have been willing to use these gates there long term because the railings were not extreamly sound. I was able to tighen the bottom of the gate so that it would be ok for a week. But I was not able to properly tighen the top of the gate because the railings had lots of give.

Even at home, I had to work to get the gate to install properly. The kitchen is "open" to the living room. The "door-way" has no door, and I discovered that the molding framing the openning was not mounted directly to studs. I had to rip off the face molding so that I could insert shims between the molding in the door-way and supporting 2x4s. That way, when I tightened the screws on the gate, the pressure was transmitted to the wall supports. With out the shims, the gate was just putting presure on molding with nothing behind it. The molding would give and I couldn't get the gate tight.