The Elusive Baby Gate & the Persnickety Spiral Staircase or Retractable Gates Anyone?

[Starkyshark]

So the short version of this post goes something like this:

Has anyone had any experience installing a baby gate at the top of a spiral staircase? (I did a search for spiral staircase on this forum and the posts were like from 2004 and 2006, so I was hoping someone has had a more recent experience.)

and/or

Has anyone been using a retractable baby gate they like? More specifically, is anyone using Retract-a-Gate? I know Baby Bargains recommends KiddyGuard Retractable Mesh Safety Gate, but, of the two brands, only Retract-a-Gate is JPMA certified.

Also, this might be a long shot: is anyone using a retractable gate, with a spiral staircase, and also has cats? (The cats like to hang out upstairs, and I'd feel bad about cutting them off from being up there--or getting back downstairs for food/water/litter.)

But to give you some background, here's the long version of this post:

So I have been researching baby gates and finally decided to go with one of the ones on sale at BRU this weekend. This one in fact: Summer Infant Sure and Secure Extra Tall Walk-Thru Gate. The Summer Infant brand was on sale for 25% off, plus I had a coupon for 20% off all baby gates $49.99 or more. I was considering myself lucky: I just scored a $60 gate for approximately $35.

But once we got it home, there was just no way to attach it to the top of our stairs. You see, we have a metal spiral staircase. Here's a picture of it, actually (feel free to click the thumbnail for more detail):



The interesting thing about that photograph is that it's a picture we took last year when we were looking for houses to buy. After studying that picture a little more closely, I noticed that the previous owners bought one of those retractable gates. Like Retract-A-Gate or the one Baby Bargains suggested, KiddyGuard Mesh Playfence .

Now, at this time, we're looking for a baby gate that will fit at the TOP of the stairs rather than the bottom. This is because my son is just starting to crawl, and I'd like to be able to let him roam while I work on my dissertation, and upstairs is carpeted (downstairs is not) and he'd have more space to roll, crawl and play than in his playyard downstairs. So, I'm wondering if a retractable baby gate is what we need at the top of the stairs.

Here's what the top of our stairs looks like (this is another picture of the house under previous ownership):



The Summer Infant gate I bought a couple days ago cannot be installed across the top because the metal handrail on the left side is in the way. If we make it wider (to bypass the metal handrail), then there's no where to pressure mount or screw into because the wall just isn't long enough. Also, it probably goes without saying, but these gates are not equipped to be installed on a diagonal (we'd have to do something fancy with a saw we do not own to cut 2x4s on angles in order to make a flat surface).

My husband and I are not comfortable with mounting a 2x4 to "extend" the wall (and thus being able to mount the gate to the 2x4) because we'd need to mount 2 or 3 2x4s to even get the "wall" in line with the railing on the right hand side (which is not shown in the picture above--but there's a little metal railing/banister on the right hand side, and if we used 2 y-spindles, we'd be able to mount it on the right hand side at least).

The retractable baby gates seem really expensive at around $99 or so. But it seems as though, for this particular spiral staircase set-up, it might be the only option. I'm actually surprised that the previous owners had a retractable gate because they are kind of expensive--because based on the quality of the "remodeling" projects they did in this house, they seemed like they were "cheapest as humanly possible" kind of people. So if even THEY had a retractable gate, I'm guessing that it's my only real option?

A perk of the retractable gates, too, seems to be that if we buy additional mounts, we can set it up downstairs for when the baby starts walking and just move it upstairs when necessary (by the time he starts walking, I should be DONE with my dissertation!). This would effectively cut the cost of the gate in half, since it's like two gates for the price of one. Plus, I'm sure we'd run into the same problem the previous owners did: we'd need to install a gate on an angle at the bottom of the stairs as well.

Okay, I *think* that's all the information/questions about the spiral staircase and retractable mesh gates I can possibly provide/ask. Your feedback will be most appreciated!

[Starkyshark]

So after several more hours of fiddling with the Summer Infant baby gate purchased at BRU, we ended up ordering the Retract-a-Gate. I even ordered an extra set of wall brackets to put at the bottom of the stairs for when my son starts walking (so we can move the gate when needed). In case anyone needs it, I used this coupon code: halfoffbrackets -- it's been circulating for a couple of years, but it still works as of 9/12/2011. It made the decision to buy an extra set of brackets a no-brainer for me since it was only $6.50.

Once we get it installed and use it, I'll post some pictures for future reference in hopes that our situation might help other people with spiral staircases make an informed decision.

[Starkyshark]

The good news: I ordered a Retract-A-Gate at 1:00am on Sept 12th, it shipped the same day and it arrived by Wed Sept 14th. But then my husband and I spent HOURS trying to install the gate, and nothing we do seems to get the slack out of the gate. And we're pretty smart and we're pretty handy, so there's something wrong here.

Here's a slideshow I created of the Retract-A-Gate installed at the top of the spiral staircase.

No matter what we do, we cannot get the mesh tight. The top rail isn't tight. And the bottom isn't tight either. In fact, we can lift up the bottom rail mesh about 3.5 inches high while the gate is locked, which doesn't sound like a lot, but then I demonstrated to my husband that we could actually pass our 6 month old son under that gap without trapping him or even really squeezing him where it'd be uncomfortable.



My husband was shocked because he didn't think it'd be possible. Honestly, I didn't think it'd be possible either, I was really just trying it to "talk" myself into thinking that this is how the gate should operate. But obviously, the Retract-A-Gate website says there should only be 1/4 inch of "give." So something is not right.

We have the gate installed on an angle at the top of our spiral staircase, but the brackets are in line with each other. We have a baseboard, but we also are using spacers on the brackets to make sure they're all equally spaced from the wall.

We went searching for people who have had our problem. The closest I could find were videos on YouTube of cats squeezing under a similar gap created by slack of the Retract-A-Gate. I found this blog post about how awesome Retract-A-Gates are and one of the commenters named Bev mentioned that after a few months of use, the spring in the locking mechanism didn't keep tension anymore. She contacted the company and within an hour, they told her to try the following:

"Pass the handle rod counter-clockwise back through and between the reel of fabric and the rear tie rod. Doing this once or twice will add tension to the mesh/spring. Only do it one turn at a time, then test and don't go more than about 3 turns total. The easiest way to do this is to pull the mesh out about 1-2 feet, set the lock, then do as described above."

So we tried that as well and we still cannot get the mesh tight when the gate is locked.

I wrote the company an email this morning at 3AM, telling them everything I've said here basically (including the trick we found on from Bev the Commenter) and they replied at 9:17AM (a timely response, which is awesome):

"Thanks for your Retract-A-Gate order. We are sorry to hear you are having problems with the installation of your gate. If you could send us some photos of the installation, we would then be able to fully evaluate your situation and offer the best suggestion.

Thanks, and let us know if you have any other questions."

So that's why I ended up taking all the pictures in that slideshow. I sent that email off at 12:27. I also tagged them so anyone in the future looking for this information will hopefully be able to find it easily.

At 12:34, Retract-A-Gate replied:

"Thanks for sending the pictures. We will fully evaluate them and get back to you as soon as we can."

I do appreciate how quickly they're responding. Here's hoping they can help us out. Will update with exciting conclusion when it's all over.

[Kymberley]

Yikes! The pic with your child is scary! Our stairs are weird, not spiral, just weird, and we had to install 2 2X4s in order to get our Kidco gate to work. It's not a pretty site. I hope they can give you a solution that works!

[weech]

This makes me want to go home and check my own gates. We have regular staircases right next to each other (one up, one down) and two retract-a-gates installed. Our 17 month old and our two small dogs have never been able to get under either gate. We love them.

[Starkyshark]

So your Retract-a-Gates are tight? You haven't had a problem with there being slack in the mesh?

[Starkyshark]

Oh man... I have an ethical dilemma. Retract-A-Gate.com contacted me this evening and said this:

After review of your information, we've determined that we would like to have you send the gate back for evaluation and we can process your refund at that time. We don't recommend modifying the gate in any way and don't advise following other suggestions on the internet without our guidance since that may cause the gate to malfunction. The gate works very well for the vast majority of installations and locations so that's why it would be simpler to just have you return the gate.

Also, were you planning to remove the photos from photo bucket? You can email them to us if you wish and we can keep them on file since we're concerned that they may be misinterpreted by other potential customers and it doesn't represent most users experience.

If this sounds acceptable to you please reply to let us know and then as a special offer for your inconvenience, we can also forward you a return label and refund your shipping amount to make the process very easy for you.

We look forward to your reply.

My questions are this:

1. Are they only going to give me a refund if I take my pictures off PhotoBucket?

2. Should I take the pictures down (regardless of the possibility of a refund)? I don't feel like I should. I feel like there is very little information about Retract-A-Gate online in general and all information is good information when making a decision.

[Starkyshark]

Can you install the KidCo retractable gate on an angle?

[Kymberley]

Can you install the KidCo retractable gate on an angle?

I wish I had an answer for you. We have the swinging gate. It was a huge PITA to install, but it is very safe.

[weech]

So your Retract-a-Gates are tight? You haven't had a problem with there being slack in the mesh?

I just checked. You can push the mesh down at the top, and you can pull it up at the bottom, but only a little... my kid might be able to stick his leg under it, but his whole body would not fit. I'm not worried at all. The gates are awesome.