Top and bottom of the stairs gates

We need to get 2 more gates, one for the top of the stairs and possibly one for the bottom of the stairs. Any that you would recommend? Also, at the bottom of the stairs, do you put the gate at the very bottom on the landing, the top step or where? I think this would determine what kind of gate we would be able to get to since we have spindles all the way up the stairs.

Thanks,
Megan

 

This probably isn't very helpful, but we never put a gate on the bottom...just on top. It seemed to be fine for us.

 

We have the Kidco Safeway gate. It's metal, has a stop so it won't swing out over the stairs, and is hardware mounted. There is enough adjustment in the mounts that our wide baseboards are not a problem. I liked it so much I got the same kind to gate the livingroom. The lock is easy enough to do with one hand but the boys haven't been able to open it yet (and they can open other child safety locks and pull out and reinstall plug covers for fun). We never installed one at the bottom of the stairs because they can't get there with the livingroom gate closed. However, there is a kit available for this gate that will allow you to mount it to spindles.

 

We bought this gate that rolls into itself for the bottom of the stairs. I wouldn't put it at the top but it works great at the bottom. We really didn't have a good place to "open" the gate to at the bottom of the stairs.

 

We have this gate, the Evenflo Wide Spaces Swing Gate at the bottom of our stairs. It's marginally OK there, but I WOULD NOT use it at the top of the stairs, even though they say you can. Because it's designed for a wider space, it has a "foot" in the middle. We ended up hot-gluing this down on the step, because the twins would pull on the gate, and that foot would slide around and the gate would pop open. As long as it's glued down it works fine (every few months we need to re-glue).

At the top of the stairs we have a different gate, but I can't remember what it's called.

And a hint for stairs, if the gate needs to attach to the "newel" (that's the bottom spindly thing the railing attaches onto . . . had to look that word up!) - we zip tied some small pieces of wood to the newels, then screwed the hardware into those pieces of wood. Easier because the screws were going into flat pieces of wood rather than curved, and also when we're done with the gate and remove those pieces of wood, there won't be any holes in our newels (I need to remember this word for Scrabble).

Good luck picking one out - there really are way too many to choose from.

-Rachel

 

I agree with Ellen; we just have one at the top of the stairs and one at the "choke point" between the living area and the hallway to the stairs, it is just easier that way. We let them practice on the stairs to the first landing (3 steps) and that is it.

Good luck!

Alexis

 

I have this one at the top of the stairs -

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?p...rentPage=family

It's great because 1. it's inexpensive a $35 and 2. it works and it's easy for parents to use but not the kids.

At the bottom of the stairs I never found a gate wide enough that I liked so I bought a long art canvas and positioned it through the rungs on either side of the banisters and they can't get through it.