Has anyone ever bought/used an angle-mounted safety gate?

mom2juliarose

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #1

We have 12 steps going from our upstairs to our downstairs, then a square landing, then 3 more steps. We need some sort of a gate on the stairs because DS makes a beeline for them and he's REALLY good at getting up the 3 steps to the landing.

The problem is how the bottom of the stairs are.

We have a bannister to the right in the pic and a wall to the left in the pic. We can't put a gate on the ground level (between bannister and wall) because as you can see, the wall on the left doesn't come all the way down to the ground, it begins on the first step.

If we put a gate on the first step, we wind up with a problem because the lower part of the bannister is wider--so there's no place to secure the other side of the gate.

It looks like our only solution is an angle-mounted safety gate that we can attach between one side to the wall on the left at the beginning of the first step and the post at the end of the bannister on the right side. (But of course another issue could be the strange gap it would leave under the gate where there is no step, closer to the right.)

I've found angle-mounted gates online but none locally. Does anyone have any experience? Or is there a solution to gating these stairs that I'm missing?

 

lawgirl5

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #2

How about the Kidco Configure gate? It can be used for odd sized areas. Might be overkill and cover an area larger than you truly need but would work. I have it angled around my computer area and love it! Very sturdy. Unlike the other one I tried that had mesh sides. NO stability whatsoever.

 

mom2juliarose

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #3

The gate I'm considering is actually a Kidco one but it is this one:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-G22-Angle-Mount-Safeway-Gate/dp/B0015GRMHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317847871&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: KidCo Angle-Mount Safeway Gate: Baby[/ame]

I think the configure would be too large for that space, and would jut out into our living room space too much (if we attached each end to the stair entry).

 

tjham

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #4

Have you thought about putting the gate three steps up or even around the corner above the landing? That's how we had to do ours and it ended up giving the grandkids a little play area that was safe. They learned to go up and down steps without being up too high. It always worked out fine.

 

Pixels

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #5

tjham said:

Have you thought about putting the gate three steps up or even around the corner above the landing? That's how we had to do ours and it ended up giving the grandkids a little play area that was safe. They learned to go up and down steps without being up too high. It always worked out fine.

Click to expand...

We did this at our last house. No landing, but we put the bottom gate on the third step to give DD a practice area.

The Evenflo gate I have, you could mount at the bottom of the stairs. When the gate is closed, the hinges would be at 90 degrees. I don't think I'm explaining well, but I could draw a lousy picture in Paint for you.

 

Angela

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #6

We used an Evenflo pressure mount gate for our 'weird' setup on our stairs. It's similar to this one:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Evenflo-Crosstown-Soft-Portable-Travel/dp/B001H0GF2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317855183&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: Evenflo Crosstown Soft Portable Travel Gate: Baby[/ame]
It was nice because you can adjust the top and bottom separately.

 

mom2juliarose

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #7

tjham said:

Have you thought about putting the gate three steps up or even around the corner above the landing? That's how we had to do ours and it ended up giving the grandkids a little play area that was safe. They learned to go up and down steps without being up too high. It always worked out fine.

Click to expand...

I have, but for right now at 10 months I'm just not comfortable with it... he gets up a step or two and sits up. Then tries going back down head-first. I don't mind giving him practice when he's older but not at this age. Especially at night when it's just me and the 2 kids. Last night I put him down to run and pee and by the time I got out (seriously, 120 seconds later) he was already up on the landing and attempting the bottom of the second set of stairs.

Pixels said:

The Evenflo gate I have, you could mount at the bottom of the stairs. When the gate is closed, the hinges would be at 90 degrees. I don't think I'm explaining well, but I could draw a lousy picture in Paint for you.

Click to expand...

I'm a visual person. Care to draw me a lousy picture?

 

Pixels

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #8

Angela said:

We used an Evenflo pressure mount gate for our 'weird' setup on our stairs. It's similar to this one:
Amazon.com: Evenflo Crosstown Soft Portable Travel Gate: Baby
It was nice because you can adjust the top and bottom separately.

Click to expand...

You're not supposed to ever use a pressure mount gate at the top or bottom of stairs. Too easy for the child to knock it loose, and then they are totally unprotected.

 

Pixels

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #9

I'm attempting pictures now. Internet being horrible tonight.

 

Pixels

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #10

Finally, over an hour later.

First picture is how the gate is normally. You're seeing the hinge end of the gate. Second picture is how you could mount it, where the hinge is turned 90 degrees when the gate is closed. Pretend my hallway is your staircase.

 

mom2juliarose

New member

• Oct 5, 2011

• #11

Ohhh I get it! Hmm... wonder if all gates come with similar hinges? That MAY just work.

 

A

Athena

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2011

• #12

mom2juliarose said:

Ohhh I get it! Hmm... wonder if all gates come with similar hinges? That MAY just work.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't count on other gates working as well. We have the same Evenflo gate and it works great.

 

canadiangie

New member

• Oct 8, 2011

• #13

My parents have that Evenflo one as well for the bizarre opening into their living room. As pp said, you can adjust the top rod and bottom rod to different lengths while in use, which is pretty handy.

Personally, unless I'm not seeing something in OP's pic, I'd feel absolutely fine using a pressure mounted gate at the *bottom* of the stairs. Yes there is a risk the gate could come down and kiddo could gain access to climbing the stairs, but I think it's a small risk (knowing how tight above mentioned gate is) assuming the gate is adjusted correctly.

I think the Evenflo one was $50CAD, and mom got it at Sears. Easy breezy.