Product Information: Gates
If you have a baby and stairs in your home, you need safety gates. Safety gates are not only used to keep children from falling down stairs but out of windows, away from "off limits" areas and from escaping your supervision. Choosing from amongst the many different types of gates with different features and prices can be confusing. Checking internet reviews only gives you a very narrow perspective. It is not likely that the reviewers have gone out, brought several gates home, installed each to find which one was better. Their homes are not the same as yours and their circumstances may not apply to you. Contacting a trained professional, who stocks and installs several lines of gates would be a better way of helping you select what will work best for you.
There are two types of gates:
1) Hardware Mounted - stay up by being screwed to walls
or
2) Pressure-mounted - stay up by pushing into place.
1) Hardware Mounted Gates
If you need a gate for the top of stairs, Hardware Mounted Gates are the only thing to use. In other words, if you want to be safe the gate must be screwed into the wall. Pressure Gates are dangerous because they can be pushed out. Mounted gates generally need to have two flat surfaces on either side for the gates fixtures to work. Most homes have baseboards, which interfere with this flat surface. This is where people have a hard time trying to get a gate to fit. But rather than trying for find a gate that fits, you need to find a way to make flat surfaces on either side of where you want to put the gate. Depending on what combination you have on either side of the opening, gyproc or plaster, wood or metal railings and baseboards along the floor, you usually need to install wood fittings. see www.babysecure.ca/products/gates-hole-free-mounting-kits They create the appropriate level surface to safely install these gates. Finding a stud is the best place to screw a gate in but it is rare that you can find one in the place where you want the gate to go . Plastic wall anchors are not sufficient to sustain the weight, the wear and tear of frequent use or a child swinging on it. The Gate Mounts will help to disperse the weight of the gate to solid wood and come with the appropriate spring loaded wall anchors to assure secure installation.
Different gates have different hinge and opening/closing mechanisms, making one more appropriate than another for your needs. Choose a gate where the opening mechanism can be used with one hand because you are often holding the baby in the other. Be in the habit of drawing the gate towards you when you open a gate at the tops of stairs. Pushing a gate away from you over the stairs can put you out of balance especially when carrying something in your arms. Some gates have built in or removable stoppers which do not allow for opening over the stairs.
Most gates have hinge mechanisms, which allow for a range of movement from 0 to 180 degrees. This can be useful for those who want to keep a gate opened and wrapped around to a wall or banister. Only a few allow for the opening and closing mechanism to work on an angle.
2) Pressure-Mounted Gates
Pressure gates, which stay in place by pushing up against the walls or railings, are not for use at tops of stairs. These gates are favoured for their price, because they do not make holes and can be easier to install without needing tools. However, walls are never even, nor are banisters completely solid, so there is potential for a pressure gate to give way, taking a child down with it. Many people do not stop to realize how putting pressure gates up against bannister posts my help to weaken them. Pressure gates are best used as room dividers, in the doorways between rooms or at the base of stairs.
There are two styles of pressure gates, Removable or semi-permanent, Walk Through Gates.
a) Removable Pressure Gates
Removable pressure gates need to be taken off completely to pass by. Most removable pressure gates require completely flat surfaces on either side. With few exceptions, almost none work well where there are mouldings along the floor. To take the gate off and put it back all the time is generally found to be labour intensive and a great pain. This leads to the dangerous habit of walking over. If you buy one, be prepared to use it safely. Many parents choose a removable pressure gate for the bottom of the stairs on the main level. When there are banisters on one side, they generally do not have the even surface needed for a removable pressure gate to stay up well. Also the constant pressure on the banister will lead to its weakening and long-term damage to its stability.
Removable Pressure Gates are good for temporary use as a room divider, to carry around to different rooms throughout the home, to bring when visiting or for closing of "off-limits" rooms (without doors) not frequently used.
b) Walkthrough Gates
Walkthrough Gates are semi-permanent U-shaped structures which stay in place by pressure but have a built-in doorway with a one or no-hand latching system. Instead of taking the whole gate off and on, you walk through the inner doorway. These gates are not recommended for the top of stairs because the bottom of the U becomes a threshold that would be a tripping hazard. They can work well at the bottom of the stairs as long as there is a railing towards the back of the step. If the only available post were near the edge of the stair then the threshold bar would be under your foot as you stepped down. On a flat floor surface between two rooms, care would need to be taken to remember to walk over the threshold so as not to trip.
Some walkthrough gates have wonderful features, which make them great for high traffic areas such as a kitchen doorway. Walkthrough Gates are also good where the space is either somewhat small or very wide and swinging open an entire gate would make movement around inconvenient.
3) Installing Gates
Few gate styles will fit your home. Searching far and wide to find the perfect gate is time lost. In almost all cases, you need to make your home fit the gates (See Gate Mounts).
Despite learning this, everyday we meet parents who would rather risk what might be their child's life than put holes in walls or banisters. Maybe having more information might help.
There are recently available pressure gates, where at first glance the box states they are approved to European Standards for tops of stairs. However, they are the walkthrough version (See Walkthrough gate description) of pressure gates and stay in place with a bar across the bottom of the opening. There are many reasons why this is not a safe principle but the greatest issue is this bar now becomes a tripping hazard. These gates generally require that you screw in optional mounting fixtures to assure the gate does not get pushed out. This now defeats the purpose of avoiding holes.
If a pressure gate is mounted to a banister, then the constant pressure can lead to weakening of the post. The more pressure that is needed to keep the gate in place, the more unstable the post may become, leading to an unsafe gate and a more complicated repair job.
Most pressure gates, while not requiring screwing holes, with time cause scuffing and wear marks on the surfaces they are mounted to. In the end, they will need to be repaired. We have seen homes where the parent in wishing to put the gate up with as much pressure as possible, have popped several 2 inch diametre holes into the Gyproc. A screw hole would have been much easier to repair.
If there are one or two walls at the top of the stairs, there is no getting around screwing the gate into walls. Here there is no worry. Most painters would laugh at people who are reluctant to put holes in the walls, finding it simple to fix. Several years later, when the gate is no longer needed, these holes are easily filled and painted over. No one would ever know there were holes in that wall. It is usually time to paint again anyway.
If there are wooden banisters where a gate needs to be mounted, there are different strategies to avoid or reduce the number of holes (See Gate Mounts).
Where the banister post is a large 3 - 4" square along the whole height of the post, a wider 3" or 4" x 1" board or brackets clamped around it, could help to avoid screwing into the post directly. The added cost and look of this extra fixture may be a deterrent.
As with the painted walls, most wood workers would have little problem with using wood fillers to patch up holes. The bottom line is, at the top of the stairs why risk an injury for a few holes.
4) Finding a Good Looking Gate
For some, the concern about buying gates is what the gate will look like, and they want to find something to match their home. In reality there are not many choices. (BabySecure stocks the widest selection of safety gates) There is white or grey plastic, generally with a crisscross mesh look, and black or white metal and neutral stain wood with vertical bars.
Parents think of having a contractor custom-make a gate to match their banister. This usually compromises the safety. Most contractors are not aware of the legislated specifications (in Canada) for construction of baby safety gates. They also have no means of supplying a child proof opening and closing mechanism. Nimble little fingers could conceivably undo the nuts and bolts that they use. The cost is also usually much more than 5 - 10 times a regulated manufactured gate.
People think they will stain or paint the ready-made wood gates to make them look better. Unless you have enormous amounts of time, this is unrealistic. The gates already come with a wax or stain finish and all surfaces would need to be thoroughly sanded before applying anything different. Also, these gates usually have moving parts and another layer of finish may clog them up, making the gate harder to use. This sliding movement wears off the paint causing scratching marks and making the gate even less attractive.
5) Before You Buy your Gates
There is no one-size-fits-all in gates. Know the measurements of the openings you want to cover before you start shopping.
The least likely feature parents oftentimes do not stop to consider is how easy is it to use the gate. The way you open and close a gate will determine if you use the gate or not. If the gate is difficult to manoeuvre then you will start to leave it open or climb over it. Because it is not easy to find places where you can try out several gates, look to friends and their experience, or the advice of a baby roofer can help you narrow the choices.
A common wish is to find a gate that collapses out of the way when not in use. These people remember the days when we had accordion style gates. We now know that these gates lead to serious injury and would not meet current regulations for safety gates. While currently there are some styles of gates that have a form of this feature, they may not be practical for other reasons of ease of use and location. Consider a gate that is going to be more like a cut-down or Dutch door.
Before getting your gates take some time to consider where you need them and how they will fit into your day-to-day routine throughout the house. This will determine which style (mounted, removable or semi permanent) gate you will need. Recognize you may need to make adjustments to habits for the sake of your baby’s safety. Some of that recognition might be that you cannot make changes, i.e. you are likely to forget to close the basement door. While you could just a likely forget to close the gate, it may be that having a gate there as well will help you to be more careful.
6) How To Use Gates
The safest habit is to keep gates closed all the time…even if the baby is sleeping. Many people think they will leave gates open especially at night, when the baby is asleep. Unfortunately this may lead to forgetting to close it.
Be aware that you are their model. If you climb over gates, ask yourself what are you showing your child? Many adults including grandparents end up in emergency with broken limbs from a fall associated with a baby safety gate.
Once installed, realize that the banging on the screws, created by constant opening and closing can result in the gates becoming misaligned. Discourage older children from swinging on your gates. Heat, cold and humidity can cause subtle shifts in the walls or banisters. Gates that work well for a few weeks may start to not work like before. Just like a door that sticks in the door frame at different times of the year, gates need some occasional readjustment.
7) Where Do You Need Gates?
You always need a gate at the top of open staircases. In a rare home, this can be avoided by putting gates down a hallway that leads to the top of the stairs.
Often people choose to put a gate at the tops of stairs even if there is a door, for added protection when children are tall enough to open the door or in case someone forgets to close it. With a gate there, it is felt that it will be more obvious that something needs to be kept closed. This is particularly thought of when the doorway is to the main entrance to the apartment / second storey flat or to basements. In these cases, parents like having a gate so that while they are making several trips up and down the stairs, bringing in things like groceries, they can safely keep an eye on the baby.
We also need gates to block the bottom of stairs. This is usually the first place parents find a newly crawling child is causing them the greater worry. However, gates at the bottom of the stairs on the main level are generally awkward for parents to use on a daily basis. When you come downstairs, to open the gate you have to lean down to reach, putting yourself out of balance. This is especially hazardous with a baby in your arms. Frequent trips up and down stairs leads to the gate being left open. Further, gates are already unsightly and this one is usually the first thing guests see when they enter your house.
When we at BabySecure visit our clients, we counsel against a gate at the bottom of the stairs on the main level. In many cases, this idea is foreign but after some consideration, most of our clients are surprised how they did not consider the following solution
While the layout of many homes do not have this option, many can put gates across a combination of hallways, doorways to kitchens, dining rooms or living rooms instead of putting a gate directly at the bottom of the stairs. This not only makes traffic flow easier for the adults, but has the added advantage of narrowing your supervision area of the baby. As well, this strategy can help to avoid holes that will need to be patched. The selection of Walkthrough Pressure Gates, with unique features such as no-hands or automatically closing mechanisms for these passageways can add to make life-with-gates easier.
Homes with split-levels often appear to need so many gates and it seems unrealistic. Going from the bedroom level down to the basement to do the laundry can mean opening and closing up to 4 gates. If the layout on the main level can allow for it consider placing gates in other areas as suggested above. Or using the Configure or Hearth Gates and their various extensions, you can create a "box" around the up and the down stairways leaving an adult free passage within the gate.
