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Stair gates

Now that Hugo is becoming more mobile (rolling, but not yet crawling) we're starting to think about stair gates as we live in a 3 storey house.

I'm not sure whether to get the spring loaded ones or the ones which permanently fix to the walls. I'd prefer the pressure ones as they can be removed without damage to the walls, but are the fixed ones better and safer?

Can anyone recommend a type and/or brand?

Thanks!

[Modified by: Peeptoe on 07 June 2010 20:17:23 ]

Replies

  • Our council does a free home safety check and gave us 2 free stair gates with free fitting.

    They told me that the fixed ones were safer, especially for the top of the stairs as there is no bar to trip over when the gate is open.

    He said that the fixings can just stay in the wall until we have another baby, but the gates removed. And then by the time we don't need them any more (say 5 years from now) we might want to touch up the hall paint anyway!!
  • argos has stair gates on offer just now i think ??13 each! They are the screw fix ones we bought 2 yesterday and they are fine though fiddly to fit though thats more to do with the design of our stairs.. The pressure fit ones are fine for doorways.
  • We bought two spring loaded Lindam gates about six weeks ago when our little one started shuffling about. We thought they would be better as they wouldn't damage our wall and also as you mentioned, they shut themselves.

    The shutting mechanism is definitely a bonus but if I was buying again I would probably go for the ones that screw into your wall.

    We found that the sticky pads stick securely to the wall but have noticed that our gate frame seems to be sliding off the sticky bits ever so slightly... Surely this is not a good sign... :\?

    We also we had to reposition one of our pads slightly. It was stuck that securely to the wall that it brought off the paint and a bit of the plaster when we tried to move it so not sure about the 'no damage' claim either :roll:

    Sorry to be such a pessimist!
  • We have had lindam pressure ones on our kitchen door since baby was born, more to keep the dog out of the way while lo is playing. I have found them fantastic. My only problem is my dog keeps jumping up on it & we've had to push the bottom of it back into the door frame, but that's it.
  • Hi, I prefer the ones that fix to the wall, especially for stairs. We have tried using the pressure gates for stairs, but they never seem that secure to me. They are ok on a solid doorway - but I also found they worked their way loose over time, and we had one fall on lo once! He was a v boisterous toddler though, and used to hang off them! We changed to all screw fixed after that.

    We found our pressure gate did mark our walls as well - it left a dent.

    I have just worked out that we will probably have stairgates up for about a decade in the end - through all our 3 children! So it's worth putting a few screws in the walls. I find I use them for containment as well as safety - our youngest is 2 now, but we won't be getting rid of ours yet!

    xx
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