https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 31 May 2026 03:15:56 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830588 Tue, 26 Jun 2018 05:24:18 +0000 babybean404 2830588@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: the retract a gate is super sturdy! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830579 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 22:10:41 +0000 PinkElephant 2830579@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@superkate: thank you, that’s helpful! You did an awesome job making it look tidy and hidibgvthe zip ties - that wouldn’t bother me at all! 🙂 </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830578 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 22:09:59 +0000 PinkElephant 2830578@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Foodnerd81: that’s so funny you want to ditch your doors,, because I told DH when we bought this house we should ADD French doors to either the living or dining room (or both) to make the rooms more useful to us until we are in a season of life where it makes more sense to use them for their intended purpose. I still think that even though they’d look a little weird, they’d let me hide playroom mess and soundproof a bit! The grass is always greener, right?!</p> <p>DD3 has unexplained gross motor delays - she doesn’t walk alone at 20 months..so I’ve got no idea whether one day this will all click suddenly, or if we’ve got a long road to things like stair climbing...so with that in mind I need to do a baby proofing solution I can deal with long term. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830577 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 22:03:26 +0000 superkate 2830577@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: We only used two zip ties and three velcro straps per post. The gate has been up for over a year and it is still tight. Here's a photo. </p> [attach=7535/18/pawttq.235x600.20180625_220216.jpg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830575 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 21:35:03 +0000 Foodnerd81 2830575@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@PinkElephant: our “formal living room” is also a playroom! But the dining room on the other side has double doors that we could shut to keep the area closed off before she could do the handles. Sounds like a similar set up except you don’t have an unreasonably high number of doors (we plan to remove a few when we renovate! But i agree with you on the reasoning for the top of stairs gate- we did ours for the same reason. And yes our condo was 100 times easier to baby proof! My youngest is 2.5 and she can do the stairs fine on her own and it’s been a big milestone for me :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830574 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 21:30:20 +0000 PinkElephant 2830574@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Thank you everyone for giving me some good gates to research and things to think about!</p> <p>@erinbaderin: I've seen people do this and I think you're right that it's probably one of the best/easiest solutions there is. I probably could stain the 2x4's to blend in with the woodwork a little bit better.</p> <p>@Ms. RV: I totally agree with you on gating DD's room! It is the door all the way to the left; the one in the middle leads to the ensuite bathroom attached to her room. I'm already planning to gate off her room with a door-gate, and the door from her room to the bathroom with a basic tension gate in preparation for the time when she can reach/turn doorknobs. I think I still need to gate the stairs because our upstairs hallway is kind of an L/C shape, and I'd like DD to be able to follow me and her sisters around during bedtime and not be confined to her room. You can't tell from the picture, but the walkways of the hallway are about 6 ft wide, and her two sisters bedrooms have a jack and jill bathroom between them (no access from the main hall), so she could still sneak around any gate I put across the hallway anyway if someone leaves a door open (which my 4 and 6 year olds almost always do!)..Plus I would always want her to be able to access me, and we're at opposite ends of the C. We were able to gate the hallway in other places we lived with our older kids when they were babies, and it was sooo much easier that way, you're right!</p> <p>@superkate: Thanks! I'm glad to hear another vote that this method does work. If you had to guess, how many zip ties did you need to use per side for the boards to feel secure?</p> <p>@babybean404: That's a good point considering I've got other kids (and a clumsy hubby) to think about. Do you think the retractable gates are too fragile for (ie., likely to be broken by) young children?</p> <p>@MrsBucky: Thank you! A local friend told me a family member has them and that while they were $$$, they seemed really nice. Do you feel like it's pretty sturdy? I don't mind spending for a good (and easy! key point, easy!) solution - but I also don't want to set myself up for my older kids breaking the gate in the first week!</p> <p>@Foodnerd81: Now that you say that, I remember you're right - I think the concern is just that at the top, they could lean on the gate and pop it out of place, then tumble down with it - there's not the same leverage on the bottom. Like you were, I'm also terrified of the falling backwards thing. Prior to this weekend climbing incident, she'd just go up maybe 2 stairs - but she'd tip her head back to look up the rest of the staircase, and I was sure she was going to topple backwards onto the marble. Ouch! Our foyer is super open (our whole downstairs is) - I originally thought I could gate off the sides of the playroom (what should be a formal living room), but that has an 8ft or so opening on two sides (foyer and dining portion of the kitchen)...so not as easy of a fix as it should be.</p> <p>I'm quickly realizing it was waaay easier to baby proof an apartment and a brownstone with narrow doorways than it is to figure out how to limit a baby's access in modern, open-plan houses! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830573 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 21:26:23 +0000 Shantuck 2830573@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have large pillars and were still able to find an adapter kit that worked. </p> [attach=2794/18/paws3z.450x600.AC8FDBDD-C90C-445C-A348-0F6EA46DB473.jpeg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830563 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 20:12:47 +0000 superkate 2830563@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erinbaderin: Agree with this! The ziptie/wood method is what we did at the bottom of our stairs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830561 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 19:16:39 +0000 babybean404 2830561@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I highly recommend the retractable gate. It is expensive but it’s so nice to not have to worry about tripping over the threshold. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830465 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 08:14:17 +0000 Ms. RV 2830465@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Can you block off somewhere in the hall at the top instead? Like is DDs room one of the rooms in the background on the second picture maybe you could block off next to the stairs (and use a pressure mounted safely)? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830463 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 08:11:20 +0000 erinbaderin 2830463@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Zip tie pieces of wood to each bannister and drill into those. It won’t look great but it won’t damage anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830457 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 07:51:06 +0000 MrsBucky 2830457@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a retract-a-gate, which is expensive but worth it to me. They can be mounted using zip ties and the long pieces of plastic they come with. You should be able to buy longer zip ties at a hardware store to replace the ones that come with. My parents use moleskin between the wood and the plastic to protect it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830455 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 07:45:37 +0000 Foodnerd81 2830455@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think pressure mounted gates are fine in the bottoms of the stairs, just not recommended at the top of the stairs. </p> <p>Our bottom of the stairs looked similar and at first we did a pressure mounted gate two stairs up (because of the placement of the bannister). But at the time my younger one would then climb the two stairs and hang on the gate and I was afraid she would lose her balance and fall backwards into the stone tile at the base of the stairs. We ended up blocking off the foyer- like a wide gate blocks the entrance to the foyer from the living room. And there is already a door on the other side. But the time she learned how to open doors she was safe on the stairs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830454 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 07:38:48 +0000 Becky 2830454@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a pressure mounted gate, as does my MIL. It works well. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/stair-baby-gate-help#post-2830451 Mon, 25 Jun 2018 07:33:12 +0000 PinkElephant 2830451@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I realized this weekend we need to get some stair gates up, pronto. DD3 still isn’t walking, but she got upstairs scary quick this weekend without anyone realizing it. Thankfully nothing bad happened, but I can’t let it happen again. </p> <p>Our bannisters are very thick (5-6 inch) pillars at the top and bottom. DH won’t let me drill into them, and it looks to me like the traditional stair adapter kits won’t fit something so wide. Any ideas for products or DIY hacks? At the bottom I might be able to wall mount on one side and go up one step to use the decorative metal bannister on the other, but at the top I’m stuck with the huge wood bannisters, I think. I was under the impression that pressure mounted gates are not good for stairs, although I think they actually might work in our situation if they’re not dangerous. </p> [attach=2883/18/pavpjc.600x450.847605C2-5E66-4E10-A3ED-D8B1EEB6724B.jpeg] [attach=2883/18/pavpje.600x450.C48C6556-9985-4662-BDDB-B0FFC45867D0.jpeg]