Baby gates - stairway banister help

MeatballEsq

Okay so I know baby gates have been discussed at length on here, probably a while ago, but hey, my kid just finally needs one. Oh and our house is a death trap. Our stairway is wooden with banister/spindles on both sides, not walls. I bought a banister specific baby gate yesterday from Babies R Us, but apparently our banisters are too thick at the bottom and likely the spindle at the top is too thick too.

So I need advice! Drilling into it really isn't an option or at least not one that I'm open to exploring yet. I'm trying to find a way around it. 

Here's a photo of the top of the staircase. The bottom is similar to this.

The bottom banister part is 5" thick on each side and the banister gates I've seen go up to like 3 3/4".

So...any suggestions?

Holly_1007

We just slide ours in between the spindles (Is that what they are called? The sections of the railing?) at the bottom of the stairs.  Its not bomb proof by any means but better than nothing. Can you try that?

MeatballEsq

StacieP76 said:

The other option is ziptieing a piece of wood to the banister so you have a flat surface to mount too. https://foxfamilyincary.blogspot.com/2011/07/installing-baby-gate-without-drilling.html?m=1

The one I bought basically did this, but the zipties weren't big/long enough. I'm guessing we could buy bigger zipties and do this. Thanks!

Also I checked out cardinal gates and that might work. I actually called them and just emailed them photos and they are going to call me back and suggest what accessories we would need (because a few on their site were for smaller banisters).

Thanks so much for the suggestion!

danabsd

I haven't read the responses yet but we have a wall and a similar pillar on one side.  I had ordered the pressure mounted gates and Y-Spindle and they did not feel secure at all so last night I pulled the trigger on these with this.  I can review them after this weekend.

danabsd

StacieP76 said:

Go to the Cardinal gates website. Look at the stairway special gate and under accessories look at the brackets they have for the banisters. They are basically a clamp that goes around the bannister to give you a flat surface to mount to. No drilling into the bannister.

Or you know, this.

MeatballEsq

Holly_1007 said:

We just slide ours in between the spindles (Is that what they are called? The sections of the railing?) at the bottom of the stairs.  Its not bomb proof by any means but better than nothing. Can you try that?

That might work at the bottom of the staircase for us, but the top staircase doesn't have spindles on the top step. Not sure if this makes sense or if you can tell by the photo, but then when you go down a step, the spindles wouldn't line up on the right. 

Holly_1007

tonir319 said:

Holly_1007 said:

We just slide ours in between the spindles (Is that what they are called? The sections of the railing?) at the bottom of the stairs.  Its not bomb proof by any means but better than nothing. Can you try that?

That might work at the bottom of the staircase for us, but the top staircase doesn't have spindles on the top step. Not sure if this makes sense or if you can tell by the photo, but then when you go down a step, the spindles wouldn't line up on the right. 

Yeah, I get what you are saying.  I guess its better to have something than nothing. If he gets down one stair its not as bad as if he gets down all of them? But I also posted before I saw all those fancy gate contraptions. FWIW The one we use at the bottom of the stairs is actually on the 2nd step, so the kids can still get up the first step, but like I said, better 1 step than the whole staircase.

hmp1

Our rail is thick enough to just do a tension mount. Yours looks like the same size if not bigger. Have you tried that? No movement at all in the 2 years they have been up.

MeatballEsq

Holly_1007 said:

tonir319 said:

Holly_1007 said:

We just slide ours in between the spindles (Is that what they are called? The sections of the railing?) at the bottom of the stairs.  Its not bomb proof by any means but better than nothing. Can you try that?

That might work at the bottom of the staircase for us, but the top staircase doesn't have spindles on the top step. Not sure if this makes sense or if you can tell by the photo, but then when you go down a step, the spindles wouldn't line up on the right. 

Yeah, I get what you are saying.  I guess its better to have something than nothing. If he gets down one stair its not as bad as if he gets down all of them? But I also posted before I saw all those fancy gate contraptions. FWIW The one we use at the bottom of the stairs is actually on the 2nd step, so the kids can still get up the first step, but like I said, better 1 step than the whole staircase.

Basically the right side drops down with the step and the left side doesn't, so I couldn't even put it down a step.  If I did it at the bottom it would actually be up above the landing, so he's going to be up 2 steps as it is with any gate, so I get what you mean about something being better than nothing!

MeatballEsq

hmp1 said:

Our rail is thick enough to just do a tension mount. Yours looks like the same size if not bigger. Have you tried that? No movement at all in the 2 years they have been up.

It is definitely thick enough at the bottom, and I thought about that, but I'm not sure what to do at the top. There's not really anywhere to tension mount it because the spindle is tapered, so it's not a flat surface KWIM?

MeatballEsq

danab_sd said:

StacieP76 said:

Go to the Cardinal gates website. Look at the stairway special gate and under accessories look at the brackets they have for the banisters. They are basically a clamp that goes around the bannister to give you a flat surface to mount to. No drilling into the bannister.

Or you know, this.

Let me know how it works! I'm hoping they have a clamp for bigger banisters, because like the other ones I've seen this one only goes up to 3 3/4" and our banister is 5" on each side.

MeatballEsq

StacieP76 said:

They have one for oversized banisters https://www.cardinalgates.com/spc.html. Is the round part larger than 3 3/4 also?

I actually didn't measure the round part. I need to tonight!

MeatballEsq

Thanks again for all your help ladies! Connor and his noggin thank you too!

hmp1

tonir319 said:

hmp1 said:

Our rail is thick enough to just do a tension mount. Yours looks like the same size if not bigger. Have you tried that? No movement at all in the 2 years they have been up.

It is definitely thick enough at the bottom, and I thought about that, but I'm not sure what to do at the top. There's not really anywhere to tension mount it because the spindle is tapered, so it's not a flat surface KWIM?

Same but it doesn't move. I can shake really hard, the boys can shake it/stand on the gate and lean back, hasn't moved.

MeatballEsq

cheeseandrice said:

All I have to add- I have that Cardinal Stairway Special gate and we love it.

I just got off the phone with them and I think it's going to work! They have some larger clamps. Woohoo! So I'll do that for the top, then the bottom one, I'll either do a slide through the spindles thing or a pressure mounted (f it will mount on the slanted/tappered spindles).

MeatballEsq

hmp1 said:

tonir319 said:

hmp1 said:

Our rail is thick enough to just do a tension mount. Yours looks like the same size if not bigger. Have you tried that? No movement at all in the 2 years they have been up.

It is definitely thick enough at the bottom, and I thought about that, but I'm not sure what to do at the top. There's not really anywhere to tension mount it because the spindle is tapered, so it's not a flat surface KWIM?

Same but it doesn't move. I can shake really hard, the boys can shake it/stand on the gate and lean back, hasn't moved.

Good to know! Thanks for the photo too.

danabsd

tonir319 said:

hmp1 said:

Our rail is thick enough to just do a tension mount. Yours looks like the same size if not bigger. Have you tried that? No movement at all in the 2 years they have been up.

It is definitely thick enough at the bottom, and I thought about that, but I'm not sure what to do at the top. There's not really anywhere to tension mount it because the spindle is tapered, so it's not a flat surface KWIM?

This is how ours is and the pressure mounted one made me feel super uncomfortable.