Baby and Pet Gates

Safe, Solid Gates for Stairs, Doorways and Hallways

The moment a baby starts crawling, the house looks different. Stairs, kitchens, laundry rooms and front doors all become places a little one can get into trouble fast. Parents install gates so they can turn their back for a minute without worrying, and pet owners use them to keep dogs off the stairs, out of the nursery or away from an open front door. A gate only works if it is tall enough that a toddler can’t climb over it and anchored well enough that it won’t give when a child pulls on it or a dog leans against it.

Stairs are where most gate installs get tricky. The banister and the wall are almost never on the same plane: the banister post sits out from the stairs, the baseboard on the wall sticks out at the bottom, and the steps themselves get in the way. Line a gate up with one side and the other side is crooked, loose or leaves a gap. Metal and round banisters add another problem, because the brackets in the box are made for flat wood, and nobody wants holes drilled in their railing. And at the top of the stairs, a pressure-mounted gate isn’t enough. It needs to be mounted with hardware so it can’t be pushed out.

That’s where we come in. We build custom spacers out of sturdy wood and fasten them with screws, so both sides of the gate sit plumb, square and on the same plane. On the banister, the spacer clamps around the post instead of drilling into it, so the railing isn’t damaged. On the wall, a mounting board screwed into the stud clears the baseboard and gives the brackets something solid to grab. We paint the spacers to match, so the gate looks like it belongs there, and before we leave we test the latch, the swing and how it holds when you push and pull on it.