Stair gate fixing to plasterboard/stud wall?

[KennyPowers]

Hi all,

Mid-90s build house. Looking at fitting either a fixed or pressure baby stair gate at the top of the stairs.

The wooden bannister side should be sturdy enough to either fit screws or push against, but the other side I'm not so sure.

It is a hollow plasterboard wall with the bathroom on the other side. Not sure if there are wooden studs behind or not.

I don't think rawl plugs are up to the task. Any ideas?

Cheers.

 

[HERTS P&D]

A piece of 18mm ply, approx 200mm wide x 900mm high fixed to the wall. Then baby gate fixed to ply.

Andy

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Is the gate wide enough, or could be made wide enough to go at a diagonal? The will be a timber stud where the door frame is.

Other that that, fix a piece of timber to the plaster board with several plasterboard fixings, then gate to the timber and newel post.

 

[KennyPowers]

I think the wooden baton on the plasterboard as suggested is probably the best way forward, to spread the load.

Where's a good place to source small bits of plywood? Guessing B&Q and Wickes only sell huge sheets of the stuff.

Cheers

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Where's a good place to source small bits of plywood? Guessing B&Q and Wickes only sell huge sheets of the stuff.

They will usually cut it for you, but you pay for the whole sheet. A small local hardware shop might have a part sheet in the back somewhere.

 

[SFK]

I would use some pine instead of a whole sheet of ply.
Both B&Q and Wickes sell pine in smaller size that you can easily cut to length using a normal saw.

Pine also nicer to paint white gloss to match your other woodwork.

Look at Finshed timber
https://www.diy.com/departments/bui...hing-timber/DIY1287158.cat?sort=product.price

Sfk

 

[KennyPowers]

Thanks guys, I'll source some wood at some point before I order the gate.

I was going to use the plastic general purpose wall plugs, but perhaps would be better to use the metal self-drill type plugs.

As the bathroom is on the other side of the wall, I think I might borrow a stud/pipe/wire finder to make sure I don't drill into anything.

 

[SFK]

My link did not work. - seems I cannot copy B&Q links.

On B&Q website use their search for

"Finishing Timber"

And sort by price or thickness of wood.

Wickes also have good supply of finished smaller pine wood.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

If the gate is the pressure type, the spreader doesn't need fixing to the wall, the pressure will hold it in place. As mentioned something like a 1/2" x 3" pine would do.

 

[KennyPowers]

It seemed to suggest in the product info bit on Amazon that pressure gates are not recommended for top of stairs.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Probably not but many do. I know we did.

 

[KennyPowers]

Well, I'm struggling to find a suitable wall fix one at the moment, so may end up down the pressure gate route anyway. (Most of the popular ones on Amazon are pressure ones)

 

[SFK]

wall fix

I found Argos was easier to find as they have a tick box for that option.
https://www.argos.co.uk/search/baby-gate/fixing:screw-fit/opt/sort:price/

Also, I always taught my kids to go down stairs backwards from as soon as they could crawl - which they then did automatically (no idea where I heard that from).
Was useful as was less worried about single steps and them going face first and when at other peoples houses.

edit....
Seems that others also do this:
hhttps://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&source=hp&ei=JNjQX4vtOeadlwS4zo6QAg&q=teach+baby+to+crawl+down+stairs

SFK

 

[KennyPowers]

To be honest, I'm thinking of just using a pressure gate at the top of the stairs now, like Freddie Mercury's Twin said above.

Maybe in conjunction with the 'Wall Nanny' pads from Amazon to spread the force on the walls.

Less faff.