Child Safety Gates  

Child safety gates can be very helpful to contain your active child and to keep them safe from hazards, like stairs. There are different types of child gates available to suit your requirements and all of them are intended to be used only by children from 6 to 24 months and not older. 

Basically child safety gates are of two types based on how they are installed. They can be either pressure mounted or hardware mounted. Read on to find out more about these two types of gates and which is better suited for your needs. 

Pressure mounted gates 

This type of child safety gates are held in place by pressure against walls or door frames. Typically, pressure mounted gates come with two sliding panels that can be adjusted to make the gate fit an opening and some kind of locking mechanism, like a pressure bar holds the gate in place without any hardware. These types of gates usually have vertical slats made of aluminum, steel or wood with rails at the top and bottom. 

Installation is quite easy and does not leave permanent holes on the walls as they do not require any drilling. You just need to adjust the gate and squeeze the locking mechanism on to the walls or door frames to lock them in place. 

Pressure mounted child safety gates are suitable for places like between rooms that have floors at the same level or at the bottom of the stairs which are less hazardous. It is strongly advised not to use these gates on top of the stairs. 

Hardware mounted gates 

These are more permanent gates that are fixed to studs behind walls or door frames, using brackets and screws. When fixed properly hardware mounted gates provide maximum security in keeping a child in or out of a particular area. Most of these gates are made of enamel-coated steel, wood or aluminum vertical slats with rails on top and bottom. 

Installation requires some skill as you have to drill holes to fix the gate in place. If there is no wood frame then you might have to drill through the wall to reach the wood frame inside. Hardware mounted gates can be removed when they are not needed. 

Hardware mounted child safety gates provide maximum security and so are best suited for top of the stairs. Most hardware mounted gates swing open in only one direction for added safety and some have options for you to choose the direction of swing.