Brownstone baby gates

I know I read posts in the past years about how people have set up baby gates in their brownstone stairwells, but I can’t figure out how to do a productive archive search. We’re creating an owners triplex and will have a klutzy 2 year old and a newborn. Our architect suggested building custom gates that would be mounted to the newly replastered walls. The GC actually suggested drilling into the newel post to mount gates there. I’d like to keep both the kids’ skulls and the house intact. I don’t want to have to do repairs to the walls or the original wood after they’re safe on their own. How do people do this?

ownhs

in Family and Parenting 14 years ago

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wyckoff | 14 years ago

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A simple solution is to figure out which rooms you want to contain them in, and put in retractable gates on those doorways instead of the stairs. No matter where you put them you will have to do repairs, but the damage is minimal. We spent a small fortune on baby gates and they actually only got used once or twice. Obviously it depends on your kids’ propensity for being out of control, but after watching your two year old sliding down a flight on his belly, in control and having the time of his life, you’ll wonder why you were so paranoid. (obviously a bit more dangerous if your stairs aren’t carpeted).