Would a pressure fit stair gate be ok?

[MaggieFS]

We need to get a stair gate as DS is on the verge of crawling. Reading a Which report it says screw fit should be used for the top of stairs. I absolutely want DS to be safe, but does everyone really drill into the wall?

See attached appalling diagram of the shape of our landing, green in the banister, red is where I plan to put the gate rather than directly across the top of the stairs. Would this make any difference? I just don't want to drill into the wall and wooden banister post if I don't have to. Curious as to what others do?

I would put a screw in one at the top because I’ve a pressure fit one on the kitchen door and ds can open it unless the bottom catches are twiddled.
The reason, I believe, screw fit are recommended for the top of stairs is they don’t have a bar Carothers bottom you can trip over

I’ve never had a stair gate in over 20 years of parenting four kids.
If you have a stair gate you have a false sense of security and you stop watching your child all the time. As soon as baby is mobile- you teach it safe manouvering off of objects such as chairs or beds or sofas as going backwards and this also applies to stairs. The mantra “babies go backwards” was chanted a lot in this house and it worked. One child did fall downstairs but that was due to insufficient monitoring by the person going upstairs with her at the time.
My friends son stood on the stair gate (drilled in) and it fell downstairs with him- spilling his head open.
I think so called safety things for kids actually cause more harm than good.

Across the bottom!
Having looked at your diagram the bar wouldn’t matter but ds can open pressure fit one.

We have a pressure fit exactly where you describe. It's fine. It's as far back from the stairs as possible so that if someone does trip on the bar they're extremely unlikely to go down the stairs

The issue with pressure is they can be knocked over, so Ds with lots of shaking or attempting to climb could make it fall. Once they start coming lose that's all they do.

I kept the screw in ones upstairs, when I took it down for ds I found the hole easy to cover up. I kept the pressure one I had downstairs on the living room which actually caused more damage as it ruined the paint work and everything.

Presure fit is fine for downstairs eg stopping a child climbing the stairs when you're distracted (ignore perfect pp) or getting into the kitchen.

Not safe at the top of the stairs, though. My eldest went running across the room, once, right into the pressure mounted gate. It went straight over and he planted straight onto the tiled kitchen floor. He had an awful grazed tender spot on his wrist that he was so defensive of, we took him to A&E. He was just grazed, it turned ou, but at the the top of the stairs, he could have had a serious fall.

Thanks, this is exactly what I was hoping hear - how you use them and in reality what the little darlings can or can't do with them! The reason I want it where I do is exactly so that there isn't a trip risk going directly down the stairs. I've been at friends' houses who have them and they scare me.
Unfortunately not having one isn't an option for us, DS is already very active and it just wouldn't be possible to monitor him sufficiently 100% of the time. I need to be able to put him on the floor to do chores or even just go to the loo and the landing is the best place a he already rolls under beds.

We put a pressure fit gate on the baby's bedroom door instead.

We had one there, one at the bottom of the stairs and one on the kitchen door.

We have a pressure fit gate at the top of the stairs with the minimum bottom bar, think it's called the flat step. We also bought rubber cups for the wall and the gate is totally solid, you could never shake it loose. The flat step is great too, not totally flat but flat enough you wouldn't trip on it.

^^^ I should say, LO is only 1 and perhaps when she's older a pressure fit wouldn't be as safe but she could never move it just now.

^One final thing, lol. We also bough some illuminous tape for the bottom bar so at night it glows do you can see it. It's quite good.