retractable stair gate

[manechanger]

i would like to get one for my stairs. how do they fix to the bannisters? Is the lascal one particularly good? it seems quite expensive compared to the other one Ive found.

I am a childminder and my youngest is now 3 so I don't need a stair gate all the time, just when my mindee is here and then we are only really in the house for about 1 hour whilst she is awake. She's not very interested in going upstairs unless we are up there and since we've had a new downstairs loo fitted I don't go upstairs when she's here. I want it to work for peace of mind but it's really just a back up rather than resolutely needed. Until now I've had a babydan den opened out to divide the wide hall but I would prefer to let the children use the hall as it's brilliant for scooting in.

I like the look of the black lascal with the aluminium fold back and I'm trying to bid on a secondhand one on ebay but I'm not sure if I need the bannister fixing kit, I was planning to fix it to the newel post. Has anyone used them before? if I don't get it on ebay I'll get it using clubcard vouchers as I don't use them for anything else but I don't want to spend any major money as my income is pretty low as it is. does anyone know where I can view one.

Thanks

It will screw into the newel post, so I would imagine you'd need the fixing kit.

For an hour a day, I think I'd consider a travel, non fixed, gate.

thanks. I was thinking of that but i have had pressure gates before and they've only worked with screw in cups on the walls. Also it's quite a wide stairway and the travel gates seem to only come in limited sizes. Do they have any screw in componants?

My hall will be the last thing in a series of renovations and the newel posts and bannisters are stripped so anything that could stop more screwholes being added would be a bonus. The other issue with a travel gate is how it stores. I currently have a baby dan den to store, a phil and ted and two pressure gates. I'm going to get rid of the pressure gates but if I get a smaller baby who is more curious than my current mindee I'll have to go back to the baby dan across the hallway.

I really love childminding but I hate having to have all this equipment up at weekends etc.