Our house is probably not "up to code" and the metal railing along our stairway opening has rungs that are quite far apart. My one year old has just started walking and has a small head, and I'm afraid if she lost her balance, she could fall right through. Looking at Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby, there are few products to solve this, and the one that looks the best is unavailable. Anyone have a good solution for a material that I could use to cover it. I'm thinking some sort of mesh (I'd like to be able to see through it still), and zip ties or other ties...Does a craft store sell this type of material, or Home Depot?
Yes, "Inmy30s already?!" you were right. We have 15 feet of railing that goes along our upstairs hallway that overlooks the entire staircase. We have a gate at the bottom and one in her bedroom doorway, so she is not in the upstairs hall on her own much anyway, but the other day she was wobbily walking and I thought that is she reached for one of the rails and missed, she would go right through. I ordered the mesh things from Walmart. When I went to get my credit card, I took my daughter up there and did a test...yes, she could EASILY pass through the bars. The products should be here in a few days! Thanks everyone!
Plexiglass works well. You just need to make holes in it and then use zip ties to attach it to the spindles.
You can have clear acrylic cut to size. There are several thicknesses. I found some at a glass shop. You can ask them, or drill holes in it yourself. I would probably attach it to your stair railing with some type of metal bar that goes around the railing and connects to the acrylic with screws and nuts, as long as nothing is sticking out that will catch on your clothes or poke an eye out.
Ours are not up to code inside. They climb through all the time and I wish we had new rails. The youngest who does stairs is 2, though. Just this morning a child got stuck up on the banister. I tell them DO NOT CLIMB ON THERE.
At 1, yes, I'd get a mesh thing. They do sell some products.
If the mesh ends up not working, try plexiglass.
You would have it cute to fit the entire staircase (top of rail to bottom of
rail so no gaps) but you can still see through it.
We had a carpenter install additional spindles in the gaps.
walmart has safety mesh kits for childproofing the stairs. Also, if you wanted to make your own version of a safety mesh, I woul dgo to Home depot; all you would need is to measure it and somehow secure it in place, zip ties I think would work, as long as they are secured properly
The safest bet is to put up gates at the top and bottom, and not let your kid on the stairs unsupervised. You might be able to get trellis material from home depot, cut it down to size, and use zip ties. That would do the trick too.
Good luck to you and yours,
F. B.
Go to home depot. In the garden department find the section with rolls of chicken wire and weedblock fabric.
They sell rolls of a vinyl chicken wire which is soft a flexible but strong and perfect for what you need (it's made for putting up along widely spaced fence lines to stop little animals from walking through, or around gardens between posts).
This is just an example, there are lots of choices in terms of size of mesh and color and length.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Tenax-3-ft-x-25-ft-Black-Poult...
HTH
T.
One Step Ahead sold a product for that, but the company is going through some kind of merger and was offline last time I checked. Maybe you can call their customer service number.
We just used a net we got at Babies R Us. Simple mesh. worked well for years.
Yes, the craft store will have something and you can fasten it yourself!
~Absolutely do it! My daughter fell through ours right into the hard ceramic tile on the landing in our entryway & I have to tell you that was The Scariest moment! I was afraid to look at her, lying there on the landing! Thankfully she was fine, just scared! I never would have guessed she would fit through the bars but she did! And it could have ended so badly! Still makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it! Daddy was at work when it happened & he rushed home & grabbed a piece of spare wierd wood we had in the garage, it wasn't plywood, it was something else that was sturdy like wood but plyable and he wove it in and out of the bars, like every 3-4 of them he would weave so it stayed secure!
Our spindles/bars on our railing are 4 inch apart & apparently that was big enough! My daughter was the last of 7 kids who grew up in this house, she is the only girl & the only one who fit thru.,,but it is possible, so get on it!!!
I just read other responses...I apologize if I misunderstood...I thought you were talking about the railing not the stairs? We have a CA Split type house, that opens to stairs going up & a set going down & at the top is the living room with a railing that is one whole side of the room, where the stairs are. I hope I was reading your question correctly?!
