Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The good: (+2 Stars) The gate itself is solid The bars are close enough together to be sure no child will get stuck between them The bad: (-3 Stars) The gate mounts are plastic The gate latches (one top, one bottom) are plastic The gate latches may require you to spend time fiddling with position and length of the gate's latch arms, because if everything is not perfect, it wont latch properly. The included hardware is not great quality screws. Mounting takes a reasonably competent handy man/woman since it is easy to do wrong. About: I bought this gate for the top of my stairs because I did not like the idea of having the bar from a gate frame going across the bottom because it would present a tripping hazard. I am a woodworker and also do home construction for Habitat for Humanity, so I am probably a little more handy than an average homeowner. That said, this gate was easy to mount, but difficult to mount correctly. Hinge attachment: Each of the 4 corners of the gate have telescoping screws that give you a lot of flexibility with regard to the gate's position relative to the wall as well as it's tilt. Very handy for mounting on uneven surfaces. You will need to play with the screws to get the gate level, which unfortunately means taking the gate back off of the hinges for each 1-2 turn adjustment, to try again. A better way would be to mount the whole gate to a single piece of hardwood, then use the clamp style handrail I mention below in "staircase mount recommendations". Latch attachment: Once you have your hinges level and true you then are going to want to mount the upper and lower gate latches. Positioning these can be helped by extending the latch bolts on the gate until they just barely touch the wall at mid-swing. once you know right where the bolts will contact, you just have to mount the latches. Unfortunately the latches do not have any markings that seem to show where the gate should contact them if in proper alignment, so you will have to guess at what looks like the correct elevation. This is a huge source of potential problems for most installers. If the latch is 1/16th of an inch out of vertical alignment, your gate will not latch, or will do so poorly. The only way to fix that is to move the latch. If you have ever drilled a hole and needed to later move it 1/16th of an inch, then you know why this is a terrible situation. You will need to fill the hole with a wood compound and let it dry thoroughly before attempting to reinstall the latch. Latch arm adjustment: To compound these difficulties, the gates telescoping latch arm must be at the correct length to seat properly in the latch. If it is 2 turns too long, or too short, again it wont seat properly, but will visually appear latched. A tug on the gate and it opens right up. This property can make you think the latch is in the wrong spot, when it's actually just the length of the arm. Recommendations: For a dry wall mount: If you need to mount this on drywall, don't. If you must, then use a mounting plate. This can be any sturdy material such as plywood. The idea is that you screw in the plate to the studs on either side of your intended gate location, then mount the gate to the plate. If aesthetics are a concern (they are in my house), then try using a hardwood plank, one top, one bottom. You can stain or paint it to match. For a staircase mount: The contour and flair on my upper-most banister were not "friendly" mounting points. I was able to trace the contour onto a block of maple, and cut out the shape to fit perfectly, giving me a flat mounting surface. This required some woodworking know-how. A very accessible fix for mounting to the staircase rail is using the clamp method. What you do is take two blocks of wood, with a cutaway in the middle, and holes on either end. You then position them around your banister, and using long bolts, screw them together. They will act like a clamp. You can then mount your gate fixtures to the block of wood. This saves your banister rail from any screw holes as well. This website has many options that follow this method http://www.babysafehomes.com/custom-gate-installation-kits/#prettyPhoto The plastic latches: I have not yet come up with a way to replace the latches. I will have to because I know they won't last, but will have to update this review when I figure out an elegant solution.