Customer Reviews

Kidco Gate Installation Kit

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Don't waste your money. This review is mostly geared to those of you considering buying this kit for mounting a gate on a hollow wall WITH A BASEBOARD. I can't comment on the supplies or instructions for the other segments of the kit. If you have hollow walls and your stair area doesn't have a baseboard then I don't think you would need this kit at all - just a pair of butterfly togglebolts to securely fasten the brackets of the gate.

I purchased this kit thinking I needed it for installing the G20 Kidco Safeway gate in my hollow-walled-baseboarded stairwell. First of all, it's this teeny tiny box about 1"x2" and about 24" long and it arrived in a ginormous box that was almost bigger than the box that the gate itself arrived in. Secondly, it contains more than what you need to mount the gate on a hollow wall - so you're paying $10 for an assortment of hardware that you will realy only need 1/3 of since the kit works for mounting on hollow wall, wrought iron, as well as wooden banisters.

The worst thing about this kit was that the instructions were beyond terrible - it would have been pretty intuitive to screw these pieces of wood onto the wall to create a flat vertical surface upon which to fit your gate, but I made the mistake of trying to follow the instructions which were beyond confusing, not to mention outright incorrect in one instance.

And after all was said and done, the bolt that I was supposed to use for the toggle didn't even fit! It was a 3/8" toggle and the bolt was blatantly 1/4". I had to dig through my tool box to find a leftover toggle bolt set and ended up using that instead. And the screws were pretty cheap too - these ones and the ones from the gate hardware - they stripped very easily.

TOTAL waste of money - you are better off getting exactly what you need at the hardware store and it will save you money and hassle and frustration.

Here is the content list from the kit (for the purposes of hollow wall mounting):

1 33" long pine board (0.5" thick by 2" wide)
1 2.5" wood spacer (also 0.5" thick by 2" wide)
1 3/16" butterfly toggle
1 3.5" machine screw aka "bolt"
2 2.5" wood screws

Basically what you want to do is screw the long strip of wood vertically from the baseboard (at the bottom end of the strip) onto the wall (at the top end) so as to create a single vertical surface on which you will be mounting your gate's brackets. The spacer goes between the strip and the wall at the top end, just like how the baseboard is between the strip and the wall at the bottom end. Did that make sense?

The way I did it was to first drill all the necessary holes - the top of the strip will be bolted to the wall with the spacer in between, so the strip, spacer and wall will all need to be drilled through. Additionally, the wall needs an extra large hole for the toggle to fit through (1/2" hole for a 3/16" toggle). At the bottom where the strip simply is being screwed into the baseboard, there was no need for pre-drilling since the wood was not particularly hard and my drill is pretty powerful - here I just used the 2.5" wood screw provided.

Then, assemble the toggle bolt assembly in this order: bolt goes through strip, then spacer, then put on the toggle and have it ready to push through the hole in the wall. Then, screw the lower end of the strip into the baseboard halfway. Screw in toggle bolt assembly. Tighten lower screw. Now you are ready to install your gate brackets.

(NOTE: you just want to be mindful of where the brackets need to go for the gate installation so you can place the screws for the strip accordingly - the G20 gate comes with handy templates for marking the bracket positions)

I hope this helps - I probably shouldn't be writing it after spending an exhausting evening installing the gate, but I'd rather take the chance and be slightly incoherent than put it off and forget!

ALso, I forgot to mention - the kit costs $10 and it ships from a non-amazon merchant so you have to pay shipping, so it is REALLY NOT WORTH IT! Honestly, a trip to the hardware store, including gas, will be cheaper! And at least then you know you are getting the correct hardware and better quality!

This product secures a 1x2 piece of wood to your bannister with two large zip ties. The theory is that it creates a plumb surfaced onto which to mount the gate. It did not seem particularly stable, and, ironically the zip ties scratched up our bannister (the whole point of this purchase was to protect our bannister from the ill effects of having kids). Anyway, a much safer and secure bannister installation kit is Kidco Gate Installation Kit which clamps on the bannister.

I could have easily gotten the contents of this kit at my local hardware store for a fraction of the cost, but this kit saved me time and effort because I didn't have to buy wood and then cut it to the appropriate length, find the right screws and parts, and I didn't have to buy these items in bulk which would have been a waste. Of course, if you are a handy-person you probably have all of these parts right in your basement- these are common items (screws, wood, zip ties, wall anchors, etc).
The kit allowed me to install the KidCo gates at the top and bottom of my stairs along a wall with moulding and a decorative wood banister. I did have to drill holes in the wall and banister to make the gate as secure as possible. My only complaint is that the wood came in a natural wood color, but with a greenish tint which did not match my house. I painted the wood white before i mounted the gates. There is nothing profound about this kit, but I do recommend this kit to anyone who does not have the time to figure out all the extra parts necessary to mount the gate to a difficult location. It is very convenient!

You would think for the price that you would get some decent screws, but I've now broken two different sets of screws. I did as instructed and drilled pilot holes, but for some reason the screw gets so tight in the wood that it just eventually either strips or breaks off. Yep -- that leaves you with a broken screw that you cannot remove. So I went and bought a second one -- same thing.

I'm going to the hardware store to get some better screws and try again. What a waste of time and money.

I realize that this is just a piece of word and plastic ties but it does exactly what it says it does. We have a wrought iron railing and needed something that we could attach to the rail in order to mount our gate and this worked perfectly. It was really easy...I mounted it myself while my husband was at work. We've had it up for about 10 months now and it hasn't budged.

We recently purchased this kit to install on the top and bottom stairs with a kidco gate. It was very easy to install, its very sturdy and we did not have to drill any holes into our banister. We would definately recommend it to everyone.

Yes, you could go to the hardware store and pick up the same items, but honestly, the convenience is clutch in my life these days as I am installing this for a very mobile 10 month old --

I used the zip ties on the bannister and actually covered the contact portions on the bannister (square bannister) with felt tape so that it doesn't hurt the wood. I actually bought two of these kits, and had to use two zip ties at the top and two at the bottom. I cut the extra wood from the 2nd one into spacers to keep the long piece of wood plumb and true vertically. I actually drilled cross holes into the top and bottom of the long piece of wood and then fished the large zip ties through this to create even more stability and leave the surface of the wood smooth. Then I used a small screw (predrilled EVERYTHING.. this is strong wood) that screwed right into the front of the wood into the zip tie that traversed the piece of wood to keep it from sliding side to side - hopefully that all makes sense.

on the other side, I bought the official bannister kit and used it as a clamp on wrought iron ballusters. and then a piece of wood to attach to both of these.

I thought this was a good product, but you do need to have some imagination and some engineering prowess to get the final result that you desire.

Best of luck.

I bought this for the piece of wood. It was the perfect size for us to attach to our wrought iron railing(with zip ties) and then pressure mount our gate. I spray painted it to match the railing, and it looks great! Yes, it is a darn expensive piece of wood (since we discarded the rest of the items), but for us, it was easier measuring, buying a piece of wood, and then cutting it to fit. This already fit for us...just had to angle the edges a bit!

We bought this to go along with our Kidco gate for the top of the stairs. We didn't want to make holes in the wood. While it is true that you could go to the store and purchase these items separately and figure out how to make them work, the convenience of this kit was more attractive to us. It worked very well and the gate is now installed and secure at the top of the stairs, while not ruining our wooden banister.

Sorry I'm not the type of person who has the time to go to the hardware store to get a piece of wood and cut it up. I have this for my banister and two other kits for my drywall. The biggest mistake I made was not buying when I purchased the gate. My son banged on the gate and ripped it right off causing a hole on are wall. Now it is much sturdier with this piece of wood, which you do end up buying longer drilling nails for it. That would probably be my only complaint about this kit.