Review of Gate Installation Kit

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Gate Installation Kit
By: KidCo Average Rating: 3.0 Total Reviews: 9
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Works great

On: 2008-11-06

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. Weve had it up for about 10 months now and it hasnt budged.

Waste of money, you're better off going to the hardware store

On: 2008-01-26

Dont 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 cant comment on the supplies or instructions for the other segments of the kit. If you have hollow walls and your stair area doesnt have a baseboard then I dont 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, its 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 youre 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 didnt 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 gates 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 shouldnt be writing it after spending an exhausting evening installing the gate, but Id 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!

works well if you want to drill into the wall, otherwise, don't buy

On: 2008-01-24

My husband and I got this thinking that we needed to mount our gate to the wall. after fiddling with it for some time, we gave up on mounting it and used the tension bars instead. the product is a little confusing to assemble and the gates, for the most part, do not need to be mounted to the wall to work well.

Two zip ties and a piece of wood

On: 2008-01-23

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 the Kidco Gate Installation Kit B000P007FI which clamps on the bannister.

Not great - wood is too thin

On: 2007-07-30

First of all, the piece of wood is too thin. The screws that came with my gate are too long for the thickness of the wood, and my husband ended up screwing through the block and into the bannister. I suppose its half my fault because I should have thought of that before buying it, but the gate I purchased (at the same time) to go with the installation kit did not mention the size of the screws, and I didnt think it would be an important issue. So, if you buy this kit, BE SURE you know how long the screws are that come with your gate.

Second, we pulled the zip tie as tightly as we possibly could, yet there is still a bit of movement. Since we installed it at the bottom of the stairs Im fine with it as is, but I would be concerned if it was at the top.

Lastly, if you purchase this from KidCo, their shipping is terribly slow.

Simple, but effective...

On: 2007-05-14

I used the installation kit so I wouldnt have to drill holes in my the post of my stair rail. You can buy everything that comes in the kit at your local hardware store, but if you dont feel like wasting the time to go shop for the different pieces, then the kit is an easy solution.

Convenient!

On: 2007-03-18

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 didnt have to buy wood and then cut it to the appropriate length, find the right screws and parts, and I didnt 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!

Kidco Gate Installation Kit

On: 2007-03-10

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.

baby gate

On: 2006-08-30

vague description stating the product was a baby gate ,but it not a gate it is the gate insertion set. so i ended up ordering the wrong thing.