Choosing the right location for your pet gate or baby gate is not as simple as it sounds. There are several factors that you need to consider. You also need to consider that these gates may become a fairly permanent fixture in your home for years to come.

This is step 1 of a 5 step process. I will cover the remaining steps in upcoming posts.

• step 1 – Choosing the right location
• step 2 – Ensuring that your measurements are accurate
• step 3 – Determining the gate mounting style (fixed or pressure)
• step 4 – Selecting the style of gate that suits your decor
• step 5 – Ensuring the gate size will work effectively for your measurements

Step 1: Determining the best location for your gate

In most cases gates are either installed in a doorway, hallway, archway or staircase.

The doorway is most often the simplest location to install a gate.

• It gives you the broadest selection of gate styles, because door frames are fairly standard in width (26, 28, 30, 32 and 34 inches).
• All gate manufacturers provide for these widths.
• Because they are standard widths, they are almost always the cheapest product options.

The hallway is rapidly becoming as popular as the doorway location. However installing a gate in a hallway can be considered an interruption in the design of the house.

• Today’s homes have fewer actual doorways in order to create a more open decor.
• Hallways however are not standard in width.
• The wider the hallway, the fewer product options available.
• To accommodate this void, manufacturers are designing extendable gates with various gate extension sizes.
• The wider the gate need, the more gate extensions you will need, and the more expensive it will be.
• If you can install the hallway gate close to a doorway or archway, it will be less disruptive to the design of your house.

Archways are by design, barriers between rooms, so adding a gate to an archway can actually accent the design.

• Archways are also not standard in width, so they have the same limitations as the hallway gates.
• If you need to install a gate in an archway, try to find a gate that is symmetrical.
• Symmetrical gates have the swinging doorway in the center of the gate, as opposed to on one side.
• Symmetrical gates will provide for a more appealing design.

The stairway gate is also a popular choice. Safety is obviously the main requirement when considering a stairway installation.

• A fixed gate is the recommended installation, providing for maximum gate safety.
• Some manufacturers have designed gate accessories that help to increase the safety of a stairway pressure gate installation.
• Many manufacturers identify whether their gates are safe for stairway installations, but you should always check to be sure.
• Stairway locations also bring in the issue of installing a gate to one or two railing banisters.
• At the time of this post I am only aware of one manufacturer (Cardinal Gates) that offers accessories specifically designed for stairway installations, so that you would not need to put screw holes in your railing posts or spindles.

Although we don’t often have any choice as to where the gate needs to be installed, if you do, by considering the above, you will have a better chance of finding the gate that will work best for you, will fit the decor of your home and will minimize the cost of purchase.