Adult Stairgate
Note: Case was completed with the assistance of Mark Crossley.
The client has suffered a stroke. The client lives in a 2-storey house with his parents, and his bedroom is upstairs. Due to the client’s reduced mobility, there is a risk of falling down the stairs, especially when going to the toilet at night. The request is for an adult-sized stairgate to be fitted at the top of the stairs.
The Challenge
The client is approximately 6 feet tall. So, the stair gate needed to have a height that was sufficient to prevent the client from going over the top of it in the event of loss of balance, and the bottom of the gate had to be at carpet height to prevent the client from sliding underneath it. Commercially available stairgates are typically too short for the client’s needs. Hence, a custom solution was required.
The solution
The included photos show the installed gate. The opening width that we worked with is 81cm, and the gate is 120cm tall. The left-hand post is fixed to the half-height wall’s newel post with 4 long screws. The hinge post on the right-hand side of the gate is fixed to the stone wall with screws going into rawlplugs. A section of mopstick has been added to the top of the gate to provide an extra handhold for the client when moving around upstairs.
In addition to the stairgate, we installed a new handrail on the wall between the client’s bedroom and the family bathroom as an additional handhold for safety purposes.
The benefit
The client can now sleep in his own bedroom, hence regaining more of his independence. The client also aids himself in regaining full mobility by getting additional exercise when using the stairs. The client can safely move around when upstairs, with no risk of falling down the stairs.
A side benefit for the family is that they can reoccupy their living room, since the client no longer needs to sleep downstairs.
The client’s mum offered the following after completion of the installation.
“I want to say thank you to George and Mark for providing a solution to our needs as a family. Thanks to them our son can now sleep back in his bedroom. We also now have more living space having got back our living room. They listened and understood our needs. They were enthusiastic about helping us.”
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