I know, I'm late on this subject, but thought that I'd chime in,
better late than never! I have gates galore at my house. With a child
and dogs, I'm always rearranging gates for the weasels' safety.

What I found works best in our case, is what I did was bought some wood
molding. You can find it in the wood trim section. Its 3/4 inch on all
four sides, and you can cut it to whatever length you need. That is to
secure the gate. Then you need wood paneling... its the stuff that
people put on their walls, on the bottom for decoration, so I think it
comes 4 or 5 feet in height, but you can have it cut to the width and
height you need. Its nice and light and not heavy at all.

So what I do is, take the wood molding, cut 4 pieces to the height I
need, and attach (I nail and superglue for double protection) 2 pieces
to each side of the doorway. If your making this gate for a doorway
that has a door attached to it, just be sure to attach the molding in
an area that will still allow you to open and close the door. Then what
you can do, is when needed (or permanently), you can slide the wood
paneling into the slots. Now, if you really push, it will pop out of
place, but you have to really push on it (and I think someone mentioned
a jumpy dog or something?), but you'd have to really push on it. I'm
not sure if the molding comes in thicker sizes, but you could always
check.

I painted all my gates and molding to match my trim, so it all kinda
blends in together. I use these gates for the outside doors (prevents
weasels from making a fast dash when they hear a door open!), and I use
them to block off different rooms as needed around the house. And like
I said, the paneling is thin and light, so its easy to store behind a
couch or something when not in use.

I also have a permanent regular open and close gate at the top of my
stairs. For that I used regular plywood, but I would imagine the wood
paneling would also work. I cut that to size, and attached it to the
wall with hinges. You can either attach the hinges directly into a
stud, or if a stud piece doesn't match up, you can cut a piece of
plywood, and attach the plywood to the studs, and then attach the
hinges to that piece of plywood. If all that makes sense! Then I used
those 'hook and eye' locks (there's a type that comes with a spring on
it, so it helps the 'hook' piece stay in place in the 'eye' piece
(never underestimate the intelligence of a determined weasel!), and I
attached that to the stair railing. I also put a magnet at the bottom
of the gate, it just helps keep the gate closed and secured.

So, just wanted to toss this out there in case it can help someone!

Andrea and the Weasels 6

[Posted in FML 7818]