 Hi and welcome to this Argos Safety Gate buying guide. From as young as 6 months old, your little one could be up and about so it's never too early to start thinking about their safety. By securing your home with safety gates, your child can play and explore in a controlled environment up to the age of around 24 months old. The choice of gates can be quite overwhelming, however, don't worry, we've put together this little guide just to help you to decide which is the best gates for your home and also for your family. The first thing that you'll need to do is count how many gates you need and where you are going to place them. So for example, if you do have stairs in your home, you're probably going to want to place one gate up at the top of the stairs and another one down at the bottom. You may also want to secure a bedroom, a bathroom, a lounge, a kitchen and you may even want to separate your child from your family pet occasionally. The next thing you want to do is measure the size of the gap that you are wanting to secure and you need to do this at its most narrow point and this is usually at the skirting board. Now it's really important that you do this as some gates do come to fit just a standard size door frame. What's others do come with an optional extension kit. Now you also need to think about the area surrounding the gap that you are wanting to secure and about how you're going to maneuver around that gate once it has been installed. So you need to think about which way that gate is going to open. If any of the doors are going to be opening into that space and you need to bear in mind things such as at the top of the stairs where you have that gate, it needs to be opening away from the stairs. So onto the landing rather than out to the stairs. Same as down at the bottom, you want that gate to be opening away from the staircase. You may want to think about the different fittings that you have available. Would a pressure fit or a wall fix work best for you? Both do have their own merits and drawbacks. Pressure fit gates are really easy to install and you don't usually require any permanent fittings. They do have a u-frame though which can be a little bit of a trip hazard. So we don't recommend that you place these at the top of the stairs. You can always opt to put them in an upstairs doorway though. Wall fix gates require precision fittings but they're really solid and because they also don't have that u-frame there's no trip hazard so they can be placed in almost any location. These gates do come with wall fix latches and hinges and also wood screws but if you are wanting to attach that to a different surface then you may need to buy the appropriate fittings. You may also want to consider your daily family activities so perhaps a slum shot gate would work for you or maybe an auto close gate if you do have those older forgetful siblings or perhaps a gate that's really easy to open with just one hand. Freeing up your other hand for you to be able to hold baby. Now there's many features available too. You do have the two-way opening, you have double locking, you have extra width and also extra height models so do make sure that you have a good browse before making any final decisions. And finally if you still haven't chosen a favorite then why not focus on design with both metal and wooden gates there's sure to be something to suit your home. And do remember that before you start shopping for your safety gates to make sure that you measure the space of the intended location so you can match it up to the minimum and maximum width guides of the product which ever gates you do decide to buy I hope that you found this guide helpful.