2d floor half wall safety
Aileen Cox
Our house has a 2-story foyer. A half-wall borders the hallway on the
second floor and an adult can look over it into the foyer below. We
have 4 children, three 4-year old boys and a 2-1/2 year old girl. They
can pull a chair up to the wall to look over it.
I want to install safety bars or plexiglass from the top of the wall to
about 5 feet up. Two suggestions have been made, and I would like to
know if one or the other is more safe for the children. One is that I
install wooden bars across the space, anchoring them somehow (how?) on
either end. The other is that I install some sort of railing along the
wall and slip a plexiglass panel inside it.
The longest stretch of half-wall is 7 feet 9 inches long. Then the wall
makes a right angle, at which point there is a post which extends to
the ceiling, and that space is 3 feet 9 inches long. At the end of the
shorter wall, there is another post which extends to the ceiling, and
right after that is where the stairs are.
My goal is solely to prevent the children from falling over the wall
into the foyer below. I am worried that, given enough pressure,
whatever material I put into the space will buckle or break in the
middle, allowing the children to fall through.
My three boys are expert at accomplishing the impossible by acting
together. I do watch them like a hawk, but the things they think of
send chills up my spine. One of them has already suggested anchoring a
rope at the top of the wall so they can swing to the lower floor via the
rope, instead of using the stairs. The bedrooms are all upstairs, and
my biggest concern is that they will do something in the middle of the
night while we are asleep.
We have lived in this house for three years, and have not had this
problem before. Many of the neighbors have assured me that their
children never even thought of climbing over or leaning over the wall.
My well-intentioned neighbors, however, do not have triplets!
Thank you very much for your help with this. I am truly desperate for a
workable solution.
Aileen Cox
Carol
> >Our house has a 2-story foyer. A half-wall borders the hallway on the
> >second floor and an adult can look over it into the foyer below. We
> >have 4 children, three 4-year old boys and a 2-1/2 year old girl. They
> >can pull a chair up to the wall to look over it.
> >
> >I want to install safety bars or plexiglass from the top of the wall to
> >about 5 feet up.
> If you can afford it and don't mind the look, I think having a wrought
> iron shop make up some railings would be the best idea.
That sounds expensive, and so permanent!
Most 2 story foyer homes in my area have wooden rails with wood
spindles. My kids like to sit there and look down thru the rails,
sometimes pretend they are in jail, and sometimes throw their barbie
dolls or paper air planes thru. Perhaps if you opened yours up, IOW,
get rid of the solid 1/2 wall, and put a rail with spindles instead,
then your children won't be tempted to try and peer over it using a
chair. Also, consider getting rid of all chairs from the 2nd story of
your house until the children are old enough to know better, or at least
locking them [the chairs, of course!] in a spare bedroom or master
closet?
My children have never been "climbers", tho, so open rails may not be
good enough of a solution for your children.
danh...@millcomm.com
In <3568B64C...@ma.ultranet.com>, Aileen Cox <ac...@ma.ultranet.com> writes:
>Our house has a 2-story foyer. A half-wall borders the hallway on the
>second floor and an adult can look over it into the foyer below. We
>have 4 children, three 4-year old boys and a 2-1/2 year old girl. They
>can pull a chair up to the wall to look over it.
>
>I want to install safety bars or plexiglass from the top of the wall to
>know if one or the other is more safe for the children. One is that I
>install wooden bars across the space, anchoring them somehow (how?) on
>either end. The other is that I install some sort of railing along the
>wall and slip a plexiglass panel inside it.
If you can afford it and don't mind the look, I think having a wrought
iron shop make up some railings would be the best idea. They could have
vertical spindles spaced about four inches apart -- pretty much impossible
to climb or get through. With the proper top rail the wrought iron
railing would need no support except at the bottom and ends.
Dan Hicks
Hey!! My advice is free -- take it for what it's worth!
http://www.millcomm.com/~danhicks
Michel Gagnon
Aileen Cox <ac...@ma.ultranet.com> wrote:
> Our house has a 2-story foyer. A half-wall borders the hallway on the
> second floor and an adult can look over it into the foyer below. We
> have 4 children, three 4-year old boys and a 2-1/2 year old girl. They
> can pull a chair up to the wall to look over it.
>
> I want to install safety bars or plexiglass from the top of the wall to
> about 5 feet up. Two suggestions have been made, and I would like to
> know if one or the other is more safe for the children. One is that I
> install wooden bars across the space, anchoring them somehow (how?) on
> either end. The other is that I install some sort of railing along the
> wall and slip a plexiglass panel inside it.
>
> The longest stretch of half-wall is 7 feet 9 inches long. Then the wall
>
> makes a right angle, at which point there is a post which extends to
> the ceiling, and that space is 3 feet 9 inches long. At the end of the
> shorter wall, there is another post which extends to the ceiling, and
> right after that is where the stairs are.
>
> My goal is solely to prevent the children from falling over the wall
> into the foyer below. I am worried that, given enough pressure,
> whatever material I put into the space will buckle or break in the
> middle, allowing the children to fall through.
>
> My three boys are expert at accomplishing the impossible by acting
> together. I do watch them like a hawk, but the things they think of
> send chills up my spine. One of them has already suggested anchoring a
> rope at the top of the wall so they can swing to the lower floor via the
>
> rope, instead of using the stairs. The bedrooms are all upstairs, and
> my biggest concern is that they will do something in the middle of the
> night while we are asleep.
>
> We have lived in this house for three years, and have not had this
> problem before. Many of the neighbors have assured me that their
> children never even thought of climbing over or leaning over the wall.
> My well-intentioned neighbors, however, do not have triplets!
>
> Thank you very much for your help with this. I am truly desperate for a
>
> workable solution.
>
> Aileen Cox
How permanent and how nice-looking do you want the installation? If you
install a plexiglass above the existing wall (to raise it to 5 ft, for
example), make sure you install the plexiglass flush with the inside
wall; otherwise, your children might climb on the existing ledge and use
that as a stepping board to jump down. Or they might sit on the ledge,
thinking that it is now safe, and fall over.
Short of closing the wall altogether (plexiglass or solid wall), you
could:
- get rid of chairs in adjoining areas, so climbing would be hard,
- install a barricade at the bottom of the stairs so children at play
cannot go upstairs,
- install a "fisher's net" between the half-wall and the ceiling, as a
temporary and cheap way to close the hole.
--
Michel Gagnon -- Montréal (Québec, Canada)
Michel...@videotron.ca
Aileen Cox
Thank you all for your suggestions.
I want to reassure you, however, that there are no chairs on the second
floor of our home. The one time I caught the children with a chair, it
was one that that they had brought upstairs from their play room. I
caught them as they reached the top of the stairs and had put the chair
down. The children have all been warned about the danger of the half
wall -- using terms I have used since they were very small to warn them
only about things that will cause serious injury or death (moving
vehicles, hot ovens, half walls, and things along that line). Although
they are very careful to steer clear of dangerous things, I cannot
assume that they *always* will because they are 4 years old and are
accustomed to acting in concert with the usual lack of judgment and
foresight of a group that age.
My three boys do not need a chair to climb anything. They can merely
stand on each other's backs. They could also use a toy, a stuffed
animal, a stack of books -- they are about an inch taller than the wall
is high, so it wouldn't take much.
I have installed a gate at the bottom of the stairs. About 8 months
ago, the boys were climbing over it like mountain goats.
I am less worried about the children going upstairs during the day --
they are very well supervised by me and 99.99% of the time are with me.
I am concerned about them leaving their room at night. They do not
usually leave their room in the middle of the night, and the few times
it has happened, it has been only one boy, and he has gone straight to
our room.
Basically, I have foreseen a potential problem, and I am trying to keep
it from happening. At this point, *everything* except this half-wall
has been childproofed in our house by necessity.
Again, thank you very much for your thoughtful suggestions and for
taking the time to reply to my post.
Aileen
ces...@earthlink.net
In article <3568B64C...@ma.ultranet.com>,
You will have a hard time building anything stable if you don't anchor the top
edge - i.e. run it to the ceiling. Try this:
1. Get some plexiglas at least 1/8" thickness.
2. Cut it into 2' wide strips x the dimension from rail to ceiling + 1-1/2"
3. Attach 2x2's (prefinished, if you like) to all four edges of each piece of
plexi. Pre-drill and screw through the plexi into the 2x2's at about 6" on
center.
4. Locate the joists in the ceiling. With luck they run perpendicular to the
half-wall. There is a horizontal 2x in the top of the half wall.
5. Mount the panels on the inside of the half-wall, and butting the ceiling.
6. Screw through the panel frame into the side of the 2x at the top of the
half-wall.
7. At the ceiling, screw UP through the 2x2 into joists in the ceiling. If
there is only drywall at the ceiling, there is an anchor that is a wing bolt
with a 1/2" diameter plastic sleeve that is good for about 100 lbs of lateral
load . . . or get into the attic and install some blocking to receive the
screws.
When it all comes down, you are left with screw holes only in the drywall.
Easy to patch and repaint.
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Keith Brewster
: > >Our house has a 2-story foyer. A half-wall borders the hallway on the
: > >second floor and an adult can look over it into the foyer below. We
: > >have 4 children, three 4-year old boys and a 2-1/2 year old girl. They
: > >can pull a chair up to the wall to look over it.
: > >
: > >I want to install safety bars or plexiglass from the top of the wall to
: > >about 5 feet up.
How about having an "electric eye" beam run across the top of the rail.
Assuming they can't vault the rail, touching the top will break the beam
and can set off a loud alarm. Short of an electric shock that should
be effective in training them not to mess with the rail.
Perhaps a small glass porthole could be installed at their eye level
to satisfy their curiousity of what adults can see but they can't.
-Keith
Robert Hancock
If they just want to see over, you could remove this wall and put in a
railing with posts that would allow them to do so without having to lean
over. Of course, if they really want to climb that wouldn't help much.
--
Robert Hancock Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from rhan...@nospamsk.sympatico.ca
Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/9967
Aileen Cox wrote in message <3568B64C...@ma.ultranet.com>...
>Our house has a 2-story foyer. A half-wall borders the hallway on the
>second floor and an adult can look over it into the foyer below. We
>have 4 children, three 4-year old boys and a 2-1/2 year old girl. They
>can pull a chair up to the wall to look over it.
>
>I want to install safety bars or plexiglass from the top of the wall to
wilsa...@gmail.com
Tekkie®
>
> We used a vinyl cross hatched piece. Normally used for roses or fences? Made a frame around it and nailed it in on all four sides - looks greats! Keeps the kids safe
--
Tekkie
Ed Pawlowski
the best idea, IMO as it blocks the view. Two strands of barbed wire
would have done it. Keeps the kids off and does not obstruct the view.
Maybe electrify it if you kids are unruly little bastards. .
Oren
rails. I laughed without being loud.
Watch him, don't let him sleep. If he goes into a coma call 911.
The kid took a big knock but talked to me.