Staircases and balconies present a potential hazards to babies and small children. Due to their curious nature children and babies love testing the environments around them, meaning if you take your eyes of them for a second they can get into some serious situations or do something they shouldn't.
This is why careful consideration is needed when a new bundle of joy comes into your life or you are building a new balustrade or staircase.
Below are some areas which we encourage all parents and caregivers to consider who have young children in their care and they have an exsisting balustrade or are building a new one.
Stair Tread Gap
We hate hearing sad stories of children slipping through staircase risers. The regulations state that the riser gap between each tread must be no bigger than 125mm. Some older home staircases do not meet this regulation. We suggest installing either an additional wooden panel or single wire to reduce the gap.
Wire Balustrade Railings
Decks with a fall of over 1m require wires at a spacing of 80mm. Horizontal wire meets regulations for decks up to 4 metres in height. Although horizontal wires may look easy for young children to climb it’s actually quite difficult. But if you want to be extra cautious you could opt for the stylish vertical balustrade wire systems.
Glass Balustrade
Next an arguably the safest style of balustrade for young children is glass. The toughen glass is strong and hard to climb. The downside is, with young children you could be spending a great deal of time cleaning little finger prints off the glass.
Furniture
Although every care can be taken in selecting the safest and secure balustrade systems the danger is still present. Most decks or areas requiring balustrade have furniture. Children have a lot of ingenuity and this furniture can many times be used as ladders to get up and even over the balustrade, leading to serious falls. Our moto is supervision is key when it comes to children and babies.