Recently, I’ve found myself in need of a large baby gate. Specifically, a baby gate that would stretch the width of my garage door. Everybody needs a baby gate in their shop full of dirt, dust, and power tools, right? Extreme daddy day care? Well, somewhat like that… but not with actual babies.
YouTube – Ten Foot Wide Baby Gate
I have two small dogs. Two, squirrelly small dogs that find their way into the outer world with ease and terrorize our neighborhood. My neighbors are mostly good sports about it, but I’d rather not have it happen often.
My previous solution was to stretch a piece of chicken wire between my garage door runners. While this worked, it wasn’t ideal for quite a few reasons. Mostly, it was crazy floppy. The dogs could have easily stepped over it if they tried. Luckily, both of them are slightly skittish.
The bigger problem, however, is that the wire attaches to the garage door rails which means that the door cannot be raised and lowered while the wire is stretched. This is a problem because I get home before the girls do and while I like to spend that time in the shop, the dogs absolutely hate that I’m not near them. So, they come down with me… and when the girls get home, it’s a mad rush to corral them before the garage door opens.
So, that’s what this is. Two simple frames, a few pieces of hardware, and the same chicken wire combined to create a baby gate that spans 10 feet. In the video, I show you how I attached the frame to the garage door. I found the spring-loaded hook and eye fasteners at the hardware store. They are perfect because there’s no chance for them to come undone accidentally by the dogs pulling on the gate.
The best part is that the door works fine with the gate in place. I no longer have to worry about the dogs running free on cold days when the girls come home.
This isn’t a highly technical build… or anything really complicated at all, but I still had fun with the camera while working on it. I hope you enjoy!
What size boards did you use to frame the gate