Now that Fiona is walking and generally exploring everything, it became very much necessary to put some kind of a gate in place on our balcony. The steps up are completely open and are an immediate danger to Fiona and to Tobi as well. Given that summer was coming and that we wanted to be able to sit outside on the balcony without constantly hanging on to Fiona, a gate was the only reasonable solution.
We didn't want to permanently damage the balcony though - so boring holes into steel or (worse) into the external insulation of the house wasn't going to be an option. After a lot of consideration, I decided that a sliding gate could work. I decided to go with larch, because the balcony itself is larch. A (fairly) nearby
sawmill has very helpful and friendly staff and I was able to get the larch from them. It needed planing and generally needed to be dimensioned.
I went with a fairly easy model - a frame with fence-style uprights. The fence is done with mortise and tenon joints and the uprights are fixed with stainless steel screws. Because the gate was threatening to be out of angle - a trapezoid instead of a rectangle - I straightened it with two diagonals. It is now rock solid in all directions. I cut off the tops of the uprights at 45° to allow water to run off - not that there should be much water as it is under the glass roof.
Once the gate was made, the trickiest part was actually installing it. As mentioned, I didn't want to permanently damage the balcony with holes or screws. Glueing wasn't really going to work (and leaves an awful mess), so I went with collar fixings for plumbing. Alone or in small numbers, these wouldn't have been stable enough, but with one on each of the balcony railings, they are secure. A U-Rail with two wheels (with very good bearings) and wheels on a guiding rail on the ground and it was ready to go. The end result is good - the gate slides fairly easily. It is quite heavy, but that was intended. Because Fiona figured out how to slide it open within a week, I had to add a catch made out of a dowel to keep it closed. A few more pictures are below...
