We are looking into fostering/adopting and our home visit won’t be for at least 6 months. But I was looking around the house for things that may take some time to fix which a social work should probably notice as being a danger to children.
In our bathroom, there is an approximately 1.5 foot by 2.5 foot hole cut to access the bathtub plumbing. Right now, there is a piece of plywood with molding around the outside that kinda fits in the hole covering it but if it isn’t set right or the door is slammed, it falls down hard which would be both a hazard from it falling on a kid as well as access to an area a child should not be. Our house has a similar but larger door to the attic (we have a cape cod so the attic is beside the second floor instead of above it.).
How do you childproof this? I was thinking of cutting some of the molding and putting on a hinge and making a padlock but I’m not sure about how to attach a padlock thing to bathroom wall tile and it wouldn’t be very attractive. We are new home owners and I don’t want to break the house or make it unattractive as we will likely be selling it for a bigger place in 5-8 years.
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3 Comments
put a poster over the hole, thats what ive always done.
That’s a good question actually. Whatever you can do to secure the panel should suffice. As far as attaching a lock and hinge to tile, you would have to fasten it to the stud in the wall. Tile isn’t glued to the wall sturdy enough for a lock to be attached to it.
If it’s a simple thing like that, I don’t think it’ll do much for the resale value of the house. Don’t be afraid to make some modifications to things! You can’t half-ass safety!
Drill holes into the board and screw it into the studs. A padlock is overkill, having to undo screws to remove the board should be sufficient for child proofing.