Photo: ramsey_everydaypants / Flickr "I am trying to find out if there are any products that will help me keep my boys (toddler twins) from being able to pull up the floor vents. I have tried wrapping the base that slides into the floor with duct tape to make it a tighter fit, but as they are getting older (and more determined) this just isn't working anymore."
My thoughts: Ah, duct tape. It has so many practical childproofing applications, but it's not a pretty solution, and as you've found, it's not often permanent. If you're feeling a bit more handy and industrious, Blain has an excellent post on how to modify the vents using vent covers. There are a number of these vent covers available at hardware stores and they range in price from a few bucks to $50 or more per cover. Another option might be to place furniture on the edges of the vents to weigh them down. You don't want to cover the entire vent, since that might cause problems with your heating or cooling, but if you set the edge of a dresser on one side and the edge of a desk on the other side, the air can still come up between the two pieces of furniture.
What do you think? How would you tackle this situation in your home? Do you know of any products that might help? Please leave a comment and share your advice with this dad.
I simply nailed a small nail into the floor at two corners of the vents and bent them over to hold the vent down, Worked like a charm and were simple to yank up if I needed to take the vent up.
how about peel and stick velcro? it comes in a few different sizes and shapes and would still allow you to remove the vent for cleaning as necessay.
Perhaps create a custom frame..out of wood and stain it.. it would overlap both sides..in and out and screw it to the floor..
Thanks for the link, I hope it helped some folks out. The solution I had has worked great so far. I had thought about the velcro and other such solutions, but when I saw my 1 year old son put both hands on one and pull with all his might I knew I made the correct decision of actually screwing it into the subfloor!
Now I just have to figure out a way to keep him from putting stuff into the port on my subwoofer.