Help mounting TV on wall

[Chunk49]

Hi

I would like to mount my TV on the living room wall of my flat. However, this is an internal wall and I think it just flimsy plasterboard. Will this be strong enough to mount a TV to? If not, what is the best way to go about jobbing it?

Many thanks.

Edited by Chunk49 on Thursday 24th April 14:37

Edited by Chunk49 on Thursday 24th April 14:51

[RC1]

how heavy is your tv?

[Chunk49]

RC1 said:

how heavy is your tv?

I don't know exactly at this point. It's a standard 37inch TV - Toshiba - 4 years old - possibly on the chunkier side than some very slim ones I've seen recently.

[BoRED S2upid]

Your right plaster board is too flimsy you need to drill into brick. Whatever you end up doing make sure it's straight I hung one once and it was millimetres out annoyed me for years. Oh and channel the wires behind the plasterboard it looks so much better.

[Chunk49]

BoRED S2upid said:

Your right plaster board is too flimsy you need to drill into brick. Whatever you end up doing make sure it's straight I hung one once and it was millimetres out annoyed me for years. Oh and channel the wires behind the plasterboard it looks so much better.

I don't think there will be any brick to drill into as it's an internal wall in a flat.

Do people put a plank of wood behind the plasterboard and drill into that?

Basically, if it is going to be a massive job I will probably give it a miss. But if there is a simple solution I'm missing it would be great if someone could share the wisdom with me!

Thanks

[damci]

You might be okay to simply use hollow wall anchors but if it is a heavy TV it might be safer to put a wooden batten behind the plasterboard and screw into that.

[pidsy]

Work out where you want tv.

Poke small holes in wall within the TV's edges working from the centre outwards until you hit a wooden stud.

Measure from the stud left or right (dependant on where your tv is going) the stud centres should be at 400 or 600 mm and poke holes around this area until u find your second stud.

Fix your bracket to both of these points, hang tv and enjoy.

[PHuzzy]

Theoretically an M6 spring toggle in 12.5mm(iirc) plasterboard can hold around 20kg.
4 of them will support all but the biggest beast of television.
Obviously it depends on how good the plasterboard installation is and how well secured the boards are but it's definitely not the issue most make it out to be.
Ideally masonry is where you want it to go but if you don't have the option then plasterboard is ok.

[monthefish]

Decent hollow wall anchors will probably do the trick.

I think what a lot of people forget is that gravity works downwards and not outwards, and unless it gets knocked, the majority of the forces acting on the TV will be downwards, and the fixings aren't going to slice through the wall.

I've used them for many years in some quite testing applications and never had any fail.

If you can locate one of the studs behind the plasterboard (they're usually no more than 600mm centres, so you should be able to find one roughly where you want to put your TV), for even one side of your bracket to fix to, then so much the better, but if it's not possible, don't worry.





But, worst case scenario and the TV lands on the floor, sounds like you could do with a new one anyway!

[Chunk49]

pidsy said:

Work out where you want tv.

Poke small holes in wall within the TV's edges working from the centre outwards until you hit a wooden stud.

Measure from the stud left or right (dependant on where your tv is going) the stud centres should be at 400 or 600 mm and poke holes around this area until u find your second stud.

Fix your bracket to both of these points, hang tv and enjoy.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.

Basic I know, but what is a wooden stud? And is my wall guaranteed to have them? I've heard the phrase "stud wall" but never really known what it meant.

[monthefish]

Chunk49 said:

pidsy said:

Work out where you want tv.

Poke small holes in wall within the TV's edges working from the centre outwards until you hit a wooden stud.

Measure from the stud left or right (dependant on where your tv is going) the stud centres should be at 400 or 600 mm and poke holes around this area until u find your second stud.

Fix your bracket to both of these points, hang tv and enjoy.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation.

Basic I know, but what is a wooden stud? And is my wall guaranteed to have them? I've heard the phrase "stud wall" but never really known what it meant.

Basically, you wall will (should) look like this behind the plasterboard. This is a stud wall.

Watch for wires behind plasterboard, but it *should* be confined to directly above below switches and sockets



The distance between the centres of these wooden uprights should be 600mm or 400mm. If you can find one of them behind the plasterboard (knocking on the wall until you hear a solid sound rather than a hollow sound) and fix (at least one side) of the bracket into that, then you'll be absolutely fine.

Edited by monthefish on Thursday 24th April 15:27

[NPI]

PHuzzy said:

Theoretically an M6 spring toggle in 12.5mm(iirc) plasterboard can hold around 20kg.
4 of them will support all but the biggest beast of television.
Obviously it depends on how good the plasterboard installation is and how well secured the boards are but it's definitely not the issue most make it out to be.
Ideally masonry is where you want it to go but if you don't have the option then plasterboard is ok.

Agree with that - obviously if you've got kids who are going to hang off it or you want it on an extending arm, then there might be a problem, but these things aren't as heavy as people make out. We have a 37" Panny Plasma and it weighs 25Kg.

Use a bunch of fixings, as spread out as possible. It would be ideal if you can find one (or even two) of the studs or noggins.


ETA now I've seen later posts - studs are the upright bits of wood and noggins are the horizontal pieces. You can get stud detectors but they're not that reliable to use. Sometimes you can find them with a pipe/wire detector by finding lines of plasterboard fixings. Or you could even drill a few holes behind where the TV is going to go.

Edited by NPI on Thursday 24th April 15:33

[pidsy]

the pic posted above helps my explaination no end.

if you are lucky and have wooden studs then some screw tipped bolts will be fine to anchor the bracket with. if you have metal studs, you will need big self tapping screws and washers.

[NH1]

If you get a bracket that looks like this



Then you are more likely to get at least 2 fixings into a stud with the braket where you want it. Also friction holds things together so the more bracket there is in contact with the wall the better.

[talkssense]

A modern TV really isn't that heavy compared to a radiator flu of water, or a Kitchen wall unit full of plates and glasses.

Get a bracket that allows you to choose the fixing points, try and get some into wood behind the wall. Use the toggles below for a few more fixings.

http://www.toggler.com/products/snaptoggle/overvie...

Two decent fixings would probably support a modern TV, so get 4 or more in there and there's no issue.

[megaphone]

As said find a stud, wood or metal, and screw into that. You'll be lucky if you're able to pic up on two, if not spring toggles are very good. I have fitted 100's of TV's on walls, never had one fall off!

[Dolittle]

We put a chunky 42" plasma TV on a stud wall in a bedroom using 4 of those expanding wall anchors. We figured that if a double radiator full of water could be supported then so could a TV. 6 years later and it was still hanging fine.

[blank]

If you can't find a stud, then some of these fellas should do the job:

CLASSIC METAL ANCHORS - How Molly Metal Fixings W…: http://youtu.be/J2yNhDdZRak

[telford_mike]

You don't need to actually attach it to the wall.

I had exactly the same problem - new flat, stud wall, 55" TV.

I bought one of these:

http://www.erard.com/en/tv-mounts/wall-mount-tv/do...

Sits flat to the wall and carries the cables to the telly. Made of steel and solid as a rock. You can get a smaller one if your TV is 52" or less.

[Chunk49]

monthefish said:

Decent hollow wall anchors will probably do the trick.

I think what a lot of people forget is that gravity works downwards and not outwards, and unless it gets knocked, the majority of the forces acting on the TV will be downwards, and the fixings aren't going to slice through the wall.

I've used them for many years in some quite testing applications and never had any fail.

If you can locate one of the studs behind the plasterboard (they're usually no more than 600mm centres, so you should be able to find one roughly where you want to put your TV), for even one side of your bracket to fix to, then so much the better, but if it's not possible, don't worry.





But, worst case scenario and the TV lands on the floor, sounds like you could do with a new one anyway!

Thanks a lot for your input. That's good to know. i will try to find and then screw into the stud (not a phrase I've ever uttered before!) but if not sounds like hopefully will be ok.

Loving the TV man maths...!