Mounting a TV on Wall

super_freddie

Hello,

I'm trying to mount a 32" TV on an internal wall. I purchased a mount / bracket (the one here.

Based on the instructions and also researching on the web, mounting to an internal wall can be tricky if it's not a solid wall. When I tap the wall it's hollow so seems to me to be what's either described as a "Plasterboard Wall" or a "Stud Partition Wall" based on web search (which was far from conclusive ). Either way the trick seems to be to find a joist in the wall and secure the mount to the joist.

Couple of questions:

- Is it one of the wall types that I mentioned or is there another type?
- Do I need to find a joist or is there another approach?
- If there is another approach, what is it?

Mounting this on plasterboard only is liable to end in a broken TV and / or a serious injury so interested to get people's thoughts on the best approach here.

Thanks,
super_freddie.

DublinDilbert

super_freddie wrote: »

Hello,

I'm trying to mount a 32" TV on an internal wall. I purchased a mount / bracket (the one here.

Based on the instructions and also researching on the web, mounting to an internal wall can be tricky if it's not a solid wall. When I tap the wall it's hollow so seems to me to be what's either described as a "Plasterboard Wall" or a "Stud Partition Wall" based on web search (which was far from conclusive ). Either way the trick seems to be to find a joist in the wall and secure the mount to the joist.

Couple of questions:

- Is it one of the wall types that I mentioned or is there another type?
- Do I need to find a joist or is there another approach?
- If there is another approach, what is it?

Mounting this on plasterboard only is liable to end in a broken TV and / or a serious injury so interested to get people's thoughts on the best approach here.

Thanks,
super_freddie.

Yes you need to find the studs in the wall and screw into these if at all possible. Get a strong magnet and run it over the wall, it will stuck to the steel screws.

You might have to mount a small rectangle of 10mm ply to the studs and fix the bracket to this. If the ply is painted the cake colour of the wall it won't be noticed.

MAJJ

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Yes you need to find the studs in the wall and screw into these if at all possible. Get a strong magnet and run it over the wall, it will stuck to the steel screws.

You might have to mount a small rectangle of 10mm ply to the studs and fix the bracket to this. If the ply is painted the cake colour of the wall it won't be noticed.

You don't need a stud , it would be better but you can hang a TV onto plasterboard. I did it with 43" tv and cantilevered bracket. Have a read through this thread lots of advice including a post and link from me.

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2058077954/2/#post113442404

Stigura

super_freddie wrote: »

I purchased a mount / bracket (the one here)

I could have given ye one, like that. Only, my mate put it up for me and, try as I might, I can't find any way of getting the bloody thing off!

Shot the TV ages ago.

SixtaWalthers

If I share my experience, we use stud finder to locate wall studs and then attach the mounting bracket to the wall. I just shared in short, don't forget other steps. By the way, if you are a newbie then better to get TV mounting service instead of putting your expensive TV on risk.

super_freddie

SixtaWalthers wrote: »

If I share my experience, we use stud finder to locate wall studs and then attach the mounting bracket to the wall. I just shared in short, don't forget other steps. By the way, if you are a newbie then better to get TV mounting service instead of putting your expensive TV on risk.

Thanks for that. So I have this detector (see file attachment) that I got a couple of years back. Constant beep for metal, intermittent beep for live wires. Can I use it to detect a stud by detecting a vertical metal item (that is not live wires)? Or does a stud even contain metal - is it just a wooden joist and therefore do I need a dedicated 'stud finder' tool? Thanks for educating me 😀

super_freddie.

GinSoaked

You should be able to find a line of steel screws used to hold the plasterboard with that Bosch detector.

Baymax2020

You should be able to find the studs by sound. Use a hammer to tap lightly on the wall untill you find a solid sound, you can put a screw in to confirm that a stud is at this point. Your next stud should be 400mm on from that. I would recommend screwing plywood to the studs, either 18mm or 25mm plywood nothing weaker. You can then mount the bracket to the plywood.

GinSoaked

The old way of doing it before the invention of stud detectors was to find the stud as near as possible by tapping see above, then to hand drill (before the days of battery drills) tiny 1/16 inch drill holes into the area where you think the stud is so you can find where the wood is. If you get the rough area by tapping you can then mark the area of the wall the back of the mount will cover and then drill a few test 1/16 of an inch test holes so you can be sure you have the center of the stud, any holes should be covered by the mount anyway. Nothing worse than thinking you are screwing into a stud only to just catch the edge of it.

super_freddie

Baymax2020 wrote: »

You should be able to find the studs by sound. Use a hammer to tap lightly on the wall untill you find a solid sound, you can put a screw in to confirm that a stud is at this point. Your next stud should be 400mm on from that. I would recommend screwing plywood to the studs, either 18mm or 25mm plywood nothing weaker. You can then mount the bracket to the plywood.

Thanks! What is the purpose of the plywood?

GinSoaked

super_freddie wrote: »

Thanks! What is the purpose of the plywood?

The reason I might do that is if I wanted to put the mount between two studs.

From the instructions https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0686/4831/files/PB093_Manual_FINAL.pdf?3727606837250946865 the mount you have looks like it will fit on one stud but some are wider but not wide enough to cover two studs so then you also need to put something between the studs if you don't want to hang your mount on just plasterboard.

Boxcar_Willie

Also make sure you are using the correct length screws into the back of the TV.
Last thing you need is to put one through the screen - it has happened !!

super_freddie

GinSoaked wrote: »

The reason I might do that is if I wanted to put the mount between two studs.

From the instructions https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0686/4831/files/PB093_Manual_FINAL.pdf?3727606837250946865 the mount you have looks like it will fit on one stud but some are wider but not wide enough to cover two studs so then you also need to put something between the studs if you don't want to hang your mount on just plasterboard.

Cool, good explanation - thanks!

Baymax2020

super_freddie wrote: »

Thanks! What is the purpose of the plywood?

The purpose is so that you have something solid to fix in to, I wouldn't trust slab fixings to hold the TV. You're best case scenario with the studs is that only one side of your TV bracket will hit a stud as your studs will only be 90mm wide. Once you have found the centre of the stud if you measure 400mm you should hit the centre of the next stud.

super_freddie

Baymax2020 wrote: »

The purpose is so that you have something solid to fix in to, I wouldn't trust slab fixings to hold the TV. You're best case scenario with the studs is that only one side of your TV bracket will hit a stud as your studs will only be 90mm wide. Once you have found the centre of the stud if you measure 400mm you should hit the centre of the next stud.

Thanks. Looking at the fixing I have, it states that for joisted / studded walls, I only need two screws aligned vertically. On that basis, don't think I'll need the plywood as both will be able to go on the stud.

awec

Do you really need the bracket to be an arm? Like are you going to be swivelling the tv around or always have it flush against a wall?

If you got a bracket that held the tv flush the job would be way easiser. The load on the fixings would be a lot smaller, so you could literally hang it wherever you wanted, with a combination of studs and plasterboard fixings.

I would only do the plywood thing as an absolute last resort. If you do use it you do not need 18/25mm stuff, that's way overkill and will not be discrete. You're hanging a small TV.

Plasterboard can take some pretty heavy loads, you just need to use the right fixings.

super_freddie

awec wrote: »

Do you really need the bracket to be an arm? Like are you going to be swivelling the tv around or always have it flush against a wall?

If you got a bracket that held the tv flush the job would be way easiser. The load on the fixings would be a lot smaller, so you could literally hang it wherever you wanted, with a combination of studs and plasterboard fixings.

I would only do the plywood thing as an absolute last resort. If you do use it you do not need 18/25mm stuff, that's way overkill and will not be discrete. You're hanging a small TV.

Plasterboard can take some pretty heavy loads, you just need to use the right fixings.

I don't absolutely need to do the arm / swivel thing but it would be convenient as I may be watching from different angles.

As I read the thread to date, as long as I can successfully find the stud/joist, I should be good to go with the existing fitting with minimal risk?

Thanks,
super_freddie.

GinSoaked

Just make sure you put your screws into the middle of the stud then you'll have no problems. Modern TV's are a lot lighter in weight than the old ones I used to fit.