Hang a FLAT PANEL TV

One of the major appeals of flat panel TVs such as plasmas and LCDs is the space savings they create by hanging on the wall, out of the way. But do you need a pro to get that clean on-the-wall look? Not if you’re handy with a screwdriver, drill and know how to draw a straight line. We walk you through the steps of a typical flat panel install and highlight some of the areas where home owners may get “hung up.”

Before you get started drilling or bolting anything, you must carefully select the location. This is a much more serious decision than just picking a good place for a TV. Once you mount your plasma, the design of the entire room must be planned around it, and there’s no going back–you can’t just move the TV to another wall without remounting it, patching holes and repainting. Pick a location where the TV will be easily viewed by all seats in the room, which will also accommodate your speakers and can be conveniently connected to the rest of your components. If you want to put your TV on one wall and your components on the other side of the room, you’ve just seriously complicated your job. Also consider the placement of electrical outlets and lines. Although you will need to add a new outlet for the TV, having other outlets nearby makes the job easier. Also consider the height. While eye level is often ideal for TV viewing, large plasma TVs look better if placed a few inches above eye level, but not high enough to cause neck strain. A plasma mounted above a fireplace may look cool, but running wires behind and around a brick fireplace is a big job, and the height of the TV will hurt your neck after prolonged viewing.

For this article we selected an Omnimount U3 Tilt mount because its simple design makes for an uncomplicated install and it’s easily available from stores like Best Buy for do-it-yourselfers. This model supports TVs up to 200 pounds, which means any 50-inch plasma will work with it–I was mounting a 50-inch LG plasma. For help with this job I recruited my father, because mounting a TV of this size can’t be done alone. It’s also worth noting that this job took quite a bit more time than is typically required for mounting a flat panel TV due to the odd nature of the wall construction (more on that later).

Step 1: Find wall studs

Once you’ve selected the spot, you need to find the wall studs. The wall studs don’t need to be directly in the middle of your mount location because the mount allows for some horizontal adjustment once it’s on the wall.

Use an electronic stud finder rather than a hammer and your ear to locate the studs. We used a Black and Decker BullsEye stud finder/laser level. It easily identified both edges of the studs so we could place the bolt holes directly in the middle. This model will also find pipes and electricity lines, but we didn’t encounter any of those.





Step 2: Place and level
the template

Most mounting kits will come supplied with a paper or cardboard template to assist you in properly marking the drill spots. The template that comes with the U3 has a center mark so you can pin it to the wall while you level it, and double sided tape to adhere it to the wall. We used the BullsEye laser level to level the template, then unpeeled the tape and secured the level template to the wall. Then we used the stud finder to locate the two studs we’d be using and marked the center on the template. We also marked the spots where we’d need to make holes for the power and signal lines.

Step 3: Drill the bolt holes

Next, simply start drilling your bolt holes with the drill bit size specified by the mount kit instructions. This is where we ran into a bit of difficulty. Since we were drilling into wood studs, we selected a ¼-inch bit, but we soon discovered that our wall was not constructed of standard-depth studs as the drill went through the wood and into concrete after only about 2 inches (including drywall). This meant that most of the mounting bolt’s length would be stuck in concrete, not wood. We had to switch to ½-inch masonry bits to drill out the concrete and use the supplied concrete anchors. It took a lot more time, and the concrete dust made a huge mess, but it worked nonetheless.



Step 4: Cut Cable Holes

If you’re hanging your plasma TV on the wall, you’ll also want to hide the power cord and video cables–which means making large holes in the wall. You’ll want to make your cable holes along the studs so you can attach the wall boxes to the studs. We were further challenged in this instance because our inside wall space was very shallow so we couldn’t use standard-sized wall boxes. The sheetrock on this wall was also double thickness, making sawing a challenge, and a mess. For the electrical line we used standard wall plates. For the video cables we used data wall boxes and wall plates we found at Home Depot.

Because the TV’s power cable wasn’t long enough to reach an outlet, and running that cable through the wall probably isn’t a good idea anyway, we installed a power outlet directly behind the plasma and an inlet (like the powerbridge inlet at www.powerbridgesolution.com) one directly below it at floor level and connected the two with in-wall rated electrical cable, making in effect, an in-wall extension cord. This way we weren’t working with any live electricity. The TV would be plugged into the top outlet, and a short extension cord was plugged into the new inlet at the floor level, then plugged into a power surge strip which was connected to a live outlet. This method, while seemingly complicated, allows you to connect your TV to a surge suppressor or power enhancer, and in the end makes for a professional-looking install.



Step 5: Attach the Mounting rails

While one person was working on the wall holes, the other was attaching the rails to the back of the plasma TV. The rails are what attach the TV to the wall plate. They attach easily with supplied screws and washers. The rails include alignment marks to ensure that both are at the same level.



Step 6: Mount the Wall Plate

Once your cable holes and wall plates are all in place, you can bolt the wall plate onto the wall. Use the supplied 3/8-inch lag bolts and washers. Twist them down tight, but not so tight that you’ll break them off–which we did in one case, and had to start all over again by moving the whole rig up about an inch. This was our fault for not drilling the holes deep enough.



Step 7: Fish the Wires

It’s important to fish the wires through the wall holes before hanging the TV, because once the TV is on the wall, it’ll be covering the holes. If you’re running cable with large end connectors, such as DVI, then it may be easier to mount the wall plate after you’ve pulled the wires through.



Step 8: Hang the TV

Now it’s time to hang the plasma on the wall. Since a 50-inch plasma is a heavy thing, don’t even consider doing this without help. The U3 includes two lateral rods which the mounting rails fit onto. If you’re installing a 60-inch plasma you will probably need to attach the supplied rod extensions, but they weren’t necessary for this install. Since the U3 can be tilted, make sure both rails are set at the same tilt setting so one side isn’t tilted more than the other. When you lift the display onto the rods, make sure both the top and bottom part of each rail is connected to the rods before you let go of the display.

Once the display is hanging on the rods, you can shift it a few inches left or right on the rods to center it properly on your wall. You can also further adjust the tilt of the display, but I found it better to remove the display from the wall to adjust the tilt because turning the tensioning levers was difficult while the TV was on the wall.

After the TV is secure and set at the tilt angle you want, you can then connect all the cables to the TV’s inputs. I wrapped the excess power cable behind the TV to keep it neatly out of sight. Finally, clean up the dust, tools and unused parts, sit back on the sofa and enjoy the view.

Wiring without Holes



If you want to hang your TV on the wall, but don’t want to make the large holes required to run the cables and power line, Superb Home Theater has an alternative for you. The Wiring Solution product is a wire channel that you attach to the wall. It can
accomodate up to eight A/V and power cables.
You can then sand and paint it to make it blend into the wall. The Wiring Solutions come in 18-inch lengths and come with three screws and anchors.
www.superbhometheater.com

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