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Modern TVs have a very small thickness, so they can not be placed on bulky nightstands. The most common option is to hang the TV on the wall. This solution has a lot of advantages, and therefore it has become very popular.
Advantages and disadvantages of wall mounting
The development of technology has given us televisions of very small thickness, but with excellent image quality – plasma (RPTV), liquid crystal (LCD) and optical light-emitting diodes (OLED). This made it possible not to put them on cabinets or other furniture, but to hang them directly on the wall. The advantages are obvious. The first is space saving. Secondly, you can hang the TV in the entrance area and it will not interfere with the movement, which cannot be said even about a small bedside table. The third plus is that with wall mounting, there is less chance of colliding or otherwise damaging expensive equipment.
There are also disadvantages. The first – a more or less solid-sized screen will have to be installed by two people. Weight of 30 kilograms or more, it is difficult to keep “in one hand.” The second – you need to choose a high-quality TV mount on the wall. The mass is considerable and it will need to be kept constantly, so the margin of safety should be solid. Third – not all walls can be hung: the bearing capacity of drywall, gas or foam concrete is often not enough. Unless, during construction, you fixed mortgages in the frame that can withstand heavy loads. There are special TV brackets for such cases, but they cost more, and not all masses have them.
Where and at what height is it better to hang the TV on the wall
First of all, you need to determine the location and also the height of the screen on the wall. In the living room, the TV is usually placed in the seating area – opposite the sofa and armchairs. In this case, the height is determined depending on the design of the furniture. You need to make it comfortable to watch, and for this, the middle part of the screen should be approximately at the level of the human eye. So you determine the height of the TV installation on the wall experimentally, but on average it is 100-120 cm.
In the bedroom, the approach is the same, but you will watch mostly lying down, so the height of the TV installation is slightly less – about a meter.
In the kitchen, the approach is completely different. There is rarely time to pay attention to the picture, and there is not much space. Because the TV in the kitchen is usually hung closer to the ceiling and the brackets are sometimes chosen to be ceiling-mounted rather than wall-mounted. This approach has another plus – highly installed equipment is more secure.
As for the placement of the screen relative to the audience, the optimal distance is determined for plasma screens – these are 3-4 TV diagonals. With this arrangement, it will be comfortable to look at (with normal vision). For all other types of screen, the distance is selected which is convenient, but the minimum distances are given in the table. It is better not to have furniture closer – it will be completely uncomfortable.
| Screen size in inches | Screen size in centimeters | Minimum screen distance |
|---|---|---|
| 73′ | 185 см | 3,71 m |
| 65′ | 165 см | 3,3 m |
| 57′ | 145 см | 2,9 m |
| 50′ | 127 см | 2,54 m |
| 46′ | 117 см | 2,34 m |
| 42′ | 107 см | 2,13 m |
| 37′ | 81,3 см | 1, 88 m |
When choosing the location of the TV on the wall, it should be borne in mind that for normal operation it must be well ventilated. Therefore, installation in a niche is very undesirable, although this is the latest trend in design – to make a niche from drywall, and hang a TV in it. In extreme cases, such a mounting method is acceptable, but the dimensions of the niche must be much larger than the size of the TV – so that the air more or less circulates and cools the back surface. But even in this case, the TV can quickly fail – overheating has a bad effect on performance.
Choice of brackets
To hang the TV on the wall, you need to pick up the brackets. First of all, look at the back cover of the device. There should be four holes for installing the mounting plates. You need to measure the distance between them and the post when choosing a bracket to focus on them.
There are brackets in which all four mounts are fixed, there are more universal ones in which the horizontal distance changes.
Next, select the type of bracket for the TV:
- For fixed installation. They are two plates – one is mounted on the wall, the second on the back of the TV. When installed, the screen is simply hung on a plate hung on the wall. Fasteners take up little space, the monitor is located almost close to the wall. There remains a very small gap – 10-20 mm.
Hang the TV on the wall like a picture – at a short distance from the wall, you can use similar brackets - With rotation in a horizontal plane, that is, the screen can be rotated left and right. This type of TV bracket protrudes from the wall for a certain distance, most often a small one – a few centimeters. Otherwise, you won’t get a turn.
Such models provide tilt up / down - Vertically rotated – you can slightly tilt the screen up / down. This type of bracket is most commonly used in kitchens. After all, there TVs are mounted high on the wall, and in order to make it convenient to watch, you need to tilt the screen a little.
There are different options - Rotatable in both planes. This is a good option, but such brackets cost a lot.
The most common TV mounts are conventional. Few cases require the ability to rotate the screen, mostly only in the kitchen. Therefore, it makes no sense to overpay for unnecessary options.
In addition, the bracket for the TV must be selected according to weight and diagonal. This is one of the most important criteria, the safety of your equipment depends on it.
Installation procedure
After you have chosen a place to install the TV and a bracket, mark the place for mounting on the wall. Before further work, check that there are no communications in the wall – there were no wiring, pipes, etc. This can be done using a wiring detector. If everything is fine and the wires are not found, we attach the bracket plate to the wall, make marks for each hole. At the same time, make sure that the marks are strictly horizontal. The slightest skew can cause the screen to fall.
According to the marks made, holes are drilled into which the dowels are inserted, then the mounting plate is installed and secured with bolts.
Let’s start attaching the back plate. A counter plate is installed on the back of the TV. It is attached to the holes on the rear panel. Fasteners are usually installed in them, we unscrew it and use it during installation. If there is no fastener, we select it according to the size of the holes.
Having fixed the response panel, we hang the TV on the wall. As already mentioned, it is more convenient to do this together – you need to get out of the grooves. To make this easier, practice without a screen before editing.
Only by hanging the TV on the wall, you can deal with the wires. You can connect to a standard outlet, but the wires should not be taut, even when turning to the maximum angle. It is important. That’s all, now you know how to hang a TV on the wall with your own hands.
Homemade TV brackets
In order to hang the TV on the wall, it is not necessary to buy special brackets, the simplest of which cost quite decent money. It is quite possible to make a mount with your own hands and for ridiculous money. For example, for stationary installation – just on the wall, without the ability to change the angle of inclination – you can get by with mounting brackets with holes and bolts of a suitable size with washers and a nut. All this is in any hardware store. You will need six pieces of corners – two for the wall and four for the screen, as well as two bolts. We fix the corners on the back wall of the TV in the required places.
We measure the distance between the top ones and fix two on the wall. On those that are on the wall, we fasten the bolts with the rod up, placing a washer under the nut. Then we put the TV on these pins. Due to them, it is held, and the lower plates on the screen simply rest against the wall, fixing it in a certain position.
Good idea and very affordable. You can add that you can fix the bolts on the screen, only with the pins down. The effect will be the same.
The second option is to use sliding supports to attach the rafters. They are detachable, as in the photo below. The plate bent in the form of the letter “G” must be straightened, a hole for fasteners drilled in the upper part, then attached to the back wall of the TV.
Response plates are mounted on the wall. It is possible – on the beam. Then the screen will be tilted down at some angle (like the author of this method). And if the timber is still made with a bevel in one of the sides, then there will also be a turn in the right direction.
As you guessed, the screen is simply hung with hooks on the grooves. Everything is simple and extremely economical. The disadvantage of this method is that sometimes the fastener holes are located so that these plates cannot be attached to them. In this case, you have to make new holes in the housing cover (after removing it first).