Mounting plasma TV on the wall only to find that my studs aren't flush with the sheet rock!

[Unused Classified]

Hello, I have a new plasma TV and a bought wall mounting hardware. I used the stud finder on the wall and found that the studs are 24 inches apart. I drilled several small holes into the sheet rock in the area but it seems like after I clear the sheet rock there is a half inch of dead space before the studs. I haven't checked the whole wall but it seems this is the case in the relevant area. Is this common? I bought longer screws but I'm still hesitant to hang it on top of empty space. One idea is to use 1/2 inch metal washers, if there is such a thing, to fortify the screws. Any other ideas? Thanks

[aemeijers]

If your studs are 24 oc, the wall may not be able to hold a TV, at least not a big one. Need more detail, please- where are you, when was house built, etc.24 oc isn't code for wood studs in area I have ever spent time in. Do you maybe have steel studs? If this is an older house, was the room ever remodeled? I have found a lot of surprises in old walls.

I suppose you could always screw a big piece of plywood to wall, across maybe 3 stud bays, and hang the TV from that. But with a questionable wall and an expen$ive TV, I'd be looking at a floor stand.

-- aem sends (last day on Google till next years road trip)...

[Oren]

Use 3/4 in plywood (birch), cut to size needed. Span the 24" on center and mount it. Then mount the TV mount.

A plasma TV mount will need lag bolts, at least four. See instructions for the mount.

In lieu of plywood, two 1x4 wood for the mounting span.

[trader4]

If there is 1/2' behind the drywall in an area of at least one stud, then that would mean you'd have a 48" span where the sheetrock could move back 1/2". And if that's the case, just pushing on it you'd notice the drywall would bend, ie give. In any case, the bracket is going to be secured to the studs, so the only real danger is that as you tighten the bracket up, if there were such a gap and you continued to tighten it, the drywall could crack/break. If you tighten it securely, the bracket itself will be secure and the TV can't fall. If you proceed with caution while tightening, you can get an idea of whether the drywall is being pulled in or not.

[benick]

Sounds like you have Resilient channel for sound proofing ?? or maybe strapping ??? Either way you may have to open the wall up to add bracing...Spanning the studs with 1X4 strips will just crush the sheetrock into the studs as you tighten the lags or break the strips or both......You need to get something in there first or perhaps use a LARGE piece of 3/4 inch finished plwood and screw through the sheetrock and strapping or Resilient channel into the studs then attach the mount to the 3/4 plywood ..Might look kinda strange though..LOL...Take the mount back and buy a nice stand might be the easiest choice...HTH...My dad took his down off the wall and bought a stand...He was tired of looking up at the ceiling to watch TV...Some things look better in pictures then actually function well....I don't have mine on the wall either...Same reason...

[willshak]

Unused Classified wrote the following:

24" on center and the sheet rock isn't even attached to the studs? Are you in Appalachia? Methinks you missed the studs and hit something further into the cavity, like an electrical wire or a pipe.

[benick]

Never heard of strapping or Resilient Channel , Huh ??? It gets screwed to the studs and sheetrock screwed to it thus the gap between the sheetrock and studs between the rows of strapping or Channel...Simple , amazing , almost magical....

[JIMMIE]

What kind of studfinder are you using. Magnetic may pickup on the nails but I dont think the sonic type would pick up a stud with a 1/2 inch gape between the stud and sheetrock. Maybe you have some old wooden lathe between the sheet rock and studs.. I woould use my studfinder to map out the area and see whats going on behind the walls.

Jimmie

[JIMMIE]

Could be, or if the studs were on 24 inch centers someone may have added some horizontal strips to support the drywall.

Jimmie

[Stepfann King]

Face the fact you live in a hell hole.

[Phisherman]

Studs are not always in the same plane, either installed improperly or the studs have moved (twisted, bowed, waned, etc) over time. I dont think there is an easy fix on this one without taking the wall apart and shimming up the set-back stud. At this point I'd put the TV on a sturdy table and forget the wall mount.

[Danimal]

A few more considerations for anyone when purchasing a wall mount flat screen TV. Prepping and stripping a wall section first to accomadate mounting hardware for the tv itself to material that will hold 1-1/2 times the weight of the appliance, fishing wires for / installing a hidden power plug-in outlet, surround sound or external speaker hook up and cable or sattelite hook up. Finish up by plastering and painting the wall, making the work invisible, neat and tidy is the only way to go. If you are going to have cords, wires hanging down, why even bother? If you can't do this work, hire someone who can. Lastly, put away the stud finder.....................unless you're hanging a picture.

[Nate Nagel]

I suspect that your drywall is screwed to either 1x(something) furring strips or hat channel or something like that. I too would be very hesitant to mount your TV any other way than directly to a stud.

If you don't mind taking a section of the wall down, could you screw some 2x4s horizontally between two studs where you want to mount the TV, but space them forward so that they are even with the back of the drywall? Either that or take a sheet of plywood the same thickness as the furring strips and attach that to the studs where you want to mount the TV, and mount the mount to the plywood with big heavy toggle bolts? Obviously you'll have to re-drywall and repaint that wall but you were going to knock a hole in it anyway to put a receptacle behind the TV and conceal the wiring to your A/V rack, right? (right?)

good luck

nate

[bud--]

I have no idea what is in you wall or whether your gap is real.

You could use spacers, like a length of 3/8 or 1/2" pipe long enough to go from the stud to the wall surface. (The spacer may sink into the stud and wood on the wall surface, so the spacer may need to be longer.) Lag bolt goes through the spacer into the stud. What you are mounting bears on the spacer (not the wall).

[willshak]

benick wrote the following:

Yeah, I've heard of it, but I've never heard of 24" on center studs in the living area of a house, unless there are no building codes where the OP lives, hence the Appalachia reference.

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Building codes are a 20th century thing. Lots of houses older than that.

Also, IIRC, in the 70s when folks first started using 2x6s for studs, some codes would allow 24" centers. 24" centers for an interior, non-loadbearing wall wouldn't surprise me at all.

Jim

[DerbyDad03]

re: "If you are going to have cords, wires hanging down, why even bother? "

Ever seen one of these, centered below the TV and painted to match the wall?

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[Nate Nagel]

yup, that'd work too. ASSuming that the studs are wood that is. Dunno if you can even mount a TV on a metal stud wall. Steel pipe cut to length with a chop saw would make dandy spacers. If you don't have a chop saw you could cut them with a hacksaw or hand grinder and then dress them on a bench grinder so the ends are perfectly flat, it'd just take longer that way. Then you'd just have to drill a hole through the drywall slightly larger than the OD of your spacers. I'd be tempted to use as many fasteners as you possibly could in this instance because the load will be concentrated on the spacers and not spread over the whole area of contact (which you don't have) between the bracket and the wall.

will your bracket mount directly to studs spaced at 24"?

nate

[Oren]

According to some mounting instructions you use toggle bolts in lieu of lag bolts.

Drill into the metal stud and mount them.

[Danimal]

Ever seen one of these, centered below the TV and painted to match the wall?

As a matter of fact, I did. It's called a piss poor excuse for a lazy mans way of doing a job right the first time. You can hide shit and you can paint shit any colour. In the end, you still have shit that even looks like shit of a different colour.

[e-mail]... > A few more considerations for anyone when purchasing a wall mount flat

re: "If you are going to have cords, wires hanging down, why even bother? "

Ever seen one of these, centered below the TV and painted to match the wall?

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