I want to mount an LCD TV above an 8 foot wide door in my bedroom. I have to run the wires in the finished exterior insulated wall and had a few questions.
1) From what I read it is okay to notch load bearing wall provdes the notch is less than 25% of the depth of the stud. Correct?
2) Is it safe to notch the door header (that way I can run the cables in the gap between the door and the rough opening)? If so how much?
3) I know runing audio cables in the same notch as the AC cable is not a good idea. What about coax cable (for cable TV)? I really do not want to notch and repair two notches per stud.
If the ceiling height is above 8', you'll probably have cat beams at around
4'. The door header may not be solid to the sheetrock. I would try to snake up the wall next to the door then try to open the sheetrock and drill the studs adjacent to the header and see if there is room to snake between the header and the sheetrock
Bad idea for lots of reasons. It seems like a good idea for while lying in bed, but it is way too high for sustained viewing. And during the day, light through the door will make the screen hard to see. You can center-drill studs to 25%, but notching a whole row of studs that deep weakens the whole wall. If wall is that high, I assume this is a cathedral ceiling? Feeding from attic into that stud bay would be a lot better, but you probably don't have an attic above. Second best would be to feed up from basement into the stud bay beside the door, remove a strip of drywall above door, and center-drill the studs to the mounting point. Do you have drapes on this door wall? You could retrim the doorway and make the casing a little wider, and create a wooden raceway around the door to run the cables through, by slotting the drywall under it. (May have to retrim the other doors in the room to match visually, if the drapes don't disguise the door trim well enough.)
As much as it pains me to throw business their way, you may wanna pay a visit to local dealer that sells the brackets and fittings- they may have better ideas. Or ask over in alt.hometheater, or whatever the appropriate group is called.
*I agree with RBM. It is better to open up the drywall. I am not sure where you are running the wires from, but if it is a horizontal run I would cut a length of drywall out about 5" wide and as long as you need to go in one long piece. That way you can drill holes in the middle of each stud. If you will be bringing the wires down from the attic you can cut a hole big enough to get your drill in and drill up through the top plate. Then push a fish tape up into the attic space and go up and tie your wire onto it.
I would keep the two cables in separate holes.
Cut your drywall at a 45 degree angle to make it easier for patching.
You can probably test this by running all the same wires outside of the wall, on the floor if necesary, as close as they would be with one notch. Tape them together. I presume AC means air conditioning. Test them by running the AC, turn it down enough that the compressor goes on too, and at the same time running the tv on all stations you'll be watching. Test the audio this way too. Although if you say so, they say it's not a good idea, the world is a complicated place and I've seen lots of things that aren't supposed to work, work, (counting everything, not especially in electronics)
For example, I have the tv in this room connected to the DVDR in another room and a set top box in this room. I tried using channel 3 for one and channel 4 for the other, but there was interference, so for most of the time since the digital conversion, I've been using an A-B coax switch to switch inputs. Just 35 minutes ago, I was getting the same thing on either A or B, and neither was the set-top box. I went to another room connected to the DVDR and that wasn't it either. It was playing a signal that came from neither source, and the same thing on both A and B. How could that possibly happen?
I had to turn the tv off and on, and then everything was back to normal.
I was hoping to notch the studs roughly 3/4"X3/4". Just big enough for a a a 14/3 romax cable. The wall in question is 20' wide and 16" high at the highest point, If I notch the studs, I would have to notch 5 of them. I have no access from below. I have very limited to no access from above. I have not been yet figured out how the wall is built. The wall is insulated. Opening up the walls and center drilling will be a major job. Wider casing is an idea. Thew current molding is 4". The doors open to an covered porch (this is on the 2nd floor).
I am also concerned about how practical this is. Our bed does sit high. The center of the TV woud be about 4 feet above eye level. The mount I was planning on using can tilt 10 degrees down. My other option would be to mount it in the corner but then you are twisting the head to watch TV. However that be a better answer.
The wall is 20' long and 16' high at the highest point. I have no access from below. I have limited to no access from above. I was hoping to notch the studs 3/4"X3/4". I would need to notch at least 5 studs. The wall is insulated so center drilling would be a lot of work. The doors open to an covered porch. The TV is only used at night so glare is not an issue. Ther are no curtains.
As one poster mentioned, I am concerned that watching an TV that is 4 feet above eye level could be uncomfortable. The TV mount can tilt down about 10 degrees which could help. My other option is to mount the TV in the corner. Not sure watching the TV on an angle would be thta much better.
What is the wall on the outside, in the covered porch, sheathed with? Wood siding, stone, or what? Any way to painlessly open the wall from that side, like popping off a sheet of siding? Or is there trim out there, where another band of trim at the line of the top of the door would not look out of place? Or does the porch ceiling not extend high enough above the top of the door opening to do you any good? Wiring through the wall may be a viable solution, if you have a way to get the coax and power to the porch ceiling area. Will you have any other devices in the room, like a DVD player, or is this TV slaved off a DVR downstairs?
At this point, pictures would help. A wide angle shot of the door from inside and outside, and close-up of the area above the door, from inside and outside. Can you upload somewhere and post links back here? If we can see it, some other ideas make occur to us.
My first thought is that whatever solution you decide on (and there's some good ones here), it should be easily repeatable for when you decide that coax needs to replaced by an hdmi cable.
maybe consider a pvc run once you get the wall opened up? It would make it easier to push the next cable through.
When you replace the plug, it'll be a bit recessed due to the width of the kerf. I prefer a square cut and to hot melt a couple of wood strips across the opening. Then, set them firm with drywall screws. This makes it easy to screw the removed plug back in place.
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