Suggestions? - Wall bracket to hold heavy screen away from wall

[Mike Dodd]

I've been pondering a solution to the following for a couple of days, would like any valuable opinions of the knowledgable in here...

I use a projector for home-cinema, projecting onto a pull-down screen previously mounted above the window (and curtains) in the living room. For anyone wondering about the asthetics of this, the result was similar to a curtain pelmet, except functional rather than tacky.

Now, cutting a long story short, I bought the screen last Xmas eve (the PJ was a bit of a xmas present to myself), and in the panic of trying to get the bits to mount the screen before the country closed down for xmas I plumbed for two "L" shaped brackets, approx 8" long on each side, and used two "S"-shaped hooks to hook the top-mount hook on the screen to the top of the bracket on the screen. Around about about now I think I need to resort to some fixed-width ASCII art...

wall | | |+---------------S-

[david lang]

This sounds like the best alternative, but I reckon it depends which way the joists run. Assuming the window is at the end of the room, doo the joists run along the room or across it?

If they run along it no problem, you will find them every 16". If they run across the room the first one you find will be 16" away from the window wall.

If you have floorboards upstairs, they will be at 90 degress to the joists - lift some carpet & have a look.

Dave

[Mike Dodd]

Ah, my trusty stud detector tells me the joists are either everywhere or nowhere. Upstairs = chipboard floor panels (new build home), joints in roof run in direction of window, sort of assumed that they would also downstairs - also, open plan run with open stairway running to-from wall with window in, assume joists run same direction?

[david lang]

The chipboard panels will be screwed or nailed to the joists - just look at which way the screws/nails go, that must be the direction of the joists.

Dave

[John Rumm]

For that matter flooring chipboard is usually long sheets that are quite narrow (8x2' is common) - the long length will be running across the joists.

[david lang]

I knew that :-)

Dave

[Mike Dodd]

Ok, It turns out that the joists do run parallel with the window, at 16" distance from window. After much sucking of teeth (and glares from SWMBO) I decided to try putting some eyes straight into the joist at

16", but with the advantage that I could select the correct centres for the screen (210cm).

End result - looks surprisingly ok (even SWMBO agrees it looks much better than she'd feared) - blends in with the coving well, and the extra distance from the wall does introduce some benefits (cats can jump up and down from the window sill without hitting the screen - avoids those "Alien" stomach exploding moments in the most inappropriate of films).

Thanks to all for advice.

Mike