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I am trying to mount a 47 inch LCD TV on a wall above a gas fireplace. My house was built in the 1940s, and some of the construction is a little out of my knowledge base. The wall above the fireplace is starting from facing to support, around 1 inch of plaster on top of around 4-6 inches of "fire-board" on top of cement. Drilling and mounting all the way back to the cement is not an option, as you may know because, bolts would be too long to be supportive. I have asked numerous people about this, and no one thinks I can do this. Any ideas?

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This may be the universe's way of telling you not to mount the tv over the fireplace. It's not good for the tv, and it's not good for your neck. Find a different place for the tv. – Tester101♦ Jan 29 at 12:14
There is nothing wrong with mounting in cement BTW. You need to bore a hole out with a powerful drill and a wide enough masonry bit. They make special masonry screws that are coated with adhesive that becomes activated by the heat of driving it in. The only think I would worry about is finding out how thick the concrete is because if it is part of the fireplace then you don't want to drill straight through into the flue. – maple_shaft Jan 29 at 14:06
@Tester101 I don't know what you have against mounting above the fireplace, if the wall is well insulated from the flue and it sits high enough up then the TV can be safe from heat exposure and be very attractive. – maple_shaft Jan 29 at 14:07
@maple_shaft If, if, if. Put that portrait of great great uncle Samuel back up on the mantel, and find a better place for the TV. – Tester101♦ Jan 29 at 14:32

2 Answers

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Neither plaster or fire-board has sufficient strength to support serious loads. Even lightweight TVs are too heavy for this kind of mounting.

Consider building a mantle and placing the TV on its stand on the mantle.

One possible alternative is to hang the TV from a beam in the ceiling, if one can be located near the face of the wall.

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Despite the fact that putting a TV in an high location such as over a fireplace is not good from an ergomonic standpoint it may be possible to mount it on the wall as follows. Get a nice piece of wood that is wide enough to accomodate the TV bracket (and even wider if possible). This wood would be at least 1.5 inches (3.8cm) thick and span across the fireplace width far enough to pickup a stud location on each side of the fireplace. Prefinish the wood to your taste and decor and then secure it to the wall and into the studs. Finally attach the TV bracket to the wood. The very best method to bolt the TV bracket to the wood is to use Tee nutes and short bolts. The Tee nuts would be pre-installed from the back side of the wood before the wood was mounted to the wall.

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