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So I recently was able to do something I'd been hoping/planning to do for a long time, which was run speaker wire through the wall from my living room to my sun room so I can play music from my stereo out there. The next step is to mount the outdoor-friendly speakers that I bought for the sun room. I've got a set of Polk AW M3s, which weigh about 15 pounds each and have these mounting brackets on the back:

speaker with mounting bracket

Depending on what ends up looking/sounding best, I'm planning to secure them to either the ceiling or the beam just below it, pictured here:

sun room ceiling

Here's the other side of that wall, for context/layout:

external of sun room

So there's clearly some space in there behind the ceiling, I'm not at risk of drilling through to the roof or anything, but I'm not totally sure how to approach this. I've had plenty of experience mounting things in walls with different anchors/bolts, but not ceilings, and especially not textured ceilings like this one. The boards make it pretty difficult to use a stud finder to locate any joists or anything like that, so my question is - what's the best way here to figure out how to securely mount these speakers and to determine whether the ceiling is strong enough to hold them? I'm guessing I'll need to use some sort of toggle anchor if they go into the ceiling, regardless. Any advice on how to approach this is much appreciated, I love this room and definitely do NOT want to mess up the ceiling!!

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  • Alternatively, mount to the wall inside the enclosed space, where there have to be studs...
    – keshlam
    Commented Aug 30, 2023 at 16:49
  • even cheap drywall anchors are good for 30lbs, each. since you have 2 per speaker, you're only asking for 25% of the rated capacity. You also have all that bedeboard to prevent tear-out, so I really wouldn't worry about finding studs unless there's tons of bass. aside: that cable doesn't look legal to run in-wall or cieling, you need a double-insulated (jacketed) wire, look for the marking "CL2" on the wire.
    – dandavis
    Commented Aug 31, 2023 at 22:01
  • oh I know, the in-wall portion of the wiring is already taken care of - the wire in the speakers is just for running from the wall plate across the room. we're making sure to do everything right!
    – Ben
    Commented Sep 6, 2023 at 12:28

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Use the beams.

If that's a pre-manufactured kit-type sunroom, (as is moderately common for such add-ons) there may well be nothing suitable to mount to in the ceiling structure. Could easily be beadboard we see, styrofoam, and OSB as a stress-skin panel, for instance. No studs at all. The beadboard might be all of 1/4" thick. Or it might be glued to 7/16" OSB, depending. Without detailed plans or poking holes in things, hard to know. You might be able to find plans at a municipal/county office from when the sunroom was added.

Meanwhile, the beams are clearly a solid place to mount to.

If you are determined to attach to the ceiling, you'll need to get through or above it somehow to verify structure, and typically there is no access provided. So you pretty much need to be committed to cutting a hole into the roof dead space to see what you can see.

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  • Perfect, that's all the insight I need - beams it is then, thanks so much!
    – Ben
    Commented Aug 30, 2023 at 15:56

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