D.I.Y.advice p!ease.

[darrow]

We are looking to put our TV on wall brackets. Have sussed out type required etc, but the instructions seem to be for homes with stud walls. Does anyone know what would be required to make a safe job of the wall mounting? Would hate for it to pull out whilst the TV is on it. I thought about a block of wood on the wall with mount fixed to that but not sure that will work! Any ideas grateful!y received. TIA.

[Lincoln]

Raw plugs and strong screws will suffice. However do make sure when drilling into the wall that there are not any Electric cables. I have found that the Cyprus method of wall cables are often at unusual angles and not straight up and down.

[WHL]

It depends how heavy the TV is, I always use Hexagon headed screws 12/ 14 size drill and raw plugs, with the hexagon heads you can use a spanner/socket to get it nice and tight.

[PaphosAL]

Please be extra careful with this DIY project that you have in mind, darrow. You need to remember that your walls probably consist only of red clay adobe blocks that are full of holes, between the re-inforced concrete pillars.

They are then skimmed with a thin layer of hard concrete (not plaster) prior to painting / tiling. I've heard horror storys from friends in Paphos where they have tried to bang a picture fix hanger into the wall, and out dropped a saucer-sized area of wall !!!

To the best of my knowledge, NO type of heavy load fixing exists for that type of crap brick... So I'm now making this up as I go along, LOL! Consider a 'sandwich' solution, whereby you use long stainless steel bolts and nuts that go all the way through the wall to the outside?

Observe Lincon's valuable advice regarding electric cables in the drilling area! You can buy a cheap tester for this risk in any DIY store. The outside nuts and washers can then be given a dab of paint, after tightening, to match the exterior finish.

And there you have it. A TV mount that you could literally swing on, whilst the TV itself is mounted! Twill cost a few more €uros, but well worth it for peace of mind. You'll need to know someone that has a decent hammer drill, with a long 8mm masonary bit that goes all the way through the wall (250mm?), though...

Cheers- AL

[Ramone]

D.I.Y. = Don't involve yourself !!

[trevnhil]

Despite the warnings mentioned about fixing heavy things to the hollow red bricks, you will find that the Air Conditioning units on the outside of building manage to hang on the walls OK.

[darrow]

Thanks for all the advice. It was knowing about the hollow bricks and the fancy electric cabling that made me seek advice. I think we'll give it a go!

[bromerzz]

When doing that kind of heavy mounting I always use the rawlplugs that look like a a piece of Penne pasta. They are the same diameter through the length of the plug. Make sure you drill a "tight" hole and maybe have to give the plug a couple of taps with rubber mallet or screwdriver butt end to make them go in flush before attempting to fix the mounting plate.

[daveg]

The electric cable location testers ,as mentioned above, don't appear to work here?
My outside Aircon units have not moved ,having been attached to the wall with plugs and screw bolts...

[Lincoln]

Hudswell's right, this is a very simple, straightforward task and I would have no qualms whatsover about doing it - providing there were no electrical sockets more or less below or above the intended drilling points. Electrical cables are encased to stiff plastic conduit, so invariably go straight up or down. Over the years I've installed countless things into red clay brick walls and never had a problem.

Many buildings the wiring is NOT encased and often at angles. One house I was doing some re-wiring and the Earth cable was LIVE.

[bmwx5]

When I served my apprenticeship the norm was to follow right angles up across down from switches sockets etc so anyone would have a fair idea where the wires or conduits were located and have some guide to where to drill or not as the case maybe , unfortunately not the case here in my experience. There are some detection devices on the market which are of great assistance inlocating live cables worth the price for piece of mind having once been told by the occupier that no cables ran that way for sure only to drill ending with a flash and a bang and the mains trip !! Then having to chisel out the area to repair the damaged cable ,,,

[PaphosAL]

Despite the warnings mentioned about fixing heavy things to the hollow red bricks, you will find that the Air Conditioning units on the outside of building manage to hang on the walls OK.

Now there's a thought, darrow... Go to Tower Electric and buy as many fixings as your TV mount requires, the same fixings as used for heavy outdoor A/C units as suggested by Trev.

Except in your case, you will be drilling from the inside, of course.

AL