Plasma wall mounting but no studs

[Xavier Paredes]

I recently bought a wall bracket for my SONY KDE-50XS955 plasma TV. This is a 50 inch plasma and weighs in at 68 Kg (150 lb).

The manufacturer recommends that the wall bracket is screwed into studs. The problem I'm having is that I don't seem to have any studs on the wall I want to install (sheetrock wall).

Is the manufacturer just trying to cover their behinds by recommending studs or is it really dangerous to try to anchor this TV on bare drywall?

Any expert advise is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!,
Xavier

BTW: The bracket manual recommends "M8" type screws, i've looked everywere on the web but can't find an explanation of what these exactly are. Anyone

[HayZee518]

M8 screws are just metric fastener size. For sheetrock walls I would suggest 1/4 inch toggle bolts. These are a standard long 1/4 inch X 4 inch machine screw with a butterfly toggle nut. Bore a hole that the toggle will go through, put the screw, a washer on it through the bracket, partially screw on the toggle on the opposite side of the bracket. Easier with two people. Hold up the bracket and insert all the toggles into their holes - now start to screw them in. slightly hold the bracket out from the wall so the toggles don't spin. When you reach a point where you can't hold it out from the wall surface, let it go and position it where you want. Now tighten the bolts securely. 1/2" sheetrock should support the tv and bracket IF the rock is securely fastened to the framing. "There's got to be some kind of framing underneath the sheetrock!" Maybe it's 24 inches on center instead of 16. I don't think anyone would just glue the rock in place. Is this on a above a fireplace wall? If so at least you'll have a concrete block substrate under the rock. Then you'd use lag bolts and shields, or "rawl" fasteners. One such "rawl" fastener is called a tamp in. See if I can draw the fasteners.

[volts]

Xavier: The manufacturer was serious about using wall studs. I would not hang 150 lbs. directly onto sheetrock. That'd be a catastrophe in the offing.

[X Y Scaling]

Gotta say I sure agree with volts.

Vinyl and Laserdisc Fan

[LazyPup]

Even with toggle bolts I would never rely upon sheetrock to hold a load greater than 10 or 12 lbs (approx. 2 kg).

You may be having difficulty in locating the studs but if it is a sheetrock wall, there must be studs, otherwise what is supporting the sheetrock?

[Xavier Paredes]

Hello dear forum,

I just wanted to update you all on how this worked out.

The wall I was attempting to install the plasma on is a wall which it's other side is the side of the building. After drilling a hole for the first toggle anchor we learned that there was a sort of wooden rack (if you will) that is attached (somehow) to the brick wall of the buiding which as ultimately holding the sheetrock. In some places there was 1.5 in. of space between this rack and the brick wall and in others there was less space. Clearly not enough clearace for the toggles to snap open.

We wound up chiseling-off some wall to make space for the toggles. Very time consuming. We used about 6 toggles and bolts. We also used about 5 concrete anchos (big ones) to anchor the bracket to the brick wall.

As you can see we used a set of toggles and concrete anchors to hold this aprox. 175lb monster (plasma 150 lb., bracket aprox. 125 lb.).

It's been already a couple of weeks and the TV is rock solid against the wall, uhhh. building, uhhhh no both!

I don't even want to start telling you how dificult it was to drive the cables from the plasma down to the hole in the bottom of the wall. In a nutshell, we wound up slicing the wall to make it easier to pull the cables down.

Wall is now patched and painted and wife is happy too.

Now I'm on to finding a good surround system.

Wish me luck.

Xavier
New York.

[dugan]

hope you left room or pulled speaker wires or have access to tv for sound system