Mounting screens on different wall types

[pwhite8314]

My company has an opportunity to bid for installing plasma and LCD panels for a major OEM. They're looking to offer 3 packages in the Home market. The first 2 are fine, just different amounts of gear connected together, however the 3rd option includes wall mounting the screen (and, in theory, chasing/hiding the speaker wires). All the requirements so far have come from the US, where (generally speaking) the construction of the houses are more of a known quantity. However here in the UK and Europe the walls can be made of anything from wattle and daub through to stone.

My question is really aimed at the installers on this forum; bearing in mind the variations in wall types, how do you cope for every, or most, eventualities? I suspect the answer would be to do a site survey in advance, and/or carry lots of tools and fixures to cope with any situation. However in this instance we're looking at high volume work, with lower margins than are typically associated with AV installs, so would you have any suggestions on how best to deal with this? As we currently see it (bearing in mind we HAVE to keep our costs relatively low), we have the following options:

- Run a pre-installation site visit for a nominal fee that would be refundable if the install goes ahead
- Partner with a national installations or building/carpentry firm to install the bracket, and let our engineers do the technical stuff
- Just ask the client what wall type they have. If they're wrong once we turn up, then we reserve the option to walk away.

One of the many issues we have is that our engineers currently only carry the tools needed to service a PC, and indeed, many of them will not have the skills required to install a plasma bracket. I guess that can be trained into them, but really we're just looking for the easiest, least risk solution.

Just looking for views and ideas really, any input welcome....

[Alexg]

I don't mean to be rude but I wouldn't want someone who is only used to working on computers anywhere near my walls or my expensive plasma with a hammer and a bolster. If I was them I would give the job to someone who is skilled in installing screens and is used to wireing buildings, Sorry this doesn't really help you, but I think if you and your engineers arn't skilled or equiped to do this then you shouldn't really take on the job.

Regards, Alex.

[pwhite8314]

That's fine, to some extent I agree. It's all about price points really; like you, I'd rather do the job myself, or pay a reputable workman to do it for me, but I'd have reservations about a national PC repairer carrying out wall mounting. That said, there's plenty of consumers that are more than happy to have Mastercare or similar doing this kind of thing, so they're probably the target market, as opposed to the typical forum user, who's likely to either be more fussy about the installation in general, or have the skills to do the install themselves.

Having said all that, we're not talking rocket science, and each engineer would be equipped with high-quality sepcialist tools and training/exams, so there's no reason why they wouldn't be able to do the wall-mount installs. If they don't pass the practical exam, they don't get let loose with a drill ;-)

[FoxyMulder]

If you are going to do a job please don't turn up at someones home and then tell them sorry your wall isn't suitable we can't do the job, i have had experience of a certain firm (Comet ) saying theyre deliver a product up stairs then coming on the day and not doing it and its very infuriating to the consumer.

My wall was incapable of holding the projector screen so i did some DIY and cut it from the metal holding and installed it permanently ( theres always a solution to a problem )

I suggest the pre installation site visit as that will keep your customers happy and if theyre happy then the firm employing you to install is going to be happy.

Good luck :)

[clever dicky]

Work in partnership with a good builder.
Specify to them whats needed, with the finished result having just the bracket mounted, wires run etc. And then your pc guys can easily hook on the screen / speakers and connect the plugs.

[cmo]

We generally undertake the first option of a site visit to determine exactly what is to be done as well as whether mains and aerial sockets need to be moved and a general assessment - we then have installers who can deal with the basic installation i.e. bracket on wall, cables set in trunking.
However if cabling needs to be chased and made good we have more specialist installers who do this day in, day out and ultimately give a professional finish.

Either way we almost always do a site survey which is refundable - why take the risk?

Chris