LCD Mounting on plasterboard

[chamjay]

Hi Guys, I am looking to mount a 46' LCD on plasterboard. Now the problem is that I am not sure what type of plasterboard my wall is. It is the dividing wall of my end terraced house and not a single wall socket seem to be mounted on it. I got myself a stud detector which seem to occasionally beep while sliding across wall but I have a gut feeling the wall is not hollow. I would have liked to hide cables behind the wall but it that is looking unlikely the more I investigate.

Is there any way to definitely figure out what kind of a wall I am dealing with here without making nasty holes in it? The house is 6 years old so we are talking recent house building practices.

Thanks

[DGZDGZ]

it should be 12mm i think mate. If your house is only 6yrs old then it'll be a std size.

Your looking at using something like this: Hollow Wall Anchor 5 x 52mm 8-16mm Pack of 10 - Screwfix.com, Where the Trade Buys

[chamjay]

Alright, thanks.

I don't think there is a hollow space behind the plasterboard, it seems like there is a layer of soft cement or white clay material (possibly for sound proofing) as this is a dividing wall so wall anchor devices meant for hollow walls might not do, any thoughts?

[hornydragon]

Might be dot and dab in which case you need to use differet fixings drill a hole and see what gape there is and what is behind the borad to be sure if you drill a deepish hole you will see what material the wall is from the stuff that comes out, brick/block etc

[mark88]

To find out if it's dot and dab just knock it with your knuckles all over. Some places will sound hollow, others will sound solid.

[Caimbeul]

My house is modern and dot n dab (chaep and lazy arsed way of putting up the plasterboard) if it is on the wall between you and the next door neighbour it may be worth doing what i did to mount my 46" in to a plasterboard wall which was against an outside wall.

buy a big mounting plate, go straight through in to the brickwork with some big a** rawl plugs & screws and spread the load across the bracket as much as possible. I was paranoid about it falling off of the wall but am happy with it now.

In terms of cabling, if it is dot and dab it may be a fair bit of work to hide all the cables. I just used a cable trunking solution that was black to match so other bits of the kit which simply stuck to the wall and looks decent enough to me and SWMBO.

[andyb362]

Originally Posted by Caimbeul

In terms of cabling, if it is dot and dab it may be a fair bit of work to hide all the cables. I just used a cable trunking solution that was black to match so other bits of the kit which simply stuck to the wall and looks decent enough to me and SWMBO.

Perhaps I was just lucky, but in my recent build house, the dot & dab wall I've just mounted my plasma onto had a gap of approx an inch behind the plasterboard. I was able to drill an entry hole and exit hole (approx 3 inch diameter) into which I was able to pull through a power cable, scart leads, hdmi's, components etc. That said, the two holes were directly above each other about 1 metre apart - if you were going a larger distance or across the wall it would have been a bit trickier.

If it is a dot & dab wall you're mounting onto, I cannot recommend highly enough the m6 rigifix fixings I used - got them from Mark Grant and they are superb! They straddle the gap meaning you are not compressing the plasterboard when tightening the bracket to the wall as you would do with traditional fixings.