I imagine many forum members have done this themselves already, but this was my first experience with wall-mounting an LCD and running in-wall wiring. I found the experience both frustrating and rewarding, and wanted to share it with the forum members here. I was lucky to have an unfinished basement below that allowed easy access for wiring to the "server closet" under the basement stairs.

I started by determining the height of the TV and mounting the bracket to the wall with the very large bolts included with the mount kit. At this point I have to plug Monoprice.com for their amazing prices and quality on mounts and cables. No, I'm not sponsored or affiliated with them in any way, in fact I dropped about $300 there over the past two months, but they are a great source for your A/V needs.

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Next I broke out the handy keyhole saw and cut up the drywall. The first hole is the hardest, after that it's cake and you're willing to cut holes in anything in the house. I used Low Voltage wall brackets from my neighborhood Lowe's to mount the low voltage recessed wall plates.

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Alex Kuretz
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After that, I borrowed a fish-tape from a buddy (thanks Guantes!) to run the cables through the two holes in the wall, and down through the floor into the basement. I ran 2x cat-6 network cables and 1x RG6 cable from the centralized location in the basement, and in-wall I ran 2x HDMI, 1x component, 1x optical audio, 1x power cord for TV, 1x RG6 to the TV tuner, and 1x composite video/analog audio for legacy devices.

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Alex Kuretz
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I lifted the TV into place, tightened the mounting screws, and then set to wiring everything up. I'm still looking for a better equipment rack, I'd prefer something a bit wider and a little lower, but it works well. Lessons learned:
* Walls are not level/square! What was perfectly square with a level was visually incorrect, I had to slightly off-level the TV to make it look right
* Don't be afraid to cut drywall! But measure 3 times and be sure you know where your electic cables lie.
* You can do it! Don't let the BestBuy salesmen scare you off, I swear they are trained to get you to pay hundreds of dollars to mount the TV (ask Jrock for his story).

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Alex Kuretz
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Looks nice.

FYI-

Although like EVERYONE and their brother does it -
The NEC doesn’t allow one to run the AC line cord through the wall like that.
(surprisingly even the installers from best buy certainly do- I've seen it- they are thereby doing something against code- but then again many cable tv and satellite installers don’t properly ground cables going into people’s houses…))


The “correct” method is to put an AC outlet behind the unit using the appropriate methods.

TO be honest I’m not entirely sure why the code is what the code is- I guess it’s because power cords aren’t as hardy as romex and they worry that they will get damaged somehow. Could be the lack of a ground wire so they worry a short in the wall is less likely to get grounded. Might be they want people to clearly be able to tell where to unplug the device from if the device was malfunctioning. Not really sure.

If god forbid something were to happen and you got a fire in that wire then I’m not sure what your insurance would say. (I’m sure I’d be suing best buy if they did it and it wound up causing a fire)

They will tell you to go screw, and so will the Fire Marshall.

It's not a good idea, Yak, but if you do it, instead of running the AC cord from the TV through the wall, get yourself a heavy guage 3-wire appliance extension (like for an Air Conditioner or Dryer) and run THAT through the wall, and connect the tv cord outside the wall. You can coil it and hide it behind the TV. It's very cheap insurance.

You have a duplex outlet down to the right there. Putting a new box higher up would be very easy, jut install a metal box, run some romex down the wall, and split the lines inside the lower box. That's what I did with mine. If you don't do stuff like that, it's a one hour service call from an electrician.

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I knew I'd get told about something I'd done wrong, that's why I work with computers and not construction as my day job.

Thanks for the feedback, guys, I've amended the post title to be an explanation of how I wall-mounted an LCD rather than an instructional how-to, as everyone really should do as advised with correctly running the power lines.

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if he's REALLY lucky the feed for that box comes down from the top so a new one would be a simple tap in the middle.

I think it actually comes up from the basement, I have access to the floor, wall, and all cabling under there. I don't want to have to cross-drill through a stud without being able to apply a nail plate to protect the wire, so I can probably just run it up in the same stud channel as the duplex box and install the outlet to the right behind the TV.

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Alex Kuretz
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Exactly.

You can get a single recessed outlet, or a clock hanger, that goes in the new duplex box, nice and neat so the plug doesn't stick out from the wall. Just make sure you use the grommet to secure the romex well, as you won't be able to staple it to the stud. Even 5 feet of romex is heavy!

Do you have a voltage detecting pen? If you don't, spend $10 at Lowes and get one. They even can detect the romex through drywall, so you can see what's back there before you cut.

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myself i prefer plastic boxes with romex for old work but to each his own.

Also- for "old work" (as in adding wiring to an old existing house) staples aren't required for inaccessible locations even though they would be for "new work" (adding wires to open walls). And if you drill the hole through the stud in the middle then nailing plates aren't required - if you wanted to go that route- off to the side might be better though anyway- might make access to the cord easier to make coiling the cord simpler.

If people are sweating what the fire Marshall, code official, or insurance adjuster might say, then many municipalities would require a permit and inspections to add an outlet to make it all legal anyway, for places that care generally changing a fixture (if the outlet cracked and you replaced it) is OK without a permit but adding or changing things would require a permit- so you would need to check with your local municipality for their rules. Just to give you more of a brain hurt and along those lines some places even require new certificates of occupancy at each sale, the code enforcement official would walk through the house- if it was a tract house and there was something he/she saw that he new wouldn't be in the original they could go back and look in the files to make sure you had permits- generally it they would do that if your house had a new bathroom, not so sure about added outlets but a 20 year old house with a flat panel tv outlet probably would be obvious it's been added- so something else to be aware of. Here in NJ there's there's even a disclosure form too for all sellers when you put your house up for sale- one of the questions something like "have appropriate permits been used for all renovations?"

If you are going to get permits, take the minute or two to talk to the inspector when you pick it up and tell him/her exactly what you plan to do just to see if they have any specifics they want- it's not rocket science to add an outlet but there are some basics like using the correct size wire to match the breaker and making sure the boxes are all deep enough (there's an allowable number of items per box based on the cubic inches of the box, if i recall correctly each wire added counts as one -black and white in to box and black and white out would equal 4, all the the grounds together count as one, and the outlet counts as one- a plastic box usually will be stamped with the allowable number , for a metal box you need to look at a table. Why get all complex?- if the box you are jumping off from already has 2-3 sets of wires entering/exiting it then adding another going out to the new box MIGHT make an issue in that box so you would need to replace that one also. It's rare that a box would be loaded tightly like that but i stumbled on it once and the inspector noticed right away- I knew the rule and forgot to pay attention to the box i jumped off from) And if you open things up and find aluminum wire then step back and go find a pro.



Bet you no longer wonder why the kids at best buy making 6.50 an hour just stuff the cord through the wall?

Bet you wonder why I just let the power cord hang down the wall and put a plant in front of it!

(I can confirm all of MichaelK's comments.)

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While I also agree with Michael about the amazing things you find when you open up an electrical box, I do have to say that we are talking about using some common sense here. In my case, the first thing I did was check the box for branched circuits and jump-offs, and to make sure it was properly grounded (I've got a few which aren't, and I throw GFCIs in those)

If any of those problems existed, I would have called my electrician, as I am very fussy about not burning my house down.

Having said that, installing another outlet like this is not difficult or dangerous if you have experience doing wiring. But as I said in my first post, if you aren't good with this stuff, it's an inexpensive improvement if you call an electrician.

Why spend $2+k on a TV, mount it on the wall and let the wire hang down? Besides, I hate houseplants...

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Looks great, Alex!!

I simply don't get it. WHY wall mount a TV? I mean you can obviously but now you have severe restrictions as for watching it. Have a couch on the side? Oops, looking at the screen off angle or move the couch. Got a movie that has shrunk the widescreen by half? Move all the furniture closer.
The Other thing is that EVERYONE always mounts the darn screens way too high. My nephew has the screen above the fireplace, 6 feet up in the air at least.
Got a videogame party using the giant screen for playing Halo? Expect the guys to be sitting within 2 feet of the screen.

So put the LCD on a TABLE with wheels and on a rotating platform where the screen is at eye level when sitting down. Wheel it where you want, and change the angle to fit where you want to sit or to accomodate other guests.

This is another woman conspiracy ( like doilies and toilet covers). Thank goodness I live in a all male household...

Now we ALL have flat screen monitors. Why don't you mount THAT to the wall? Same difference...

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