Lets hear your ideas on hiding the wires. It’s a woodburning fireplace, steel flue wood framed chimney, real brick facade. I don’t want any wires showing. I don’t want to set the TV on the mantle, I want to mount it to the brick.
House was built in 1995. How are these facades/chimneys built? Is there cold space behind the facade? Other ideas?
---------- Post added at 01:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:13 PM ----------
Thats gonna be a high tv. you sure you want it up there? maybe sit it up there for starters to make sure you like the placement…
Don’t do it. put the TV between the two windows.
Main points have been said.
That’s going to be really high unless you move that mantle. And drilling through brick to hide wires doesn’t sounds like a great idea.
Yeah, the mantle is such a nice feature, it would be a shame to F it up with a TV.
Abort!
It’s there now. (That pic is from the realty ad.) I think it’s OK height-wise, plus if its there we can watch TV while making dinner or doing dishes or whatever.
AV equipment will go in the basement. IR blaster will be hidden somewhere.
As others have said, that’s way too high for a TV.
Cabling wise I’m sure it can be done. You’d want to go big enough on the TV to hide drilling through the brick offset a bit to stay away from the chimney. Snake romex for power, one or two HDMI for A/V and CAT6 for network and use a recessed power/AV outlet like this (one on the left):
Then you’d need a receiver with HDMI switching to connect all your various components to the TV via the single HDMI.
Only way I’d tear into a brick feature like that in my house though was if I had extra matching bricks from when it was built should I ever want to undo it.
Could you mount it to the left or right of the facade on a swivel mount? I think the brick isnt the best choice, but I haven’t seen it in person.
There is still no way to hide the wires or run them down behind the fireplace. (easy way)
Looking at how the brick sticks out I’m willing to bet there is airspace behind the brick. Anyone good with a cable snake could pull wires up from the basement if there is.
Jay that’s basically what I was thinking. I’m tempted to remove one entire brick then put in little vertical reinforcements (not that it would really be needed) but I’m scared of cracking loose a whole section in the process.
By the way, where did you order your TV from? I seem to remember some online seller that you said was good. Our 40" just doesn’t cut it anymore. I think a 55 would be nicely proportioned.
completely depends on how the fireplace is built. If it’s a traditional masonry fireplace, there won’t be any gap.
I don’t know if you brought anyone in to clean/inspect the fireplace before you started to use it. I did on my house and I also asked the guy what he thought about mounting it there for the TV safety. He might be able to instruct you on how its likely build and what are the chances of running the wires.
But i think that the easiest might be to run them down into the Basement and then back up to where ever you mount the dvd/cable box and ect. You will need a LOT of wire… but that would be the least intrusive to the fireplace.
I just mounted mine over the fireplace. I also have a “cold air space” between the wall and the chimney. I was able to run all the wires there. All of my AV equipment will go in the leftover spaces from the ancient radio left.
My TV mounted (sorry for the shitty cell pic)
50" Samsung
One idea I read/thought about was to grind out some mortar, push the power and HDMI cables into the gab between bricks, then caulk over them with gray caulk. Fish it through the mantle sideways, then just drop it down to the basement behind the drywall. Or just do that with wireway, which wouldn’t look as good but might be OK and be pretty easy.
---------- Post added at 02:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 PM ----------
I thought about doing this too. I just moved in a week ago so I should probably get it inspected before I start using it. Once I figure out exactly how it’s built I will have an easier time of it.
The other plus to removing a whole brick is that it would be much easier to undo when you realize having your TV up that high turned your nice living room into a sports bar.
I got my tv from lcdtvs.com. I knew the specific make/model/size I wanted, they had the best sale at the time and I took a chance on them since they had good resellerratings.com scores. They did the “you have to call to complete the order” thing everyone mentioned to pitch the upsell but were cool about me turning down the extended warranty and other “upgrades”.
It was worth the $150 for me to have it cleaned and inspected. It took me 3’ish weeks to get around to get it inspected, i know how busy it can be! Now if there is a house fire or something the Ins knows that i had it inspected. Behind the radio is a closet with a cutout to access the wires and stuff, so that was pretty easy to run the wires there. I still did use a wire tap(fish).
here’s mine. ive had it above the fireplace about a year now. i noticed it would get quite hot with the fireplace on hence the old skate deck to block the heat from going up. i actually have an ikea shelf i have been meaning to put up below the tv like a mantle. oh and yes i know its a complete mess but you get the idea.
lol jackass. And thanks.
wow… the bottom of the TV will be like 3 foot above eye level when sitting… will cause sore necks for sure.
