Plaster walls can often feel very fragile, unlike, say, brick walls. They are walls made from plasterboards and cannot support a lot of weight. This begs the question: can you hang a TV on your plaster walls? If yes, how?
The answer to that question is simple, yes! Hanging the TV to the wall would save you a lot of space and can make your room look tidier. You should definitely consider hanging the TV no matter what type of wall you have.
With that being said, there are certain things you should consider before hanging the TV on the stud wall. If you hang it without taking these considerations, it may fall. This could cause damage to your TV and cost you a lot of money.
Remember, even though TVs are now lighter than ever, care is still essential to ensure you don’t lose your investment in an accident. With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about how to hang a TV on plaster walls.
Find the perfect spot
While usually finding the perfect placement for a TV involves marking the area you find easy to look at, there are additional considerations you must account for when mounting a TV to a plaster wall or drywall.
A concrete or solid wall can support the weight of the hanging display system. However, when it comes to a plaster wall or drywall, it may be harder for the wall to support the weight compared to a brick wall, for instance.
This is because most plaster walls and plasterboard sheets are made as dividers and are made of one or two sheets of plaster. These sheets are not very thick and can break.
Due to this reason, it is not recommended for you to drill directly into the plaster or drywall. This would make your TV prone to breaking and would damage the plaster walls. You can use a concrete screw on hard walls, but the same does not apply to softer plaster walls.
Instead, you should try to place the TV over the studs in the wall. Studs are more solid, and you can mount a TV on them.
If you are having trouble finding the wall stud locations, you can use a stud finder to help you with your job. A stud finder is designed to quickly locate any metal or wood studs in the wall for you. Alternatively, you can knock on the wall to find studs if you don’t have a stud finder. An area with the stud under it would sound less “hollow” compared to the rest of the hollow wall.
Your perfect TV location would be one where you can mount the nails or screw the molly bolts in the studs, as well as have a comfortable view of the TV from your favorite resting spot. However, that’s easier said than done and could take some time toying around with.
What if You Can’t Find the Right Spot to Mount Your TV
Sometimes the perfect spot to mount your TV and put in the required number of molly bolts isn’t easy to find. You may have trouble finding studs in the range of areas you want to set up your television mount. Luckily, solutions are available in case any such problems should arise.
The first solution that is available to you comes in the form of a wall mount anchor. A wall anchor is designed to hold the weight of most light TVs and would ensure that your wall is not damaged. Different types of anchors are designed to hold up different weights, including a drywall anchor and plasterboard anchor, both made for heavy items. Toggle anchors and toggle bolt fixings are mainly designed for drywall.
The anchor and other Gripit fixings help secure the nail into the wall and wall bracket to ensure that it does not lose grip. This is important since you will be dealing with a plaster wall or plasterboard. These handy tools, along with lath, help hold up the TV where it ordinarily could not have been held. You may use anchors on studs in addition to metal or wood lath as well for extra safety.
In case your TV is heavier than what studs can typically hold, you would need to consider other options. One of the options that you have is to strengthen the wall in the areas where you intend to mount your TV since that’s what will essentially hold it up.
To do that, you can use a piece of plywood to reinforce a wooden stud. The plywood should be supported with the ground and also be secured against the plaster wall using a screw or two. However, you could always use it without ground-based support too.
For this method, you would have to secure the plywood to the walls. You can use nails or molly bolts and screw units to do so. After that, the plywood forms a stronger base, on which you can then hang your TV.
How to Mount a TV the Right Way on Plaster Walls
Now that we have gone through the various issues you may face with finding the right spot to mount a TV and how to resolve them, we will talk about how to actually hang it up and secure it on the wall.
To do that, you will first need to find the perfect wall bracket mount and wall mounting plate for your TV. Some TVs might come with wall brackets, so you may just want to use that one. Others would not.
In case your TV mount unit does not come with a TV wall mount bracket, you would have to buy one. Ensure that the wall bracket and mounting plate you buy are rated for TVs as heavy as yours. You should aim a little higher than your TV’s weight. It’s always better to be on the safe side!
Next, you should line up your TV wall bracket mount with the spot you want. This can be tricky in a few cases. For instance, your studs might not line up with each hole in the wall mount, wall bracket, and wall plate. In these cases, we recommend that you drill a hole in the wall bracket to ensure that it lines up before covering them with lath.
To mount the wall bracket into the wall, you need to drill a hole. You have to be very careful with the bit you select. If this is not the right size for the nails or wall grip that you will be using, you can risk having the mounting plate and bracket fall and damage your TV in the process.
The bit size should be the same size as the wall grip or the nail, depending on what TV mounting unit you will be using. You should mark the right spots by placing the mounting plate and bracket against the TV wall and using a pencil to draw out the bracket and TV mounting holes.
After you have drilled into the wall, you should insert the nail through the TV bracket and TV wall mount into the wall, and secure it into place. We recommend using washers when doing so. They help ensure that the weight is divided and the mounting bracket remains stable.
The last step involves mounting the TV onto the bracket and fixing it in place using the mounting hardware and the necessary plaster anchor and plaster hook units. At this point, you should have lined the plaster wall with lath and installed all the required plasterboard fixings before setting up the TV mount. If the mounting TV bracket is installed correctly, you should have mounted it successfully onto a plaster wall or plasterboard wall.
Conclusion
Mounting a TV to a TV wall can be a stressful experience. After all, a single error, and you may end up damaging both your screen and your stud wall. However, done right, a TV mount can be a useful way to save space and should let you make the best use of your wall. We hope this guide helped you understand how to hang a TV the right way on a plaster wall!
