My son wants to mount a TV above his brick fireplace. There is a recessed area above the fire place that looks custom made for a TV. Said recess is about 9" deep or about the depth of a brick. Unfortunately his TV is less than 1/2" too wide for the hole.
Would it be practical to mount a spacer on the brick wall and attach the TV wall mount or would the leverage be too much? The TV is a 60" model so it's not light.
Or would it be better to mount one of those swing arm mounts and only let it retract as far as it would go?
I'm concerned that the brick mount won't be as sturdy as if we could go into a stud.
He bought a new 65" for his man-cave and I'm telling him to ditch the 65" and go look for a 60" that has a casing that is the 1/2" narrower than his old TV so it will fit in the hole.
I kinda like the last solution myself. It'll look really good in that recess.
As a note (not that I expect you to change anything), mounting a screen above a fireplace is not an ideal viewing height. Ideally, the screen center height should be the at eye height when sitting down. Above a fireplace is likely a couple feet too high.
Might be OK if you are in a recliner, if you are standing, or are a ways away, otherwise it might be slightly uncomfortable to watch. I know a lot of people do it so it's not a huge problem, but I have seen screens mounted near the ceiling, that was just silly. Generally it seems like its pretty commong to mount screens a lot higher then ideal.
I know it's too high, I tried to talk him out of it for several reasons, but he thinks it's cool. He says he'll angle it down and it'll be OK. Sometimes you've just got to try it.
It will look good as you walk into the room. Several homes we looked at when we were trying to find this house had it and it was striking and really freed up the floor space. Since you normally face your furniture towards the fireplace it kills 2 birds with one stone.
He's switched his mount for the one with an arm to swivel it which solves the trouble of building the mount out, but what would you guys use to anchor this thing?
I've got a hammer drill so getting holes in the bricks isn't a problem, but I'm thinking those brick screws won't be secure enough. What kind of anchor can hold a 60" TV?
I hadn't thought of it, but I guess I could drill all the way through and put one of those toggle bolts in. I've never done that. I've used a ton of those brick screws for light duty things like hose holders on the outside of the house and never had a problem. I've also haven't had to drill that deeply to get them to hold, but if I go in pretty deep do I have to worry about cracking the bricks?
aircooled wrote:
As a note (not that I expect you to change anything), mounting a screen above a fireplace is not an ideal viewing height. Ideally, the screen center height should be the at eye height when sitting down. Above a fireplace is likely a couple feet too high.
Might be OK if you are in a recliner, if you are standing, or are a ways away, otherwise it might be slightly uncomfortable to watch. I know a lot of people do it so it's not a huge problem, but I have seen screens mounted near the ceiling, that was just silly. Generally it seems like its pretty commong to mount screens a lot higher then ideal.
+1 on the mount it higher .. especially if you wear bifocals and sit in a recliner 
