Ok Mantel Mount installers, give me your thoughts on this. We had a lady call up because she was at a friend's home in CA and she had a Mantel Mount. This lady decided she had to have one so she got online and ordered the MM700 and RB100 recessed box. She called us because we are the only listed installer on their site probably.

I went out to take a look and realized that we would need longer braces to mount to the studs (we are using the braces vs. re-framing the entire fireplace wall to fit the box perfectly in the framing, sheetrock work, tape, texture, paint, etc.).

There is a stud dead center of the fireplace wall, and the adjacent studs are too far apart for the included braces. The manual states that longer braces are available from MM. I called tech support and he said the longer braces are 36" long....not long enough still for this application. But he told me what to do instead....cut the center stud out, and bolt the box to either end of the remaining stud. He said installers do this all the time. He was really trying to talk me out of paying the $30 for the longer braces before I told him to measure a set and tell me how long they were.

In my head, I cannot see his proposed solution as being sturdy enough. I would not feel comfortable installing it that way, that is for sure.

My thought was to just go get some 4' lengths of unistrut and use those in place of the included braces, and then either let them figure out a way of "prettying it up" or ordering the snap in plastic end caps and rail covers for the strut, and letting them paint them to match. I would also screw the box to the center stud at top and bottom, just as an added support in the center.