Hey guys.....we have a project for a 50" plasma to be mounted on 24" metal studs. However, the mount that the customer already bought is made for 16" studs. We originally were thinking of mounting a piece of wood over the studs and attach the mount to that.

However, the customer wants us to reinforce the wall from inside the drywall instead. What would be the best way to do this? What you guys suggest?

Thanks and I appreciate your help.

Oh yeah....i forgot to mention that this mount has an articulating arm also.

Thanks!

I wouldn't mount an articulating 50" to metal studs at all. period. Even at 16" spacing. The issue is that any kind of lag/screw can tear out of the metal stud with that kind of weight.

Having said that, one idea might be to open the wall, somehow THRU-BOLT 1" plywood to the metal studs, and then re-cover the wall and lag into the plywood. ...Barring that, you are better off using as many Togglers (the brand, NOT toggle bolts) in the drywall as you can and make sure your insurance is up to date!

Sorry I meant to write 42" plasma. I must have been thinking of something else. I would think a 42" would be ok to mount that way.

Would it be better to mount a 1" board behind the drywall or somehow use 2x4's?

Thanks and sorry about the confusion.

if you can, cut a 2'x4' hole in the sheetrock, then use at least 6 thru bolts to hold a 2'x4' piece of plywood to the studs, along with as many anchor bolts as you can squeeze in... Also, glue the plywood to the studs, and then cover the plywood with a white water base primer (Killz comes to mind, if they still make it).


I put a 42" SVA plasma on an atriculating bracket in my supplier's showroom, and the wall was made of aluminum studs. The 42" SVA weighs almost as much as a typical 50" plasma. It stayed there, mounted on the wall, with no problems, until my supplier moved into a larger space.

Peerless makes a metal stud kit, look here:
[Link: peerlessindustries.com]

I might also send an e-mail to them describing what you plan to do and get a written recommendation. Let their engineers assume the liability.

That's why you don't use a lag/screw. You use appropriately rated toggle bolts, which we've used and then hung our body weight on the bracket ALONG with the TV just for fun. There are web sites where you can calculate what the different thickness of metal studs will hold. Every time one of these threads pops up I hear people warning about how it's dangerous to anchor to a metal wall. It's just not true.

Having said that, there may be very flimsy metal studs out there I'm not aware of (well, they all appear flimsy but you know what I mean). And adding plywood has never hurt.

We have done a couple in finished basements with metal studs that backed up to an unfinished part of the basement. Almost made it to easy. Just used a couple of lengths of wood 2x4s inserted into the metal studs and fired lags like normal.

I have in 1 occasion because the circumstances allowed for it. We talked a customer into relocating a picture in the room adjoining the wall the plasma was attached to. We through bolted through the metal stud right into the other room and spanned a piece of 3/4" plywood across the 2 studs and then hid it w/ the picture. Kinda odd circumstances but not impossible.

Good luck.

Ahl....if I understand you correctly, that is what we were thinking of doing. But instead of cutting out the drywall and replacing it with the plywood we were thinking of just placing the plywood over the drywall. Do you think that would be strong enough?

To be honest I would think that this would be strong enough. But the customer doesn't want to take any chances and wants us to reinforce the wall more. I'm not sure if I understand how people use 2"x4"s but do you guys place them vertically inside the metal stud with wood screws? Sorry but if you guys can elaborate that would be great. Thanks!

AV, if opening the wall is acceptable (which it apparently is in this case), you can insert plywood between the studs. I'd suggest the following method:

Cut a rectangular opening larger than the bracket's wall plate by a couple of inches, but hopefully smaller than the TV. (You can always open the back side of the wall, if it's phycically do-able (i.e., an interior wall)). Note which way the studs' open sides face.

Cut new pieces of metal stud several inches longer than the height of the opening, one for each stud you expose, to reinforce the studs by sistering. Slide the pieces in the wall vertically, and rotate them so they're back-to-back with the exposed studs.

Use the short, pan-head type of self-drilling steel-stud screws to sister these pieces to the original studs, with the upper ends of the new pieces several inches up inside the wall for strength. Now, you will have stud cavities with open stud channels both left and right.

Lastly, cut two wood 2x4 pieces per cavity just long enough to be able to insert them behind the stud flanges horizontally (a hair under 16"), with the flat faces against the inside of what will be the drywall, and screw them in place through the stud flanges.

The wood will also make re-installing the rectangle of drywall for the wall patching easier. As long as you set these cross-pieces at the appropriate height for the bracket, you can't miss getting lag bolts into the wood. Let me see if I can make a drawing.

Okay, here's a rough drawing:



Note that this is an overhead view, the room is toward the bottom, and the floating rectangle is the section of drywall removed for access, and to be reinstalled.

I'd suggest that six screws per sistered stud are plenty: two at the top, two at the bottom, and two near the middle. Two in each place so the sistered pieces can't twist.

Plus, I just noticed that the second and fourth screws pointing up should be shifted to the right a bit, so they engage the studs and the 2x4s.

Yo larry,

If that's a rough drawing I'd sure like to see a "detailed drawing"

hehehehehe



Robbie S

I call it 'rough' because I made it as a regular document in MS Word, like I did the drawings on my system page, and then used PSP to capture and j-peg them.

If it were a detailed drawing, I'd have drawn the screw threads. : - D

Hey guys I appreciate all your help!

Larry thanks for taking the time to make that drawing. I think we'll try that.

I'm glad the customer isn't worried about paying a little more to get this done. I guess for some people there is no price for peace of mind.

Just out of curiosity....what would you guys think is a reasonable price just for installation of something like this. We already gave the customer a quote but I'm just curious if we're close to what others would have charged.

Thanks for all the help guys! I'll let you guys know how it turns out.