As Toddler Mojo got bigger and bigger, our traditional TV, the 200 pound albatross in our living room started to get in the way. He’d unplug the TV, turn it on or off and then change the channel from 3 to 4 which meant that I had to go into the settings to get it to work again.
If you have a toddler you can relate to this. If not just imagine that a Gremlin (whom you love) is roaming around your house unplugging appliances and then yelling at you when you try to correct this errant behavior. Eliminate the toddler’s temptation without removing the thing that you enjoy and it’s win/win.
Installing a flat screen TV is a relatively easy task. The things that you need are:
- A flat screen TV mount
- A flat screen TV
- A stud finder
- A Phillips head screwdriver
Simply use the stud finder (ladies, insert your own joke here ) to locate the studs, be certain that it’s level and mark the holes for drilling over the template inside your flat screen mount kit. Once the pilot holes are drilled, line up the TV mount, be certain that it’s level- and screw it down tight. After that you’ll put the brackets on the mount, screw them into the back of the TV and you’re ready to hang.
It’s easy. However, when all of the costs were broke out it was cheaper to hire someone to do it for us.
- The flat screen TV mount would’ve cost us about $100. I had also forgotten about fishing the respective cables through the wall, as well as, any cables that were needed for the flat screen TV or DVD player.
We found a company that would install the mount, fish the wires, mount the TV and program it for $250.
We certainly could’ve done the job for less than that. However once you factor in the fact that they were bringing all of the supplies and would set up the TV it didn’t make sense in the time/value/money equation for us to do the job.
Prior to deciding to use a company I was using the stud finder to mark my pilot holes. The stud finder kept telling me that there was a stud in a location where one didn’t belong. It’s a good thing that I did use a company because the ‘stud’ I was picking up was actually a water pipe for the toilet on the other side of the wall. Had I drilled into that, my home improvement license that my wife loaned me, would’ve been revoked for a while.
You can install a flat screen TV yourself with no problem. However, there are companies out there that will do it for a very reasonable cost, once you factor in the parts needed and how much time it would take you.
As a stay at home dad I miss having the spare time to fix things. Even though the children are my full time job, things still break or need a fix in the house. Sometimes the repair will be something that I can easily complete and other times it’s a repair that I simply should’ve paid to have it done. Regardless, I’ll write it up here in hopes that you may be able to gauge what you can do and when you need to call in for help. The series is called, DIY a Stay at Home Dad Can Do, but in some cases, you shouldn’t, because of difficulty, time involved or money. All dads aren’t equal. In this case the task is very easy, but the cost of having someone else do it may be worthwhile also.
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Good article – I mounted my own myself, and did break one teensy building code, but it looks great. One thing to add – in addition to a screwdriver, of you’re doing it yourself, you’ll probably also need a ratchet set. I did for my mount, at least.
Yes,
My husband and father installed a mounted TV about 2 years ago – it took them all day but I was impressed with the end result! I’m very, very grateful for my handy hubby!
D’oh, yes, true on the ratchet set. I was taken aback by the false positive that the stud finder gave me. It ‘was’ something, but had no idea that it was a pipe, glad I didn’t drill there obviously.