Do You Need to Buy a TV Mount First?

Part of our complete guide: How to Mount a TV on Any Wall.

This comes up on the phone most weeks, usually phrased as "do I need to pick up a bracket before you come?" Sometimes it comes up after the fact, with a mount already bought that turns out to be the wrong one for the set.

You do not need to buy anything. We carry mounts and fit whichever one suits the TV and the wall. And if you already own one, we will fit that instead at no mount charge, provided it suits the television.

1. What the Install Price Covers, and What It Does Not

Every installation covers mounting the TV, leveling it, basic cable management and all wall hardware. That is priced by screen size: $129 on sets up to 55 inches, $139 at 65 inches, $229 at 75 and $279 on 85 inches and above.

The mount itself is a separate item. That is worth saying plainly, because it is the one part of the quote people expect to be bundled, and it is the part that gives you a choice. Our full cost breakdown for Lexington puts the whole job together with the add-ons.

2. The Three Mounts We Carry

Three styles cover almost every job, and the price is the same whichever room it goes in:

• Flat — $35. Holds the screen close to the wall with no movement. The cleanest look and the right answer more often than people think.
• Tilting — $45. Angles the screen down a few degrees. For a set mounted higher than ideal, or a room where a window throws light across it.
• Full-motion — $125. Swings out and turns. Available for 32 to 55 inch sets, and it is a special order rather than something on the van, so it needs planning into the booking.

Because the full-motion arm is a special order and is for sets up to 55 inches, a 65 inch screen and upward is a flat or tilting job. On a larger set that is usually the better call anyway: there is more glass to carry, and a tilt handles the height and glare problem that most people buy an arm for. Our notes on mounting 75 and 85 inch sets go into what the extra size changes.

3. Which One Your Room Actually Needs

The mount should follow the room rather than the spec sheet. If the middle of the screen will land close to eye level from where you actually sit, a flat mount is all the job needs, and it keeps the TV tight to the wall.

If the screen has to go higher than ideal — above a mantel, or over furniture that cannot move — a tilt earns its $10. If the seating is off to one side, or the set has to swing out of a corner or face two directions, that is what the full-motion arm is for. Our guide to viewing height and placement is the one to read before deciding, and mount versus stand covers the case where the wall is not the answer at all.

4. If You Already Own a Mount

Plenty of people have one in the closet from the last TV, or one that came in a bundle. We will fit it at no mount charge if it suits the set, and three checks decide that.

• The bolt pattern. The four threaded holes in the back of the TV are spaced to a VESA standard, and the plate has to match that spacing.
• The weight rating. It needs to be comfortably above the weight of the screen, not level with it.
• The condition and the parts. All the arms, the plate, the bolts and the spacers, with no bent steel and no stripped threads.

Our guide to reusing an old wall mount on a new TV walks through all three with a worked example, and what to look for in a TV wall mount is the right read if you would rather buy your own and want to buy once.

5. If You Have Already Bought the Wrong One

It happens, and it is fixable. Send us the model number of the TV and the make of the mount when you book, or a photo of the box, and we will tell you before the day whether it fits.

If it does not suit the set, we will bring one of ours and fit that, and you keep the other one for whatever it does fit. Nothing is wasted except the trip to the shop, and nobody finds out on the wall.

6. What "All Wall Hardware" Means

This is the part that gets confused with the mount. Wall hardware is what goes into the structure: the lag bolts for wood studs, the right anchors and plates for metal studs, masonry, plaster or block. It suits the wall, it is included in the install price, and it is not the same as the bracket.

The bolts that go into the back of the TV are the other half of it, and the ones supplied with a mount are not always the right length for a given set. Our guide to what size screws a TV wall mount needs explains why the longest bolt in the bag is the wrong instinct.

7. What to Tell Us When You Book

• The screen size and model number, which settles the bolt pattern, the weight and the install price.
• The room and the wall — drywall, plaster, brick, block or metal stud, as best you know it.
• Whether you own a mount, and roughly what it is, so it can be checked in advance.
• Where you sit, because that is what decides flat, tilt or arm more than anything else.

Service is free within 20 miles of Lexington, and Richmond is our home base so it is free there too. Add-ons are priced separately when you want them: soundbar mounting $40, in-wall cable concealment $99, powerline adapter setup $99, smart TV setup $35 and old TV removal $30.