Daka

"We" decided that "we" need a new TV for the bedroom..
Old days, go to store, buy TV, bring home, plug in cable and power....done
Nowadays, go to store...get totally confused by the screen sizes, 720, 1180 something, LCD, Plasma, prices for 37" (finally chosen) $450 to $1100..
get confused, go home to think about it.
A week later, back to the stores, check prices...decide on Costco return policy (just in case)...
Buy set, THEN pick out mount, fixed, tilting or full motion, ok, nice to tilt and since our bed is in a corner, full motion.
Lug this stuff home...fortunately we have an X5...no problem...oops..there are a bunch of tools, a complete set-up for giving the car a full polish and wax job in the back.....(dirty look from HER) no problem...fold the seats and put the TV thru the door.
Now the fun begins....since the "old" tv was wall mounted, (and weghs about 3000#) get help and take it down....remove the old bracket...(set up like a hospital room close to the ceiling)..
Locate where she wants the new one...adjust for studs...Oh Oh..condo, wall board furring strip and concrete block....
Well, I'll use Tapcons rather than the supplied lag bolts...search for the Tapcons, all are much too long...
1st trip to Home Depot....while there get a new bit for the hammerdrill just in case.
Back home, unpack the wall mount...try to figure out the directions...f..it just wing it.
3 hours later the wall brackt is installed....(home free not on your life)
You don't want the wires just hanging down do you?
Make a small hole to see what is behind the wall board...hmmm...only about 1 1/4 inches from face of wall board to concrete block
2nd trip to Home Depot for a some special very shallow boxes for the power and cable wires....
NOTE OF LUCK the outlet at the baseboard l is just about below where you want to run a wire up for the box you are putting behind the TV for the power...now, use the "fish tape"(an hour of searching for this) you have somewhere to snake the wire up and hook into the box, then the box for the cable this one doesn't go so easy...the f ing snale is hitting something...make hole at baseboard bigger...oh, its some wires headed to the ceiling...fan?
Lets see if this works....s**t the cable wire is too short...
3 rd trip to home depot....
OK.AMAZING IT WORKS....
Now to fix all the holes in the wall, lets see where is that spackle
4 th trip to Home Depot....but Ok, she wants to paint the wall a different color, so an hour of what about this one.....
Got the message...2 days of frustrating bullshit...but I gotter done...
If one of my family or friends finds out about this I'll be happy to tell them PAY SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT....
Daniel...needing a nap,,,

telekinetic

Wow, good job getting that install together! Glad everything worked out!

What mount did you go with, out of curiosity? I used to be an engineer for Omnimount and did quite a large chunk of the design and development work on a lot of their mounts, a lot of which are sold in Costco. Your installation sounds pretty custom--I'm glad it worked out!

Before you leap to 'paying someone else to do it', if you were to hire someone to do a hidden-wire installation in a home with block walls, you're probably looking at north of a grand. It sounds like you were more than capable.

What did you do for your cable source? Run it to a baseboard patch panel, or did you snake it up from wherever it was? The person who invents reliable affordable wireless HDMI will make a killing!

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Sedge

This sounds pretty much like every home project I do...except Lowe's is closer.

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Craven Morehead

Four trips to Home Depot would be about par for me, also. And that's why I never start a plumbing job in the afternoon.

Lindy

This story just makes me so glad that watching TV is a very small and unimportant part of my life. The old 27" (or somewhere thereabouts) CRT in the living room is just fine for the couple of hours a week that I watch TV.
I just got back from 4 nights on the road. The hotels all had nice big TVs, but I think I only used the TV once.

Lindy

remy1492

I feel your pain man.
I usually buy whatever is on sale at the Harbor Freight. The wife asks "do you NEED that tool right now?"

I say, "no, BUT, I will someday and at this price, why not."

Sure enough, tools like the fishtape, bits, braces, vices, cutters, polishers, clamps and whatever all come in handy sooner or later, without a trip to the store.

Alas, in the end I too still make 2-4 trips to the HD/Lowes per day, per project.
At first, you care about prices and spending too much.
By your 4th trip to HD, you develop apathy for price and pay whatever the cost of finishing the project will bear.

Is it safe to assume you also grabbed copious amounts of fast food and caffeine during this projects ordeal?

Lasereth

I also had a nightmare episode when installing my wall mount for my 40" LCD a few months ago.

I bought the highest rated wall mount on Amazon. All you gotta do is drill 2 holes on a stud and screw in 2 big screws. Easy right????????

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I drilled the 2 holes and put the wall mount up and started to screw in the big screws. The fun part starts: I could only get them about 3/4 the way in. 3/4 in and they wouldn't turn anymore and they started to strip a little even though they were deep headed screws. Then I kept tripping the circuit breaker with the power drill (I was using the drill to screw them in). So I had to get an extension cord from the garage and plug it into a higher wattage outlet in the kitchen (my brilliant wife thought of this, I never would have) and then run the cord up the stairs into the bedroom. NOW I had all the power I needed. Unfortunately the screws STILL wouldn't go in with me pushing on it with all of my might. The drill started smoking!!!!!

Well eventually the screws got flat out stripped. I never got them more than 4/5th or so in at best. Obviously they need to be absolutely tight for a wall mount but not overtightened. So I went to the hardware store and bought some more identical screws. Then I got the old ones out verrry carefully and put the new ones in. They wouldn't go in either!!!!!!!

So I started getting pissed and took it all off the wall. Then I got a bigger drill bit than the instructions called for and simply drilled bigger holes in the wall. The screws went in about 7/8th this time and after struggling with them for 30 more minutes I finally got them flush with the wall.

The whole process took hours because the instructions were using too small of a drill bit. I hate home projects and DIY stuff so this was a true nightmare for me.

I forgot to tell the part where our stud finder simply didn't work and we had to buy a new one and now we have 4 extra holes in the wall near the wall mount. ha ha ha ha ha

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Daka

I am happy that it's not just me that is being "singled out" for all this anguish.
By the way I also got to use the cable stapler (bought because I was browsing last year) to attach the cable to the baseboard for the short trip from where it came out of the wall to the new spot where it went in...I guess I should have removed the baseboard and put it behind there..."maybe tomorrow"...
At least I got a GOOD JOB from "her"...and, she is happy...and now painting the wall...

Lindy

From my years working in the family hardware store:
Lube the screw threads with candle wax or bar soap. Works like a charm.

Lindy

thingstodo

And this is why I purchased a 40" model that fits inside my existing entertainment center amouir. It actually was one of those plus and play situation although it always takes forever to realign the side bookcases...and or course, the cables are always 6 inches too short.

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