Issues Wall Mounting TV

[HenryGregory]

I am have a few concerns regarding mounting my TV.
I am in a 1 year old new build with plasterboard walls.

My stud and power lead detector is flagging up studs or power on almost every single part of the wall I want to put it on.
Behind the wall is breeze block and then nothing as I am end of terrace.
There is a double power socket and a sky and ant box (marked in black below). I am pretty sure both are going up the wall and into the loft as this is a ground floor room...

I have taken a vid of my stud detector, it seems to be bleeping so much, I am starting to wonder if it will be possible here.
Have tried on other walls and it is silent until it finds a stud.
To the left of this room is a bathroom, to the right nothing as it is the front of the property.
Would be grateful of any advice as ideally, wanted to wall mount it, cut a hole in plaster and run cables down the inside of the wall neatly...

 

[flameport]

My stud and power lead detector

100% of those things are totally useless. Cheap or expensive, they all give false readings and fail to detect plenty of things that actually exist.

Cables should be vertical or horizontal from the socket. Turn off the power and remove the socket to see which way they go.

 

[bernardgreen]

Choose the height carefully, too high and you get a cricked neck.

 

[Lucid]

I will bet a Pound to a penny that you haven't got studs if it's the indoor face of an external wall. You'll have dot-n-dab.

Dot-n-dab is like tiling a room with sheets of plasterboard, but instead of spreading the adhesive with a comb, it's simply splodged on in equally-spaced dots, and then the plasterboard is offered up as a single verical sheet. It is then squashed on to the adhesive with dabs or pressure here and there to form a flat surface.

The advantage of dot-n-dab is its much cheaper and quicker than studding, and it's good for dealing with irregular surfaces.

The space between the now-partially-flattened dots of adhesive remain hollow, so there's a gap between the back of the board and the wall. You might be able to get a bare aerial coax through there, or possibly a HDMI lead as long as the plug head isn't too thick.

The adhesive drys rock solid. You can drill in to it and the wall beyond, and then fix through using normal wall plugs. The hollow bits though are a different story. Put any real pressure on the board and the face will collapse in. You need a fixing which uses dome kind of tube arrangement to bridge from the plasterboard surface to the solid wall behind. Frame fixings, Rigifix, and others do this.


If this or any other reply was helpful to you, then please do the decent thing and click the T-H-A-N-K-S button. It appears when you hover the mouse pointer near the Quote Multi-quote buttons. This is the proper way to show your thanks for the time and help someone gave you.

 

[HenryGregory]

I will bet a Pound to a penny that you haven't got studs if it's the indoor face of an external wall. You'll have dot-n-dab.

Dot-n-dab is like tiling a room with sheets of plasterboard, but instead of spreading the adhesive with a comb, it's simply splodged on in equally-spaced dots, and then the plasterboard is offered up as a single verical sheet. It is then squashed on to the adhesive with dabs or pressure here and there to form a flat surface.

The advantage of dot-n-dab is its much cheaper and quicker than studding, and it's good for dealing with irregular surfaces.

The space between the now-partially-flattened dots of adhesive remain hollow, so there's a gap between the back of the board and the wall. You might be able to get a bare aerial coax through there, or possibly a HDMI lead as long as the plug head isn't too thick.

The adhesive drys rock solid. You can drill in to it and the wall beyond, and then fix through using normal wall plugs. The hollow bits though are a different story. Put any real pressure on the board and the face will collapse in. You need a fixing which uses dome kind of tube arrangement to bridge from the plasterboard surface to the solid wall behind. Frame fixings, Rigifix, and others do this.


If this or any other reply was helpful to you, then please do the decent thing and click the T-H-A-N-K-S button. It appears when you hover the mouse pointer near the Quote Multi-quote buttons. This is the proper way to show your thanks for the time and help someone gave you.

Thank you everyone for your posts.
I think you might be very right about dot-n-dab.
On the opposite side of the house (the non-semi detached side if you know what I mean) I screwed a clothes pole up in the storage cupboard. The side that faced my neighbour was an absolute bugger to drill through as it seemed to be plasterboard maybe 1cm-2cm thick and then solid breeze block.
If you are right, which I am sure you are, butterfly anchors will be out of the question and it may be too tight to run cable which is a shame.
Thank you for the tips on the sort of fixings I will need. This is all new to me. Very helpful.

We have a private Facebook page for residents in this development. I might just put a quick post on to find out if any others in the same style of house as mine have had any issues.
Interestingly, when the electrician drilled through the wall down stairs, to run an external power socket, he commented on how well insulated the walls were. Lots of grey balls came falling out of the hole. Do they do downstairs plaster differently as it was the same side of the house as the area I am proposing to put the TV?

 

[Lucid]

The side that faced my neighbour was an absolute bugger to drill through as it seemed to be plasterboard maybe 1cm-2cm thick and then solid breeze block.

That'll be the adhesive. It dries like concrete. The breeze block behind will be relatively soft because, as the breeze part of the name suggests, there's a lot of air in the product.

There's a video here of how dot-n-dab goes on.

To deal with bridging the gap, have a look at this product called Corefix. Here's another video:

Interestingly, when the electrician drilled through the wall down stairs, to run an external power socket, he commented on how well insulated the walls were. Lots of grey balls came falling out of the hole. Do they do downstairs plaster differently as it was the same side of the house as the area I am proposing to put the TV?

The insulating balls fill the cavity between the breeze block inner shell and the brick outer shell of the house. If you're not drilling all the way through the breeze block or the outer brick shell then you won't encounter an issue. I have never yet come across any home where polystyrene (EPS) ball insulation was fitted between the plasterboard layer and the breeze block wall behind. I think that would cause issues with moisture retention at a thermal boundary.

You said this is a new development? I'm a bit surprised then that the EPS balls were loose. I thought most firms were adding a glue during the injection process so that it would stop losses such as this. Have a read here: https://www.eco-home-essentials.co.uk/problems-with-cavity-wall-insulation.html


If this or any other reply was helpful to you, then please do the decent thing and click the T-H-A-N-K-S button. It appears when you hover the mouse pointer near the Quote Multi-quote buttons. This is the proper way to show your thanks for the time and help someone gave you.

 

[HenryGregory]

That'll be the adhesive. It dries like concrete. The breeze block behind will be relatively soft because, as the breeze part of the name suggests, there's a lot of air in the product.

There's a video here of how dot-n-dab goes on.

To deal with bridging the gap, have a look at this product called Corefix. Here's another video:

The insulating balls fill the cavity between the breeze block inner shell and the brick outer shell of the house. If you're not drilling all the way through the breeze block or the outer brick shell then you won't encounter an issue. I have never yet come across any home where polystyrene (EPS) ball insulation was fitted between the plasterboard layer and the breeze block wall behind. I think that would cause issues with moisture retention at a thermal boundary.

You said this is a new development? I'm a bit surprised then that the EPS balls were loose. I thought most firms were adding a glue during the injection process so that it would stop losses such as this. Have a read here: https://www.eco-home-essentials.co.uk/problems-with-cavity-wall-insulation.html


If this or any other reply was helpful to you, then please do the decent thing and click the T-H-A-N-K-S button. It appears when you hover the mouse pointer near the Quote Multi-quote buttons. This is the proper way to show your thanks for the time and help someone gave you.

Thanks, really useful.
At least now I know how it was done.

The electrician was drilling from inside through to outside, once he had completed the hole, that is when some started coming through. I think his drill bit was helping to make them come out. They didn't continue to pour out so maybe it was just a pocket where the glue didn't get to.

Thanks again, really useful replies