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My wife and I rent a duplex in an old neighborhood of Honolulu, HI. We have talked about mounting our 55" XBR-55X810C Sony 4K TV since we bought it, and yesterday we bought a mount on a whim. It's a Stanley tilting mount for 32" up to 70" TV's up to 90 pounds in weight. The XBR-55X810C specs say it's 38.2 pounds. Here is a link to the mount: http://www.stanleymounts.com/tlr-es2215t-product-page.html

But unfortunately, everything made sense after a wasted trip to the HW store to buy a $15.99 stud finder, and that was, the walls are thin pieces of wood paneling without studs the tilting mount instructions call for. Umm, probably should have added that up when we realized the electrical sockets throughout most of the electrical outlets are facing sideways on the baseboards, and the light switches have electrical running on the outside of the wall into the ceiling (pictures attached).

The wall is located between our LR and MBR; and there is no view to see what's inside, checked the breaker and ground, but there is a ceiling crawl space in the bathroom I can can look.

To measure the thickness I measured the inside of the door jam (3 4/16"), and subtracted the measurement of each outside edge of the jam to the wood paneling to the wood paneling on both sides, subtracting the outside doorjam overhang on each side and taking it away from the initial measure (inside measurement - (1 11/16" + 12/16") 2 7/16" = 13/16" of thickness, in total, for both sides of the wood paneling which is surprisingly sturdy and holds sound quite well.

I searched the DIY site before typing this all out and couldn't find the exact scenario, so I am hoping that a few kind users could offer me advice on how I could make this mount work, given the layout of the room, having no other mounting options (except for maybe a floor standing mount).

So if there is a reasonable way for a DIY novice like myself to safely install the TV with minimal damage to the wall, then I am all ears and would be so appreciative.

The wall plate hardware includes are 4 lag bolts with washers, and concrete anchors. The directions say to drill 3 inch pilot holes into studs which have no less than a total depth of 3 1/2 inch, with a 3/16" bit.

Pictures are attached. LMK if you need anymore info to help.

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Paul Perryman
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    how can your wall stand if it has no structure? there must be structural elements of some kind. more details and some pics would be helpful (there were no pics attached as you said) – personal privacy advocate Apr 21 '16 at 13:49
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    You say pictures are attached a few times, but there are no pictures. – JPhi1618 Apr 21 '16 at 13:51
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    If you add a URL to picture(s), someone will be along to edit them into your question. – Daniel Griscom Apr 21 '16 at 14:34
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    So you are telling us that your actual wall is 13/16in (less than 1in) thick? Is this some sort of divider between rooms (do you have access to both sides)? – kinar Apr 21 '16 at 14:49
  • .Is your wall solid, like a plywood core with paneling on each side? – Ed Beal Apr 21 '16 at 16:53
  • If you really have no studs, ID seriously consider constructing a separate stand for the display. Consider the cost of getting it wrong. – keshlam Apr 21 '16 at 17:10
  • @personal Thanks for the comment. I attempted to upload the pics last time but I guess that functionality doesn't work. – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:16
  • @kinar pics added - yes that thin but very sturdy. Thanks – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:17
  • @Ed pics added - Yes Ed, you may have hit the nail right on the head with that description. It's very sturdy. – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:18
  • @keshlam pics added - Yeah that is why I am hoping for as much input as possible. The stand idea is possible but I might as well keep it on the entertainment center then. Thanks – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:20
  • Typically you'd measure the door jamb without including the trim to get a good estimate of the wall thickness including the drywall/paneling, I'm wondering if the measurements could be off a bit. A cheap stud finder likely won't work on wood paneling, they are designed for drywall. Look for nails in the paneling or knock to listen of a difference in sound to see if you have 1x3's or 2x4's turned on their side. Unless it's 1x3's, I'd avoid mounting anything on it. – BMitch Apr 22 '16 at 01:24
  • @Bmitch I measured as you said and the jamb is approx 1 2/8". I also measured the width of the slats and they are 5". Still a no? Thanks? – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:55
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    If you "need" to hang the TV on the wall, then build a wall to hang it on, because wood paneling without studs behind them doesn't count as a wall. Tear it down and build a proper structure you can hang the TV on. – BMitch Apr 22 '16 at 02:14
  • Your walls could be made as described here. If so, you'd have to find the metal C channel, then drill it and tap it. – Mazura Apr 18 '18 at 23:34

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It sounds like you have solid 13/16" thick plywood for a wall. If that is the case, I'd drill holes matching holes in the mount all the way through, get four metal bolts, four matching nuts and eight washers, and hang the mount on the wall, securing with nuts from the opposite side of the wall and using threadlocker on bolt threads. You would have nuts permanently visible on the back side but the construction should be more than sturdy enough to hold a 40 lb TV.

If you don't have solid plywood but something else (I doubt that there's enough room for anything else but who knows?), that's a different story. You should find out as soon as you drill the first hole.

Eugene Smith
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  • Plus one for a viable fix, but I seriously doubt the OP has no studs. – isherwood Apr 21 '16 at 18:03
  • It's not to code, but, since it is an old house and OP reports electrical cables outside the wall, I would not be surprised if that is the case. – Eugene Smith Apr 21 '16 at 18:15
  • It's Hawaii; probably no need for insulation. – Daniel Griscom Apr 22 '16 at 01:18
  • @Eugene pics added - You know I thought about that same idea (minus knowing what kind of hardware). And it didn't even cross my mind that drilling the first hole would tell me all I need to know about what's holding the wall up. As I said, it's very sturdy for the thickness. What do you think is the shortest length bolt I could buy? Thanks – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:23
  • @Daniel Very true about the insulation. The house is also on a raised foundation and we get strong wind and rain and you would only know because of the rattle in the windows. – Paul Perryman Apr 22 '16 at 01:26
  • +1 for this answer since it seems that is gonna be his only option. If it were my TV, I would probably add an extra sheet of plywood from floor to ceiling on one (or both) side of the wall and drill through the whole shebang. I would try to anchor it to the ceiling either with some L brackets or whatever seems like it would help. I would also put the bolts through from the bedroom side so that the ends that stick out are hidden by the TV. Then I would move that picture in the bedroom so it covers the bold heads. – kinar Apr 22 '16 at 01:30
  • If the results aren't strong enough, you could add vertical boards between the mount and the wall, with two of the mounting bolts running through each board, and the board extending some distance below the bottom of the mount. This will spread out some of the torque generated by the weight of the TV. – Daniel Griscom Apr 22 '16 at 02:19
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Since you posted the picture, I can see that the wall is actually normal, and there most-likely are studs in it. The stud finder may be having difficulty finding the studs through the panelling; it takes some skill to use a stud finder, especially with panelling, more especially if the panelling is thick (like 3/4"). But (based on the picture) you appear to have just 1/4" panneling. If you don't have any nails in the panelling (they may be tiny, finishing nails, so look hard- but if not the panels are glued on), I would recommend using the stud finder again to try to and find where the studs approximately are. Set the finder against the wall, press the button wait a second and then just to keep sweeping it back and forth slowly. If the stud finder just wont work, then use knocking to locate the dense (stud) and hollow (no stud) sounding areas.

Your studs will either be 16 or 24 inches apart. From the oustide wall, measure 15 1/4 or 23 and 1/4 inches plus the thickness of the panel material (pretty sure they are 1/4") to find the exact center of where your first stud should be. The rest of the studs should be exactly 16 or 24 inches apart from the first stud.

I would not recommend hanging anything as heavy as a TV from 1/4" panelling.

edit- the picture is gone again.

Ben Welborn
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