Nothing on show. TV wall mounting, cables hidden Across Nottingham

The job

What I mount

• Fixed, tilting and full-motion brackets, for any size of TV.
• Samsung Frame TVs flush to the wall, including on wallpaper, with the one thin cable dropped out of sight.
• TVs in kitchens, bedrooms and garden bars, above a sideboard or over a fireplace.
• The set-up as well as the bracket. Aerial or Sky lead in, sound bar connected, ethernet in the back, apps signed in.

Not every TV goes on the wall. One new Hisense went on an oak corner unit on its own feet, set up where it stands. Another sits on a shelf in a timber garden bar, with a data point on the wall beside it. And one customer had been let down by several engineers on a new TV before I turned up with the tools and finished the set-up and installation. That review is further down this page, and the rest are on the reviews page.

How I do it

First I check what the wall is made of. Brick, block, dot-and-dab plasterboard and timber stud each want different fixings, and I carry all four in the van. Being a builder first means I’ve a fair idea what’s behind the plaster before the drill comes out.

The bracket is levelled with a spirit level, not by eye. Dust sheet under the whole area before anything starts. If the TV is new, I unbox it, fit the plates to the back, hang it and check it sits square on the bracket. Then the leads go in: HDMI to your boxes, the aerial or Sky feed, the sound bar, and ethernet if you want it wired rather than on WiFi. I set it up on the wall so it is working before I go. The packaging goes in your recycling or leaves with me, your choice, and the brick dust comes up with the dust sheet.

The photos on this page show a TV face down on the dust sheet with the plates fitted, Frame TVs sitting flush on wallpaper, and a new LG up on the wall part way through set-up, waiting for its ethernet. More TV jobs are in my work photos.

Hidden cables and a socket behind the TV

Power is the one cable I don’t touch. If there isn’t a plug socket behind the TV, that’s a job for your electrician, and I’m happy to work alongside them. Everything else, HDMI, ethernet, aerial and satellite coax, I drop inside the wall where the wall allows it, or run in slim trunking along the surface where it doesn’t. If you’re having the room decorated, get me in before the paint goes on. A cable put in before the plaster stays hidden for good.

While the TV is off the wall is the best time to put an ethernet socket behind it. A Smart TV, Sky Glass or a games console on a cable stops depending on the WiFi. There’s more on the hardwire gaming and TV page and the ethernet sockets page. If the room has no aerial or Sky feed yet, that’s covered under Sky, satellite and aerial cabling.

What it costs

No price list, because the cost depends on the bracket, the wall, how far the cables have to travel and whether you want an ethernet socket behind the TV while I’m there. Send a photo of the wall, the TV model and your postcode, and I’ll come back with a quote or arrange to look. Nothing gets drilled until you have a figure. See how pricing works.