Drilling into an interior brick wall will provide a very solid mount for large televisions, but you need to follow some easy guidelines. Here’s how one customer handled the job with a new kind of masonry bolt.
Photos courtesy Bruce Mayrand.
Faced with a dilemma, Bruce Mayrand thought it best to get some advice. Mayrand, of Harbor Springs, Michigan, wanted to mount a television on a brick wall above his fireplace.
At first glance, you could drill a hole in the mortar, use a Tapcon fastener and check that one off your DIY project list. That might be an idea, but it’s not a good idea. You want to drill into the brick, not the mortar.
Putting up a television requires three considerations:
• The first is that the television is a 60-inch model that weighs 60 pounds.
• The second is that the mount for the television weighs an additional 38 pounds.
• The third is if you were to sit and watch a golf tournament on TV – and the TV were to suddenly slide down the wall, flip over onto its face when it hits the hearth and explode into a million pieces on the floor – THAT would be the story your family would tell about you each Thanksgiving, from now on.
Mayrand figured that he didn’t need that, so he went to the source and contacted Pine Hall Brick Company.
“I was not sure how to address attaching a mount to the brick,” said Mayrand. “Some would drill into the mortar and others use the brick. They suggested that I drill into the brick because it is stronger than the mortar.”
Mayrand used a template that came with the mount to show where the holes needed to be drilled. He then used a one-quarter inch masonry bit and a hammer drill – and put up the mount for the television using 5/16ths Tapcon screws that are three inches long.
“It’s a brand new bit – it’s sharp,” said Mayrand. “I am surprised that it went through the brick that easily. It drilled right through – it didn’t break up and it worked out fine.”
He found there was no need to use the anchors provided with the television mount, given that they are intended to be used if you were going to attach the mount to wooden 2-by-4 studs behind drywall.
Given a Tapcon washer and then the bracket itself, Mayrand estimated that the screw is approximately two and a half inches into the brick.
“I pulled on it and pushed on it and it is up there for good,” he said.
Which is a good thing, because a session in a comfortable chair watching a golf tournament is relaxing as long as the action is on the fairway or the green – and not in your den, explaining to your family what that crash was a couple of minutes ago…
The 60-inch television and mounting system together weigh almost 100 pounds. This methods assures a solid, dependable installation.