TV Wall Mounting in Scarborough
Scarborough is bungalows, backsplits and apartment blocks, and a great many finished basements. The basement wall is the most misleading wall in the city to drill.
Where the van goes in Scarborough
Scarborough, neighbourhood by neighbourhood.
- Agincourt
- Birch Cliff
- Guildwood
- Malvern
- West Hill
- Woburn
- Cliffcrest
- Bendale
Not on the list? We still come. See every area, or call and ask.
Working here
The basement wall that lies to you
Strapping over concrete block knocks hollow, and a magnetic finder locks onto the masonry fasteners holding the strapping and hands you a neat line of studs that are not studs. The block is an inch behind the board, so the fixing has to be long enough to reach it and set in it.
Bungalow and backsplit walls upstairs
Fifties to seventies houses here are brick outside over two by four framing at sixteen inch centres, with plaster on gypsum lath in the early ones and drywall after that. Predictable, until an addition or a rec room partition was framed to somebody else's standard.
Block, not poured concrete
The apartment blocks around Agincourt and Scarborough Town Centre are frequently concrete block rather than poured. A bit can break through the face shell into a hollow cell, so the anchor has to catch a solid web or spread behind the shell.
The wall almost everybody drills wrong
There are more finished basements here than anywhere else we work, and that is where the television usually goes. The wall is rarely what it feels like. It is board or panelling fixed to thin strapping, and the strapping is fixed to a concrete block foundation wall with about an inch of space behind it.
Three things then conspire. It knocks hollow, so it sounds like drywall on studs. A magnetic finder locks onto the masonry nails or concrete screws holding the strapping up and gives you a tidy line of readings that look exactly like studs. And an electronic finder on a deep setting reads solid right across the wall, because a block wall is solid right across the wall. Every instrument agrees, and all of them are pointing at strapping that will not hold a screen for a week.
What holds is the block. That means a hammer drill, a sleeve anchor long enough to pass the strapping and still set fully in the masonry, and the body of a block rather than a mortar joint. Where the block is hollow the anchor has to catch a web or spread behind the face shell instead. If you want to know how the detection goes wrong in detail, there is a note on how to find a stud and why it matters.
The cable run downstairs is the other half of it. An inch of space crossed by strapping is not a reliable chase, so sometimes the cable goes inside and sometimes it goes in paintable trunking. Both are part of wire concealment, and we tell you which one your wall is before starting rather than after.
Bungalows, backsplits and brick
Upstairs the stock is fifties to seventies: bungalows, backsplits and sidesplits, brick outside, two by four framing at sixteen inch centres, plaster on gypsum lath in the earliest of them and drywall from the sixties on. That is an easy wall to work with, which is exactly why people skip the checking.
The backsplit has a quirk worth knowing. Because the levels are half a storey apart, ducts climb inside the walls between them, and the wall between the family room and the stair landing is a favourite route for a return. Older houses around Birch Cliff and Cliffcrest are another matter again, closer to prewar, with real plaster and framing that was never on a reliable spacing.
Agincourt, Town Centre and getting in
The apartment blocks near Agincourt and Scarborough Town Centre mostly date from the sixties and seventies. Some have a service lift the superintendent books and want insurance on file, and some are three storey walk ups with no lift at all, which makes the carry the planning job rather than the mount. Either way, give us the building and the floor.
Scarborough is inside the city so same day is realistic. The quote is agreed before anything is drilled.
While we are in Scarborough
Rarely just the one screen.
Asked in Scarborough
My basement wall sounds hollow. Is it drywall on studs?
Often it is not. Down here it is usually board or panelling on strapping with a concrete block foundation wall an inch behind. It sounds hollow because of that inch. The screen still has to be fixed into the block.
Can you hide the cables in a strapped basement wall?
Sometimes. The gap behind the board is an inch at best and the strapping crosses it, so a cable fits in some walls and not in others. Where it does not, it is paintable trunking or a route through the ceiling.
Do you come out to Malvern and West Hill the same day?
Usually. It is all inside the city. The 401 across the top and Kingston Road along the bottom are the routes, and both are better before four in the afternoon.
Our building is a walk up with no elevator. Is that a problem?
No, it is a reason to send two people. A large screen up three flights with a turn at each landing is a two person carry, so tell us the floor when you book.