TV Mounting near you

BS 7671, the IET Wiring Regulations, sets out where cables concealed in a wall or partition are allowed to run. A cable at less than 50mm from the surface must sit in a permitted zone: within 150mm of the top of the wall or partition, within 150mm of an angle formed by two adjoining walls, or in a zone running horizontally or vertically to the accessory it serves. Where it is in those zones but has no earthed metallic covering or equivalent mechanical protection, it must have additional protection from a residual current device rated at 30mA. A wall or partition with metallic parts in its construction - a metal stud partition - needs that RCD protection whatever the burial depth. The standard currently runs as BS 7671:2018, amended by Amendment 2:2022 and Amendment 3:2024, with Amendment 4:2026 published in 2026 and the earlier amendments withdrawn on 15 October 2026.

The practical point for a homeowner is what those rules imply about drilling. Directly above and below a socket, and directly to each side of it, is a bad place to put a long screw. So is the band near the ceiling and the strip beside a corner. A television bracket usually wants to go in the middle of a chimney breast or a chest-height run of wall, which is often clear - but not if a previous owner ran a cable diagonally, which happens, and which is precisely what the zones exist to discourage.

A detector helps and should always be used, but it reads what it can see: it is confused by foil-backed plasterboard, by metal studs, by pipework, by depth, and by a dead circuit that is not energised at the time. Treating a clear reading as proof is how people find a cable with a masonry bit. Turning the circuit off at the consumer unit before drilling costs nothing and removes the worst outcome.

The most common failure is a heavy screen on a dot-and-dab wall where the fixings went into plasterboard alone. It holds for a while because the board is stiff, then the top of the bracket levers the board outwards and the whole panel bows. Nothing about the first day's work looks wrong, which is why it is worth asking directly what the wall is and what fixings were used.

The second is a chimney breast that turns out to be hollow, patched, or built of soft brick with a flue behind it. Drilling into a live flue is a real hazard in a house with an open fire or a gas appliance, and the plume of soot is the least of it. If the fireplace is still in use, the flue position has to be established before anything long goes into that wall.

The third is heat and access. A screen mounted directly above an open fire or a wood burner sits in a rising column of warm air, and a screen tight to the plaster with no gap behind makes future cable changes a demolition job. Leaving the connections reachable, and the bracket capable of pulling forward, saves the wall being opened again later.

Three ways of hiding the cables, and they are not equivalent. Surface trunking is reversible, cheap and quick, and it looks like what it is; painted the same colour as the wall it disappears further than people expect. Dropping the cables inside a plasterboard or dot-and-dab wall between two brush plates is tidy and involves no electrical work at all if only signal and power leads pass through - but check the lead is one intended for that use, because a moulded mains lead run inside a wall is not the same thing as fixed wiring.

Chasing a masonry wall to bury a new mains cable is different again, because that is electrical installation work and it has to meet BS 7671, be in the safe zones, and be certified. Whether it also has to be notified to building control depends on which country you are in and what exactly is being done - that question belongs with the small electrical jobs guide, and an installer who shrugs it off is the wrong installer. In a rented flat, any of the three may also need the landlord's permission in writing before it starts.

The variables are the size and weight of the screen, the bracket type - a flat plate is a different job from a full-motion arm - what the wall turns out to be, how far the cables have to travel and whether they are surface-run or concealed, whether a socket or aerial point is needed near the screen, working height, and whether the room has to be cleared or a chimney breast investigated first. A 55-inch screen on a flat bracket on a brick wall next to an existing socket is a short visit; the same screen on a dot-and-dab wall with concealed cabling and a new outlet is a different quotation entirely.

LokalMatch exists to get you the quotes rather than to do the mounting. Describe the screen, the wall and where the cables need to end up, add your postcode, and installers covering your area make contact. Homeowners are not charged; the businesses pay for the leads they receive. LokalMatch does not carry out installations, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any of the people who reply, so checking qualifications, insurance and the fixing specification is still your job.