DIY: Fixing a wooden stud to a blockwork wall (and getting it vertical?)

TL;DR
I need to affix 2x 94m deep battens to a blockwork wall, perfectly vertically. How?

They can’t be fixed to either the floor or ceiling.

We’re building a fake chimney to mount the TV on the wall, hide the cables, etc, to replace the original ‘fireplace’ with a bigger one that fits over the electric stove.

So far my idea is:

Hearth
1) Cut a 1220mm space in the skirting.
2) Cut 2x 1220mm x 400mm pieces of 25mm MDF, then cut out a section of one to fit around the existing tiled hearth, glue together, paint with stone effect paint and lay on the floor.
3) A couple of small 90deg brackets to the skirting board to be hidden behind the fireplace to keep it in place.

Chimney
2x 4×3 (94x67mm) PSA timber studs and an MDF front panel. Then cover with lining paper and paint. Leaving a ~4″ cavity to drop power leads etc down. Job jobbed (almost).

Problem is, how do you get the studs vertical, when the wall is blockwork? Because there’s no way on this earth I’m going to get a rawl plug in exactly the right spot, and a screw exactly perpendicular. And to save more jobs (cutting wood/plasterboard to fit the sides) I’d like the studs to be the sides of the chimney.

And for added complicated-ness, it cant fix to the ceiling, otherwise I’d do the obvious thing and attach a piece of timber to the ceiling, get the joists vertical first and screw them to that. There’s a ~80mm coving around the top which we plan to cover rather than start ripping that down again.

And the left one can’t go all the way to the floor, because I want to leave a gap to run cables under, so it’ll stop at the skirting board height (won’t be visible because the unit is going to be on that side.

So the chimney will end about 80mm short of the ceiling, then there’s more coving to go over the gap.

Laser level or good spirit level of suitable length. Mark the edge where the stud will go.
Drill holes in stud and elongate. Align stud to previously marked line and drill. Use suitably sized panhead screw and washer and screw into a rawlplug.
Repeat at suitable intervals.
Align then tighten.

Sounds overly complicated. Just batten the wall and make room slightly smaller rather than have a daft chimney? No?
As long as you understand Tellies over fireplaces are weird then carry on. You should get battens vertical pretty easy. Any minute errors can be corrected by the plasterer.

Stick the end studs to the wall with gripfill then screw through the plasterboard to hold in place,the rest you can fix any old how.

Sounds elaborate.

Have you marked all this out and seen how much smaller it will make the room feel ?

My only tip would be im not sure on your reasons for MDF and lining paper but plaster board and taped will look infinately better than MDF and lining paper. Previous owner of my GAF loved MDF. Work of the devil.

Can I urge you to take a step back before you start ripping things out?

Firstly, and for various good reasons, mounting a TV above a fireplace is considered poor design.

Secondly,

2) Cut 2x 1220mm x 400mm pieces of 25mm MDF, then cut out a section of one to fit around the existing tiled hearth, glue together, paint with stone effect paint

Do you really want the heart and focal point of your home to be a bit of painted MDF?

Are you just going to plonk this on top of your wooden flooring? It’ll look gruesome.

A couple of small 90deg brackets to the skirting board to be hidden behind the fireplace to keep it in place.

It’ll shift every time someone accidentally kicks it. Over time it’ll come loose.

Thirdly:

80mm coving around the top which we plan to cover rather than start ripping that down again.

You just need a sharp knife/jigsaw blade depending on what it’s made of to cut out the required section.

80mm coving around the top which we plan to cover rather than start ripping that down again.

This is sounding a bit arse-about-tit 🙂 What will you fix the coving to if there’s thin air between the ceiling and the top of your “chimney”? How are you going to manage the join in the coving between the wall and the side of the “chimney”?

MDF front panel. Then cover with lining paper and paint.

Yuck. Better to use skimmed plasterboard and just paint it?

But leaving all of that aside: Isn’t this big, messy, time-consuming project a slight overkill just to get rid of the cable from your telly?

You could just run a bit of box ducting from your telly, painted in the same colour as your wall.

Or you could put your telly somewhere else?

But if you insist, getting your studs vertical will be the least of your worries, but seeing as that’s what you asked, here’s how to do it:

1. Cut away skirting board as required.
2. Offer stud up to wall. Use a spirit level to level it.
3. Draw a pencil line down the length of the level stud. This is now your datum line.
4. Drill screw holes in the stud.
5. Offer the stud back up to the wall (using your pencil line) and get a pencil/awl/knitting needle into the screw holes, making marks on the wall in the correct places for the wall plugs.
6. Drill out the marks on the wall then fit the plugs.
7. Screw your stud to the wall (top and bottom first, checking again for vertical-ness)

Somebody just beat me to it.

It’ll look gruesome.

Chase the cables into the blockwork wall and mount the TV brackets directly onto the wall.

Somewhere else, not over the fireplace. Or are you doing a 21st century “Museum of Bad Taste” pastiche of a 1950s lounge?

Can you not just fish wires through a small hole back of TV if you must put it there. Cut holes and patch plaster will look way better than what you’re planning.

Can never understand why people put their TV so high on a wall. But it works for you fine. Id get a sore neck looking up.

https://www.nextdaytechs.com/blog/2011/03/at-what-height-should-the-tv-be-mounted/%5B/url%5D

To get a batton exactly vertical with an uneven surface you should consider using window and door packers.

Worked i a few houses with tv above the fire place, looks terrible you get a cricked neck looking upwards at the damm thing, unless its a long room, that you can mve chairs back away from tv, also as a tv is mostly plastic shoving the thing above either an oen fiore or wood burner is not a good idea and is a fire risk.

Now if you finally want to screw battons to wall drill hole through batton half way along length measure where batton is going and hold in place, now using a masonary drill 6 mm drill through hole in batton into wall, and insert wall plug and screw, now with the use of a spirit level ensure vertical rise id ok, mark a pencil line down one side of batton, and then repaeat stage one, ensuring batton is on pencil line , now repeat for second batton , but after putting in first screw check both batons are paralel to each other, and still vertical, mark a line and then drill for all holes.

Garr dagnamit, the new forum hamsters ate my post addressing every question.

Chase the cables into the blockwork wall and mount the TV brackets directly onto the wall.

Somewhere else, not over the fireplace. Or are you doing a 21st century “Museum of Bad Taste” pastiche of a 1950s lounge?

Pretty much.

It’s actually a 70’s pastiche of Georgian.

The only way you can get a TV of any size (say bigger than 25″) in the room is to have it there.

That wall has the hallway door on the right of the pic, so it cant go the other side as it would be behind the door. The wall to the right is a big window. The wall to the left has the door through to the dining room right in the middle, armchair on one side, door opens onto the other, we tried putting the TV in that corner and it just doesn’t work even if you try not to use the door.

It’s actually quite a large room, just with a lot of windows/doors where you’d possibly stick a TV. I argued for it to be anywhere else, and won. But after a couple of months conceded that actually above the fireplace is actually by far the best solution in the room. It’s big enough that you don’t strain your neck anyway.

The house was self built by the builder, so there’s lots of rooms where despite their size there’s actually only one way you’ll ever get the furniture in there, because he obviously laid the rooms out in his head, then built the walls to fit!

The reason for MDF over plasterboard, is simply to avoid the issue of fixing TV’s to the wall and having to find the studs, or even bother with them in the first place.

http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/14272705/ this is mine. Took way more studs than I thought. About 20 in total. 6″ deep so doesn’t take any space out of room really.

Pretty easy to find studs. Get a big bit of 18mm plywood as a base board for the brackets, then drill lots of 2mm holes, starting from the left edge of where the board will be, one every 25mm until your drill stops going into thin air. This is your first stud. Check by drilling a hole every 3mm until you know where the edges are then continue till you find the next stud. Continue as necessary.

Screw the ply to the wall, screw the bracket to the ply. Invisible fixing.

😯
That’s one way or tap wall until tone changes.

peteroughton169 – Member
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/14272705/ this is mine. Took way more studs than I thought. About 20 in total. 6″ deep so doesn’t take any space out of room really.

Looks good. Debating whether to leave a recess of the TV or not. It looks cool, but the current TV it pretty small, and can’t afford an upgrade to one that would suit the room!

😯
That’s one way or tap wall until tone changes.

I presume he’s joking!

Better to use skimmed plasterboard and just paint it?

Trying to eliminate the need for tradespeople.

I’ve at least moderate confidence that I can screw some wood together. However having tried plastering a ceiling before, it’s not something I’d want to do anywhere too visible! MDF I was hoping would just look like the rest of the wall after a couple of coats of emulsion, or am I mistaken? It’s that or MDF plus lining paper.

If you really want to do it, then go ahead, but if you can get a 94m deep batten in there, then you should have waaaay better options of where to site your TV. Mind you, where do you even get timber that’s over 300 feet deep? 😉

Anyway, this stuff will do the job, but only if you never want to get the battons off again without an epic fight and a lot of damage

Personally I’d be looking at a nice bit of furniture to put the TV on that also takes care of all the cabling

Personally I’d be looking at a nice bit of furniture to put the TV on that also takes care of all the cabling

Yea, but that still leaves the fireplace/stove/hearth.

In retrospect all this would be easy if we’d done it before having the floor restored (and putting the coving up, and decorating)!

Like most things, SWMBO has an idea and I’m tasked with making it happen. She has to look at the results, I can go out on my bike and avoid it!

Fireplace off throw it to skip

Open out fireplace enough to get the electric heater in

Board up make good

there’s no way on this earth I’m going to get a rawl plug in exactly the right spot, and a screw exactly perpendicular

Ordinary screws will hold light loads screwed directly into blockwork. So just put the top screw in, set the batten vertical, put the rest in. If you’re happy with it, take it down again and use the screw holes to centre the drill for the rawlplugs.

I admire your confidence and willingness to have a go at getting your home exactly how you want it. Honestly – if you have your heart set on putting your telly there, and hiding the cables inside an artificial chimney, then go for it.

My strong and well-meant advice would be take it back to the first fix. Don’t plonk a structural change [artificial or otherwise] in the room on top of decorative fixtures and fittings like flooring and coving.

Fix your new hearth to the floor, not the floor covering. Finish with proper materials (edge with stained wood then tile it? Just use stone?)

Cut your coving to accommodate the new chimney, and not the other way round.

Build a proper carcass, don’t just wang a piece of MDF across two bits of 4×2. It will bend. It will flex. It will sound like a bass drum when you knock it. There will be visible butt joints, and paper will not cover them.

What will the cavity that accommodates the stove look like? How will you fix it into place and make it good?

Design exactly how the cables will enter and exit the chimney; don’t just leave a hole to be hidden by a piece of furniture – that’s a bodge.

When I embark on a home improvement project, me and my girl spend weeks looking for inspiration and ideas before we start anything. As a minimum, get on Pinterest and leaf through a few home magazines 🙂

Fireplace off throw it to skip

Agreed

Open out fireplace enough to get the electric heater in

There’s no fireplace – it’s just a wall.

It would be a simpler, neater, more honest and more elegant solution to just sit the electric stove on a nice simple stone plinth in front of a plain wall. Cut channels into the plaster to accept the TV cables. I would use ducting to make installing/removing/replacing the TV easier[/url]. Same with the flex for the stove.

Plaster can be made good without needing a plasterer.

If no fire place then even easier.

Mantel and electric heater in skip.

Put TV on unit.

Cheap as chips.

Cheap as chips.

And cold 😀