Hey guys, I have a question about how i should mount my plasma. I'm a rookie home owner, so anything involving handy-man fixit type stuff is not my forte.. i'm a computer nerd lol. Anyway, my concern is this:

The room i have chosen for my media room is a spacious rectangle in my basement. Two walls are outside walls and the other 2 walls are studs/sheetrock inside walls. The wall I will have to mount the TV on is one of the outside walls. Upon inspection, it looks like it was finished with a layer of styrofoam (between flat studs) over the concrete, then drywalled. The studs obviously on their sides. From what others have told me this is a faily common way to finish these concrete walls.

I'm worried that mounting my TV to these studs isn't deep enough (1.5"), and wonder if I should look at drilling into the concrete wall behind it to anchor into? The plasma is a Samsung 58" that if I recall weighs about 160 lbs. The mount is from monoprice and is one of their heavy duty ones. All in all we're looking at about 200-220 lbs of weight.

Another concern is that I'm probably going to have to cut into the sheetrock to create a channel for the cables/wires as well. So that kinda sucks as I was hoping to avoid that kind of work (since i have no experience with sheetrock) and since there aren't gaps between studs to fish the cabling, i'll have to cut out styrofoam as well. Unless in my inexperience, I'm just not thinking of a better way...

What would you guys recommend for these 2 concerns?

I'm really excited to get things setup.. my setup of M60's, VP150, and QR's have been lonely in their boxes for too long since i've moved into the house! Now with my new 58" plasma and a new BD player, i'm ready to get some epic movie viewing in! Unfortunately its turned out to be a bit more work than i initially thought it would lol.

Unless you know for sure that the wood studs are securely attached to the concrete, you should plan on anchoring into the concrete. This usually means using a hammer drill and expansion anchors. It's an intermediate level home handyman job. If you're not comfortable, find a friend who will work for beer to do it for you. The anchors will need to be long enough to go through the 1/2" drywall and 1-1/2" cavity and at least 3-4" into the concrete wall.

If the studs are well anchored, you could fasten to them with 2" lag bolts. If you use 4 bolts, each one is only taking 50-60 lbs of load.

Have you considered a surface mounted wiremold as an option to chopping out drywall and insulation? You can paint it to match the wall if necessary.

Hello gmorf33,

I think that you'll be fine, as long as you get at least two bolts into each stud. I would also pick up some E-Z Anchors that are rated for at least 50 pounds. I installed four or five of them in various load bearing areas on my wall mount.

As far as your cable management is concerned, I would recommend that you pick up a speaker/cable management track. They are readily available at Home Depot, can be painted, and finish off really nice. I use one to hide my speaker cables, component cable, and HDMI cable that come from my stand located below my TV.

I'd avoid that outside wall all together. You can solve both problems (running wires and hanging the plasma) by simply building a "false" wall against it.
Stud up a new wall with your 2x4's (or even 2x6's if you want even more strength or depth) on edge instead of flat and at the usual 16" on center.
Be sure to anchor the sole plate to the floor and the top plate to the ceiling joists. You can even add additional studs to where you would like to mount the TV. The new wall will be able to hold anything you throw at it.You can then easily run the wires in the walls and hide everything.

The hardest part would be if you need to frame around any windows, accomodating any existing outlets and switches in the exisiting wall and drywall & finishing. Do you have any friends who can help you over a few refreshments?

I'm with 80'sMan, those are not 'studs' per se between the drywall and the concrete but are probably 1x2" furring strips that are there only as a means to affixing the drywall to the concrete wall. If hanging onto an interior wall with 'real' studs and 80'sMan suggestion is not an option I'd try to locate at least two of the furring strips on either side of the mount and use concrete anchors by using the strips as solid spacers by drilling holes for the concrete anchors through the strips and into the concrete, making sure the anchor is deep enough for the furring strip. You'll probably need several anchors for the mount.

Furring strips can also be either 1x3" or 1x4"s which would be better in your case but 9 out of 10 times I've only seen 1x2"s used. If you install the TV in this manner keep in mind that you only have about 3/4 of inch to run wires between the concrete wall and the drywall so make sure to run the wires wires using a wire or string 'pull through' attached to the end of the cable. I've always made the diameter of the holes in the drywall for the cables just large enough for the end to pass through and covered it with a wall plate.

Or, forget wall mounting and buy a stand/shelf for it instead.