My son has just fitted my new 40" LED TV to drywall.
He did attach a board to the drywall but when he purchased the board he had assumed the metal studs were 18" apart not 24" so only bought a 20" board which wasn't wide enough to span two metal studs.
He fixed one side of the board to a metal stud (not sure which fixings he used in the metal stud but he didn't use the snap toggles I supplied) he then used two snap toggles to fix the other side of the board to drywall.
My TV bracket is a cantilever and only has about a 6" square wall plate which he fixed to the centre of the board (not sure if he used Snap Toggles).
I know Snap Toggles are supposed to be good but my concern is that if only two were used as described will this be enough to support the TV?
The TV seems to be held up really firm and the cantilever action works well but I'm just feeling nervous so I decided to research the fixing of TV's to drywall (I almost wish I hadn't!).
Can you please advise if I could be in trouble? If necessary I could not use the cantilever action as I only want to angle the TV very occasionally.
I'm just dreading being told I need to get in a professional TV installer and have everything replaced. I can't bear to think of the mess it would make of the walls let alone upsetting my son after all his hard work. No mum likes to upset her son and it would be especially hard considering he is a carpenter.
Best Answer
I must say that the "carpenter" son seems to be a bit of a non-professional if the description you gave of the installation is correct. Mounting a cantilever arm as described seems to me like it asking for trouble. Even with a smaller sized TV the cantilever arm, when extended, will put a rather large pull out force on the fasteners in the drywall.
To avoid any unfortunate mishap I really suggest getting that short piece of board removed. It should be replaced with a sturdy piece of 0.75 inch thick plywood that spans at least two studs and has a height of at least two feet so that fasteners into the studs can be spaced a good distance apart near the top and bottom of the plywood. Then remount the cantilever arm plate to the plywood. That should give a very reasonable and secure mount for the TV.
The plywood piece can be sanded and painted up nice before attaching it to the wall. If the color matches to the wall it would blend in well and not appear to be out of place behind the TV.