how do you know if a wall can support a tv on it?

[n00bian god]

hiya! so i have a big tv on an entertainment center desk in the living room and was going to hang a smaller tv on the wall to play video games on. i want to put it above the big tv in between 2 windows. the thing is i dont want the smaller tv to fall. the small tv is expendible but if it fell it would fall onto my big tv, making the big tv fall over, and getting smashed. the tv i want to hang is sorta light and its a 19 or 20 inch lcd. but how do i know if where i want to put it on the wall will support its weight? emotion_eyebrow

[nouveau sereph]

Use a stud finder to find where the beams of your house run, and attach the mounting bracket to those through the wall. If you just attach it to the plaster the weight will rip it out of the wall in no time flat.

[The20]

I'll put it that way: if an exterior wall (you said something about windows) isn't strong enough to support a TV smashing that other TV is the least of your problems.

[birdman3131]

The20

I'll put it that way: if an exterior wall (you said something about windows) isn't strong enough to support a TV smashing that other TV is the least of your problems.

Lets do some math. Standard stud distance (center to center) is usually either 16" or 24". We will go with 16" because it gives us a higher chance. A 2x4 stud is 1.5" wide. Disregarding the fact that you cant hit the edge and get much support that leaves us a 1.5/16 chance of actually hitting a stud with a screw/nail. that comes out to a 9.375% chance. That goes down to a 6.25% chance if they have 24" stud placement. The chance of winning on the average scratch off lotto ticket around here is 1 in 5 to 1 in 3.5 (or 20% to 28.5% ) which means he has a higher chance of winning the lotto than blindly hitting a stud.

[SoulLi]

Use a stud finder, if you have at least one stud between the windows you can easily hang up to a 32" tv no problem. They have single stud tv mounts you can get that will support up to 80 so pounds.

[Saruwatari Kooji]

If you don't have a stud finder and can't afford one, use magnets. Most craft stores(and big box stores with a crafts section) sell magnets for really cheap(around here I've seen them for like $2). Just look for the small silver ones that are really strong(I forget their actual name right now). With that magnet in hand start next to a door or window on the wall you need to locate the studs and slowly move the magnet up and down as you slowly make your way away from the door or window. Eventually the magnet will cling to one of the drywall screws that go straight into the stud. Once you find that one, just get a tape measure out and measure 16 inches from the magnet and use another magnet to mark the next stud(if you can't find it go out to 24 inches). Since those magnets typically come in packs of 5 or more(at least the ones I've seen) you can do this a few times to get several studs marked.

[SoulLi]

You can pony up 10 dollars for a stud finder that is more accurate than magnets. They dry wall nails you snag with a magnet isn't in the center of the stud. If you are going to hang a tv, I suggest you do it right, you don't want your investment falling.

[Saruwatari Kooji]

SoulLi

You can pony up 10 dollars for a stud finder that is more accurate than magnets. They dry wall nails you snag with a magnet isn't in the center of the stud. If you are going to hang a tv, I suggest you do it right, you don't want your investment falling.

And you're guaranteed to hit the center of the stud with a stud finder? I don't think so. Stud finder or magnet method, most people have about the exact same chance of hitting the center of the stud. Most studs are typically only an inch and a half wide, the dry wall screws typically aren't much more than a quarter inch to half inch away from the center.

I realize that stud finders aren't exactly expensive, but I was just offering up an alternative method in case OP didn't want to or couldn't acquire a stud finder. There is no reason for you to attack it and say it's not the "right" way. It's merely an alternative that for most people is just as accurate as a stud finder.

[Pinky The Alpaca]

Glue a chair to the wall and then sit in the chair... if u weigh more than
the tv and it holds
its strong enough..

[SoulLi]

Saruwatari Kooji

If you know how to use a stud finder you can hit pretty much the center every time. It is surely more accurate than magnets. To use a stud finder you go one horizontal direction left or right. Once the senor goes off that means you found the edge of the stud and mark it. You repeat from the other side to find the other edge and mark it, then draw a line between the two and split it in the middle. That's how you find the center of the stud.