Project example: a large TV on a pull-down mount over a stacked-stone fireplace in a hillside family room — heat, height and the price range

The scenario

Picture a mid-century single-story house remodeled in the last decade, set into a hillside lot in the northeast of the city. The family room was opened to the kitchen and given a vaulted ceiling, and the original brick fireplace was clad in stacked stone from floor to ceiling. The mantel is a thick beam about four feet off the floor, and the stone continues up the wall for another eight feet.

The household wants a 75-inch TV above the fireplace, which means the middle of the screen would land more than five feet from the floor if it simply hung on the stone. The family room is wide, the sofa sits about eleven feet back, and a big window facing the view is on the left of the wall, so the afternoon sun reaches the screen from the side.

The fireplace burns gas and is used a few evenings a week. The manual for the fireplace and the manual for the TV both give clearances, and the installer will read them before anything else.

What the job involves

1. The fireplace and TV manuals are read for heat clearances, then the wall above the opening is tested after a long fire by feel and by a simple surface thermometer, since the stone can be warm to the touch.
2. A tape outline on the stone shows the screen, and the installer sits on the sofa to check how far down the pull-down arm must bring the screen for the middle of the picture to land near eye height.
3. A probe in a mortar joint, with the stone itself left alone, shows whether the cladding is a thin veneer on framing or solid stone on masonry, and a masonry bit through one of the stones shows how deep it runs.
4. Sleeve anchors are set into the faces of solid stones, never into joints, or, where the cladding is a veneer, long screws are driven through it into the framing behind.
5. The pull-down plate goes on, a laser line confirms it is level, the TV is lifted into the arm by two people and locked, and the arm is tested through its full travel.
6. A slim painted raceway runs along the side of the chimney breast to the outlet already near the fireplace, since the stone has no cavity for an in-wall kit.

Hardware and materials

• Pull-down fireplace mount supplied for a large TV
• Sleeve anchors sized for solid stone, or long screws for a veneer over framing
• Hammer drill, masonry bits, a vacuum
• Surface thermometer, laser line, tape
• Paintable raceway with a snap-on cover

Add-ons often paired with this job

• Hide the wires inside the wall — +$95–$155. Stone has no cavity, so a hidden-wire kit is only possible beside the chimney, in an ordinary drywall stretch.
• Mount a soundbar as well — +$50–$80. A bar goes on a shelf below the TV or on its own bracket on the mantel line, with the heat checked.
• Full-motion (articulating) mount — +$30–$50. A pull-down arm already moves; a separate swing arm is for a different wall.

Why it is done this way

A fireplace wall decides three things before the TV does: how hot the wall gets, what the wall is made of, and how high the screen would sit. The heat check comes first, because a TV is not rated for the heat above a working fireplace unless its maker says so.

Anchors go into solid stone, not into the joints, since mortar is the weakest part of masonry. Where the stone is only a veneer, the screws reach the framing behind it. A probe tells which one it is.

A pull-down mount brings the screen from the height the chimney wall dictates to the height the sofa wants, and tucks it flat when it is not in use. For a tall chimney wall it is usually the right tool.

The fireplace line in the typical range covers the heat check and the extra hardware, and the stone line covers the slower drilling. Both are labor ranges, not quotes.

What would change the price

• The wall above the opening runs too hot, so the screen goes higher or onto another wall.
• The stone is a thin veneer, so the fasteners reach into the framing instead.
• The mortar is crumbling near the anchors, so the position moves.
• A larger TV needs a stronger pull-down arm.
• A new outlet near the chimney is electrician work and priced separately.