TV Mounting & Installation, Done the Right Way
New Age Technology mounts TVs across Plymouth and the Twin Cities, flush and level with every cable hidden inside the wall instead of hanging down to the outlet. The hard part isn't the bracket. It's running power and HDMI inside the wall to a clean exit point without tearing up your drywall, and mounting so it holds a 75-inch panel for ten years. That's the part a handyman with a stud finder gets wrong, and the part we do every week.
Here's the honest version most TV-mounting listings won't tell you: hanging the bracket is the easy 20 minutes. Concealing the wires is the real work, and on most Twin Cities homes it's also where it goes sideways. Owner Chad and the New Age Technology crew are low-voltage AV integrators, not a $99 marketplace gig. We've spent 15+ years running cable behind the walls of Hennepin County homes, and TV mounting is the same craft scaled down: fish the wire, conceal it to code, and leave the wall looking like the TV grew there.
What Professional TV Mounting Actually Includes
A real TV mounting job is four things, and only one of them is the bracket. First, we confirm the wall can carry the load. We locate the studs (and in plaster-and-lath or older Twin Cities homes, the studs are rarely where a cheap stud finder says they are), and for masonry or fireplace installs we anchor into block or brick with the right sleeve. Second, we set the mount dead level and at the correct height for your seating, then verify it holds the panel without sag. Third, and this is the part that separates us from a handyman: we conceal the cables. Power and HDMI get routed inside the wall to a recessed outlet behind the TV and a low-voltage box at the equipment location, so nothing dangles. Fourth, we connect, power up, and confirm the source devices, soundbar, and any streaming gear actually work before we pack up. You're not left holding a remote wondering why there's no picture. We don't hide cables in a plastic raceway stuck to the wall and call it concealed. If the wall can take an in-wall run, that's what you get.
Picking the Right TV Mount: Flush, Tilt, or Full-Motion
The mount is chosen by where the TV lives and how you sit, not by what's on sale. Flush (low-profile) mounts hold the panel about an inch off the wall. They look the cleanest and are right for a TV at eye level on a flat wall with the seating straight in front. Tilt mounts let you angle the screen down. These are the answer when the TV has to go higher than ideal, most often above a fireplace, so you can aim the picture at the couch instead of the ceiling. Full-motion (articulating) mounts swing the TV out and pivot it side to side. They cost more and stick out farther, but they're the right call for a corner install, a kitchen TV you watch from two rooms, or any spot where one fixed angle won't cover where people actually sit. We'll tell you on-site which one your room needs. If a flush mount does the job, we won't upsell you to a full-motion arm you'll never articulate.
In-Wall Cable Concealment: The Part That Matters
Hiding the wires in the wall is the whole reason to hire a pro, and it's where the housing stock around here gets interesting. In a typical interior wood-stud wall we cut two small low-voltage boxes, one behind the TV and one down by the outlet or equipment shelf, then fish power through a code-rated in-wall power kit and run HDMI or HDBaseT through the cavity between them. Clean exit, no visible cable, no holes left to patch. The complication is the homes themselves. A lot of 1980s split-levels and 1970s ramblers near Hopkins were never built with structured wiring behind the TV wall, and many have fire blocking mid-cavity or insulation that stops a fish tape cold. Exterior walls packed with insulation, brick fireplaces, and steel-stud commercial walls each need a different approach. We carry the tools for all of them, glow rods, flex bits, and fiberglass fish tape, so an awkward wall is a planning detail, not a dead end. One honest caveat: you cannot legally run a standard TV power cord inside the wall. It has to be a listed in-wall power relocation kit or a new receptacle, and on Plymouth jobs that's a low-voltage permit through the City of Plymouth building department. We handle that paperwork. A cut corner here is a real fire-code problem, not a cosmetic one.
Soundbar Mounting Under the TV
A soundbar floating crooked under a perfectly level TV ruins the whole install, so we treat it as part of the same job. We mount the bar centered on the screen, level to the TV, with the right gap so it doesn't block the bottom of the picture or the IR sensor. The connection between bar and TV, usually a single HDMI eARC cable, gets concealed in the same wall run as the TV cabling so there's no second cord crawling down the wall. For homeowners who'd rather skip the bar entirely, this is also the natural moment to talk about in-wall or in-ceiling speakers, which is a core part of what we do. But if a soundbar is what you want, we'll set it cleanly and tune the eARC handshake so the TV remote actually controls the volume.
Samsung Frame TV Installation
The Frame is a different install, and treating it like a normal TV defeats the point of buying one. The Frame is designed to sit nearly flush to the wall using its included no-gap wall mount, and it ships with the One Connect box that moves all the inputs and power to a separate location through a single thin, nearly invisible cable. Done right, it looks like framed art, not electronics. Done wrong, with a half-inch gap and the One Connect cable taped to the baseboard, it looks like a TV pretending to be art. We install it the way Samsung intended: no-gap mount set perfectly flush, the One Connect cable concealed in the wall to a hidden box, and Art Mode configured so the motion sensor and brightness behave in your room's light. The same approach applies to other near-flush 'lifestyle' panels. The whole value is the disappearing act, and the disappearing act is in the wiring.
When You Don't Need to Hire Us
We'd rather tell you the truth than sell you a job you don't need. If your TV is a 43-inch or smaller panel going onto a standard drywall-over-wood-stud wall, the cables can run down to an outlet directly below, and you're comfortable patching a small hole if a fish goes wrong, that's a confident DIY weekend with a $30 bracket and a stud finder. You don't need us for that. Where it's worth hiring out: anything over about 55 inches, any mount over a fireplace or on brick, masonry, or steel studs, any install where the outlet isn't directly below the screen, any Frame or lifestyle TV where flush concealment is the entire point, and any wall where you're not willing to risk drywall repair. And one we'll say out loud that a marketplace handyman won't: if your wall can't safely conceal the power without a listed in-wall kit, the cheap raceway 'fix' is the wrong answer, and we'll tell you so before you pay for it. Not sure which camp you're in? Call 952-204-7222 and we'll talk it through honestly before anyone schedules anything.
TV Mounting Across Plymouth and the Twin Cities Metro
We mount TVs throughout the west and east metro, and the install changes with the neighborhood. Our home base is the Plymouth showroom at 15070 23rd Ave N, just off County Road 6 and I-494, where you can see clean in-wall concealment and Frame installs running live before you book. In the 1980s split-levels around Plymouth and the 1970s ramblers near Hopkins, the TV wall usually has no structured wiring and sometimes mid-cavity fire blocking, so we plan the fish path before we cut. In Eden Prairie and Maple Grove new construction we'd rather pre-wire behind the screen during the rough-in stage so there's nothing to fish later. Out toward Lake Minnetonka, in Wayzata, Orono, and Excelsior, we're often mounting large panels in great rooms with long runs back to a central rack, which is HDBaseT or fiber territory, not a 15-foot HDMI cord. Wherever you are, the goal is identical: a level screen, invisible wiring, and a wall you'd never guess had a cable behind it. Ready to get it on the wall the right way? Reach us at 952-204-7222.
Frequently Asked Questions
What TV mount type do I need: flush, tilt, or full-motion?
It depends on where the TV goes and where you sit. A flush (low-profile) mount is best for an eye-level TV on a flat wall with seating straight ahead, and it looks the cleanest. A tilt mount is for when the TV has to go higher than ideal, like above a fireplace, so you can angle the picture down toward the couch. A full-motion mount swings and pivots the screen, which is the right call for corner installs, kitchen TVs viewed from two rooms, or any spot where one fixed angle won't work. We assess this on-site and recommend the simplest mount that does the job.
How high should a TV be mounted on the wall?
For a normal seated viewing distance, the center of the screen should land roughly at eye level when you're sitting, which usually puts the center around 42 inches off the floor for an average couch. The bigger the screen, the more this matters. Above a fireplace is the common exception, where the TV ends up higher than ideal and we use a tilt mount to aim the picture back down at the seating. We measure your actual seating height and sightline before we set the bracket rather than going by a generic number.
Can you hide the TV wires inside the wall?
Yes, on most walls. We cut two small low-voltage boxes, one behind the TV and one near the outlet or equipment shelf, then route the HDMI through the wall cavity and relocate power using a code-listed in-wall power kit so nothing dangles. The cases where a full in-wall run isn't possible are masonry fireplaces, some insulated exterior walls, and walls with mid-cavity fire blocking, and even then we usually have a clean concealment path. What we won't do is run a standard TV power cord inside the wall, because that's a fire-code violation. We use a listed relocation kit or add a proper receptacle instead.
How long does TV mounting take?
A straightforward flush mount with the cables running to an outlet directly below is typically about an hour. Add in-wall cable concealment, a soundbar, and source-device setup and it's usually 1.5 to 3 hours. A fireplace mount on brick, a Samsung Frame with One Connect concealment, or a large panel with a long HDBaseT run back to a rack can take a half day. We'll give you a realistic time window when we quote, not a vague guess.
What does TV mounting cost in the Twin Cities?
We quote each job rather than posting a flat rate, because the price is driven by real factors: TV size and weight, mount type (flush is simplest, full-motion costs more), whether the wall is drywall, brick, or masonry, and most of all whether you want the cables concealed in the wall versus run to an outlet below. A Frame TV with One Connect concealment and a fireplace install both add time. Tell us the TV size, the wall, and whether you want wires hidden, and we'll give you a real number. Call 952-204-7222 for a quote.
Do you mount TVs over a fireplace or on brick?
Yes. Fireplace and masonry mounts are common for us and they're exactly the kind of job worth hiring out. We anchor into brick or block with the correct masonry sleeves, use a tilt mount so the picture aims down at the seating instead of the ceiling, and plan a concealment path that often routes to the side of the chimney rather than straight through it. We also check heat clearance so the panel isn't sitting in the path of a hot firebox.