Ask an installer these six things before you book. The answers tell you more than a price does, and they take about two minutes on the phone.
This is written for Upstate South Carolina specifically, because the housing here is genuinely mixed — plaster over lath in the older streets of Spartanburg and Greenville, engineered lumber in everything built along the I-85 corridor in the last twenty years — and the right answer changes with the wall.
1. "How do you find what is behind the wall?"
You want to hear something more specific than "stud finder." A magnet-only finder locates a drywall screw. It does not tell you whether the stud behind it is a real 2x4, a 2x6, engineered lumber, or a piece of blocking someone put in during a bathroom remodel.
In the older neighborhoods — Converse Heights and Hampton Heights in Spartanburg, Augusta Road and North Main in Greenville — the framing is often on centers that predate any standard, and there is plaster over lath in front of it. The finder that works on new drywall is close to useless there.
2. "Do you set a laser line before you drill?"
Every mount we do gets a laser line first, and we hold the set to within a sixteenth of an inch. It is the single detail our customers mention most.
The reason it matters is not perfectionism. A TV that is a quarter-inch out reads as crooked from the sofa even when nobody can say why, and you cannot fix it afterwards without a second set of holes.
3. "Can you hide the wires?"
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and the honest installer tells you which before starting rather than after.
An interior wall with an open stud bay takes a clean in-wall run. An exterior wall with insulation and a fire block halfway up may not, and a masonry fireplace chase certainly will not without a conduit that was put in when the house was built. Get the answer up front.
4. "Who supplies the mount?"
We do not, and you should be a little suspicious of anyone who insists on supplying it. You buy the mount, which keeps the choice yours and the price straightforward.
What we will do is tell you before you buy whether the one you are looking at fits your set and your wall. That call is free and it saves a return trip more often than you would think.
5. "Above the fireplace — will it be too high?"
Above a fireplace is higher than textbook viewing height. That is just true.
What fixes it is the mount, not the wall. A full-motion arm lets the screen pull out and tilt down to the seating, which brings the effective angle back to something comfortable. A fixed bracket at that height does not, and that is the install people regret.
Ask whoever you book to check the sightline from where you actually sit, not from the ladder.
6. "Are you insured?"
We are fully insured. Ask anyone else the same question and listen for a straight yes.
Worth being precise about what that means. Insurance is what covers your wall and your television if something goes wrong on the job. It is the answer that actually matters here, and it is the one worth getting in plain words before anyone drills.
What we do not do
We do not do plumbing, electrical or home renovation work. If your install needs a new outlet behind the television, that is an electrician's job and we will tell you so rather than take it on.
We mount televisions across Spartanburg, Greenville, Greer, Simpsonville and the rest of Upstate South Carolina, and across the state line through Gastonia, Rock Hill and Charlotte. Full details on the TV mounting service page.