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Where pull-downs earn their place: custom-home great rooms
About 3 in 4 of our 40+ pull-down mounts hang in custom and semi-custom homes: Seven Hills, Anthem Country Club in Anthem, The Ridges and Red Rock Country Club in Summerlin, and Southern Highlands. Their great-room fireplace walls run tall, and a fixed TV above the mantel lands far over Samsung's default of 42 inches from floor to screen center.
About 1 in 5 of our pull-down customers first asked for a fixed mount and changed their minds after the heat reading, or after sitting on the sofa with the planned height marked on the wall. Pull-downs are one of Vasyl's specialties, and Mykyta takes the ones in Summerlin; how the arm itself works is on our mantel mount installation page.
Drop, mantel depth and studs — matching the arm to the wall
Before you order, we measure how far the mantel projects, how high it sits and where the studs are. The makers' numbers for the arms we see most:
| Mount | Vertical travel | Deepest mantel cleared | Rated for |
|---|---|---|---|
| MantelMount MM540 | 27 in | 18 in | 44"–80" TVs, 20–90 lb |
| MantelMount MM815 (motorized) | 26 in | 16 in | 45"–90" TVs, 20–115 lb |
| MantelMount MM750 Pro | 29–30.5 in | not listed | 55"–100" TVs, 30–125 lb |
The MM540 and MM750 Pro reach studs up to 24 inches apart — enough for the 16-inch spacing of most valley framing and for the 24-inch spacing codes allow in 2x6 walls; for the MM815 we check its wall plate against your stud layout first. The fireplace calculator and height calculator show where the screen lands, raised and lowered.
Recessing the housing into a wood-framed chase
On about 1 in 3 pull-down jobs we sink the housing into the chase so it sits nearly flush when the TV is up. Before anything is cut, we find where the fireplace's vent pipe and gas line run inside the chase and keep the box clear of them and of the clearances in the fireplace's own manual; if we can't confirm that, the housing stays on the surface. The MM750 Pro is designed for recessing: sunk into the chase, it lets the raised TV store about 1.8 inches from the wall, and MantelMount says a TV at least 32 inches tall hides the recess box once raised. That means the TV's own height, not its diagonal, so we measure the set before any cutting — open the chase behind a screen that is too short and the box shows. Solid stone or block behind the surround gets a surface-mounted plate instead. A framed-chase job runs about 2.5 hours.
Heat sensors and the 104-degree line
Almost every fireplace under these mounts burns gas, which doesn't spike like a wood fire, so we run it on its highest setting, blower on if it has one, until the wall has warmed through before we read it. The MM815 carries a sensor that turns red above 110°F to warn that the fireplace is too hot for electronics. Samsung's limit for its TVs is 104°F, so the light stays dark through the first 6°F past that line: red is a late warning, and dark proves nothing.
So the burner stays on while we take our own reading where the TV rests when raised, and again with the arm pulled down in front of the mantel, where the screen sits while you watch. If either number runs close to the limit, we change the raised position or the lowest stop before anything is drilled.
Rather have a pro do it?
Send a request — we'll confirm the exact price and a time that suits you by text or call. 3-year warranty on every install.
Stone veneer and cast stone: anchoring a mount that moves
Most of the stacked stone and cast stone we drill for pull-downs is in those custom great rooms. Stone veneer is cladding, not structure, and a pull-down levers against its wall plate every time the screen comes down — under a county code that puts home sites below 3900 feet in Seismic Design Category D0 at that — so the bolts pass through the stone into the framing or solid masonry behind it, with the plate shimmed flat so it bears on structure rather than on the stone. Vasyl then sets the tension until the arm lowers with one hand and stays where it stops. Allow about 3.5 hours on stone or block, and read our note on solid stone vs veneer. Assembling and tuning the arm adds $99 to the TV installation; the rest of the list is on our pricing page.
