TV Mounting in Cary Park, NC

Townhomes on Bridgegate and Cary Glen: start with the right wall

Many townhomes along Bridgegate Drive and Cary Glen Boulevard went up around 2005 and 2006, and their living rooms often put the natural TV spot on the wall shared with the neighbor. That wall is fire-rated, and we never cut into it: about 1 in 5 of our Cary concealment jobs are townhomes like these, and each one ended on an interior wall or in paintable raceway ($39). An interior wall still lets us hide the wires inside the stud bay with a listed in-wall power kit; the TV's own cord never goes into the wall. Condos in the neighborhood add shared-building rules too, so ask the association first. Some associations here also own the exterior structure, so a porch TV needing a new outside cable hole should be cleared ahead of time. More on routes: hidden wires.

Lakeside two-stories: tall stone fireplaces, done safely

Around the lakes on Waterford Lake Drive, as in nearby Green Level, family rooms often rise two stories over a gas fireplace faced in stacked stone, with the builder's outlet and cable box near the ceiling. A screen that high strains necks, so we mark the height from your sofa with our height tool and often land a foot or more lower on a tilting mount. Before drilling, the fireplace runs 20 minutes at full output while we read the surface where the TV's bottom edge will sit. Stacked stone is a veneer, not structure, so the bolts pass through it into the framing behind, and we shim the plate plumb. Expect about two hours, with a second technician for screens of 75 inches and up. Upstairs, many bonus rooms over the garage run warm on summer afternoons, so we book them for mornings.