# Exterior TV mounted in Stucco



## Koolhaas (Oct 7, 2014)

My wife and I enjoy watching TV outside when the weather is nice. Our new house has a great backyard with a large back porch that we want to put a TV in. The house is clad in stucco, and so is the back porch. There are arches in the openings between the column in the back porch and I want to mount the TV on one of those arches near the corner.

*My question* is, what is the proper way to secure this mount to the stucco wall above this arch? I'm sure the wall is made up of plywood sheathing on wood studs, Metal lathe with stucco. I had to drill a couple holes out front for the mail box and it was pretty difficult, even with a masonry bit.

The mounting kit came with some decent screws to mount into a wall that has blocking. The are also some plastic anchors that came with it that are to be used with the screws in brick masonry walls.

Can these anchors be used in the stucco? Or is it a better idea to try to drill throw the stucco and try to get support from the plywood?


----------



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Plastic anchors are useless and should be thrown in the trash.
If there really is plywood that's that it needs to be attached to.
You are going to be using a TV made for outdoor use, right?
Should be using a hammer drill to drill through stucco.


----------



## Koolhaas (Oct 7, 2014)

joecaption said:


> Plastic anchors are useless and should be thrown in the trash.
> If there really is plywood that's that it needs to be attached to.
> You are going to be using a TV made for outdoor use, right?
> Should be using a hammer drill to drill through stucco.


I figured the stucco would be useless for supporting any weight. Thanks

This is real traditional stucco and there _should_ be plywood back there. I'll let you know how it goes. I'll use a small bit to find out.

if it feels like i'm not going to get that great of support form the plywood I will use toggle bolts.
like these

I'm using a cheap 40" vizio. I had a 55" TV at my last house that was not for outdoor use and it lasted over a year outside (detached garage). We use it inside now and it still works fine. An outdoor TV in a 40" size would be over $2,000. I could buy 5 or 6 Vizio's for that price.


----------



## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

I bought one Visio, never again.
Lasted just long enough for the warranty to run out, then the screen go's blank.
I Goggled Visio recalls and found hundreds of customer with the same issue. 
$400.00 to fix it and all it was is a .10 cent capacitor but they want you to pay a service call and buy a whole new board.


----------



## Koolhaas (Oct 7, 2014)

joecaption said:


> I bought one Visio, never again.
> Lasted just long enough for the warranty to run out, then the screen go's blank.
> I Goggled Visio recalls and found hundreds of customer with the same issue.
> $400.00 to fix it and all it was is a .10 cent capacitor but they want you to pay a service call and buy a whole new board.


I've never had one, but i'm trying them out since a friend recommended them. If this $300 Vizio gives out, I'll just buy another brand. That 55" that I had outside was an LG.


----------



## iLikeDirt (Apr 27, 2014)

Unless you're sure, don't count on there being plywood behind the stucco. It's pretty dependent on region and construction date. For example, many old California stucco houses have no sheathing at all. Others have 1x sheathing. My 1972 New Mexico stucco house has Celotex sheathing. My in-laws' 1990-something stucco house has XPS sheathing.

Regardless, you want your anchors to penetrate into whatever's structural behind the stucco, like wooden studs, concrete blocks, whatever.


----------



## Koolhaas (Oct 7, 2014)

This house is 6 years old, in Houston.

I'm going to get some toggle bolts and drill the holes tonight. I'm 90% sure there is plywood sheathing. THere are a lot of houses being built in my neighborhood right now and the stucco homes all have plywood, vapor barrier, metal lathe, and then stucco/plaster.

The area i'm mounting this TV is in a covered patio. It's above an arch. If I do damage the stucco and am unsuccessful it will be a pretty minor job to repair the area.

I'll take pictures and post up when I'm done. maybe this will help the next guy.


----------



## Koolhaas (Oct 7, 2014)

I didn't take any pictures during the progress. There wasn't much to show. It turned out to be very straight forward. The stucco ended up being about 2" thick! I used toggle bolts/straps in the top screws. I found a wood bracing stud in the bottom. The TV with the mount only weighed around 25lbs. I'll try and post a picture of the finish product this week.


----------

