My house (15-ish) years old has a block flue system for a gas fire, which has never been used. I know roughly where it is from the plans and the fact there's a steel cowl on the roof, but exactly where in the wall it might be I genuinely have no idea, as it's got dot-and-dab plasterboard over it.
On the basis of the plans I'd hazard a guess that it's exactly where I want to fix the TV to the wall. I have no intention of having a gas fire here, so my question is two-fold: can I fix the TV bracket to the wall using the assumption that I probably will drill into the concrete of the flue, and if some future buyer wants a gas fireplace here will the flue be considered a write-off if there's a 6mm hole in it?
It's a 65 inch TV so I could potentially screw a piece of ply to the wall using huge fixings and hopefully be either side of the flue, and then screw the bracket to that, but there's still a chance that I'd hit the flue if it's not dead centre in the wall.
Presuming that you're going to follow the age-old tradition of putting the TV centred above the fireplace (!) surely the bracket mounts would be either side of the flue on a TV of that size?
and if some future buyer wants a gas fireplace here will the flue be considered a write-off if there's a 6mm hole in it?
Well I hope you're using more than one tiny screw to hold the TV on the wall - especially a dry-lined wall*! Ignoring that little issue, having holes in the flue is sub-optimal but if you filled them properly.....
(If it's any help, I would have thought that part of the flue would have gone straight up from the fireplace to increase the draw - and I don't think they're concrete)
* i think the fixings are going to be fairly sizeable regardless given the fact it's a dry lined wall and the TV is larger.
Well I hope you're using more than one tiny screw to hold the TV on the wall - especially a dry-lined wall*!
I mean, obviously. The mounts for a TV aren't commensurate with the physical size, so you're mistaken in thinking that they run the full width. If the TV was centred on the wall, and assuming the flue runs up the middle, then at least one hole is going to go into the flue or part of the surrounding concrete.
But the issue is that there is no fireplace (!) at the bottom of the flue, which means that I don't know where it is in the wall.
It's probably straight up and down rather than the old brick flues where every room had a fireplace
The Schniedel or German made stuff I've used is probably 50mm thick and a gas or log stove installation would use a stainless steel liner inside
The mounts for a TV aren't commensurate with the physical size, so you're mistaken in thinking that they run the full width.
Ahhh... of course - they're fairly standard 🤦♂️ (I've not had to use a wall bracket yet)
If there's no actual fireplace then I'd just drill away but taking care not to overdrill the depth.
