What Actually Happens on Install Day

From booking to the day before

Most of our jobs are booked and finished within a day or two, which is the whole point of how this business is set up. That speed only works because the important information is gathered at booking rather than discovered on your doorstep.

When you book we want to know the screen size and roughly which model, the type of wall, which room, whether you already own a mount, and whether you want the cables hidden. None of that is a test. It is how we work out how much time to hold for you and what to bring. A job where the details were clear runs calmly and often finishes early. A job where the television turns out to be far larger than described, or the wall turns out to be stone, is the one that overruns or has to be rebooked.

You will get a confirmation with the date and an arrival window. If anything changes at your end, a delivery that did not arrive or a room still full of boxes, tell us as early as you can. Moving a booking a day ahead costs nothing. Moving it at the door costs a slot somebody else wanted.

The arrival window

We give a window rather than a single time, and the honest reason is traffic and the job before yours. Working across a whole metro area means the difference between a good morning and a bad one can be forty minutes on the highway. We would rather give you a window we keep than a time we miss.

You will normally get a message when we are on the way with a tighter estimate. If you have somewhere to be, say so when booking and we will try to place you first in the day. Early slots are the most predictable and they go quickly.

You do not need to take a full day off work for this. A standard single-television install is a short visit. What you do need is someone over eighteen at home for the whole of it, because there are decisions partway through that only the person who lives in the room can make.

The walkthrough

The first thing that happens is a conversation, not work. We look at the room, the wall, the seating, the light, and where the power and the sources are. It takes a few minutes and it is the part of the visit that decides whether you are still happy in six months.

Expect to be asked things. Where do you actually sit. Does anyone in the household have strong feelings about height. Does the room get used for anything else. Are you planning to change the furniture. Is the wall shared with a bedroom. Do you know of anything behind the surface. Answer honestly, including that you have not decided yet, which is a perfectly useful answer.

We also check what is inside the wall before anything is agreed. That is normal and it is not a delay. Occasionally it turns up something that changes the plan, such as a duct, plumbing, a beam, or a wall that is not built the way it appears from the room. Finding that now is a short conversation. Finding it later is not.

Agreeing the exact spot

Nothing goes on the wall until you have seen where it will be and said yes to it.

We show you the centre, the height and the outer edges of the screen physically on the wall, so you can judge it from the sofa instead of imagining it from a description. Sit down and look. Look at it from the doorway too, and from wherever you stand when the room is full of people. If there is someone in the household who will have opinions about this later, now is the moment to get them into the room.

Height is where most disagreements happen, and the instinct is nearly always to go higher than is comfortable. We will say so if we think a position will be tiring to watch in the evening. We will also mount it where you want it after that, because it is your room and your neck. The only thing we ask is that the decision is made deliberately at this point rather than halfway through.

How long the work takes

A single television on a straightforward drywall wall, with the cables tidied at the surface, is normally a visit of about an hour. From there it moves in fairly predictable directions.

• Hiding cables inside an ordinary interior wall usually adds a substantial part of an hour to the visit.
• Concrete, brick, stone and tile all take longer than drywall, sometimes considerably longer.
• A very large screen adds time simply because it has to be handled carefully by two people.
• Installs above a fireplace run longer because of the height, the access and where the equipment has to go.
• Several televisions in one visit are much faster per screen than booking them separately.

What to have ready

The single most useful thing you can do is clear the wall and the floor in front of it. About two metres of clear floor, furniture pulled back, anything breakable moved to another room. We can move furniture and often do, but a room that is ready is a job that starts immediately.

If the television is still boxed, leave it boxed. If it is already on a stand, leave it there. Have the remote, any sound equipment and the login details for the streaming services you actually use within reach. The number of visits that end with a beautifully mounted screen and a forgotten password is higher than you would think.

Pets are worth a thought. Dogs are usually fine and frequently delighted. Cats and propped-open front doors are a poor combination on a day when equipment is coming in and out. Small children in a room with tools in it is the other one, and a closed door helps everybody. In an apartment or condo, book the service elevator if your building requires it and tell us where to park.

The old stand and the packaging

When the screen comes off its stand you are left with a stand, a large box, a pile of foam and often an old mount from the previous television. We will ask what you want done with all of it rather than guess.

The packaging is worth keeping if the television is new and still inside its return window, and worth keeping if you expect to move house soon. Otherwise it is bulk. We will break it down and stack it neatly wherever you want it, or take it away with us if you tell us at booking so there is room in the vehicle.

The old stand often has real resale value and deserves a listing rather than the kerb. If there is an old mount coming down, the wall behind it will need attention, and we will tell you honestly whether the new mount covers the old marks or whether you have a small patch and paint job ahead of you.

Dust and cleanup

The room should look better when we leave than it did when we arrived, minus one television-shaped gap in your furniture arrangement.

Work that touches a wall makes dust. That part is unavoidable. Letting it settle over your room is not. A professional install involves protecting floors and containing dust from the start rather than an apology and a broom at the end. What is left over gets vacuumed before we go.

If anything gets marked or knocked, we would far rather you say so while we are standing there than find it after we have driven away. Almost everything is fixable in the moment and almost nothing is fixable by email a week later.

The handover

Before we leave, everything gets tested. The screen powers on, every source is connected and confirmed on the right input, the sound comes out of whatever it is meant to come out of, and the remote does what it should from where you actually sit.

We will show you what was done and where things are. If the mount moves, whether it tilts, swings or pulls out from the wall, you will be shown how far it travels and how it sits back. Most damage to a mounted television happens when somebody forces a movement the mount does not have.

Ask your questions at this point. What happens when we move house. Can this mount take a bigger screen later. How do I clean behind it. What do I do if something stops working. This is the part that costs nothing and saves the most.

Then we take the rubbish, confirm you are happy and go. A review afterwards genuinely matters to a small local business. And if something is not right, the first call should be to us rather than to the internet, because we would much rather fix it.