Mounting a TV Above the Fireplace: What Nobody Warns You About

It's the most requested mounting location I get, and the one I most often ask people to think about for another day. Not because it can't be done — it usually can — but because the holes are permanent and the regret is common.

Three things worth knowing first.

1. The height, and what it does to your neck

The comfortable position for a screen is roughly eye level when you're seated. For most people on most couches, that puts the center of the screen somewhere around 42 to 48 inches off the floor.

A mantel sits at about 48 inches. A TV above it puts the center of the screen at 60 inches or higher — a foot or more above where your eyes are.

For a football game or something on in the background, fine. For a two-hour movie, you'll feel it. People describe it as a stiff neck they can't account for, and it takes a while before anyone connects it to the TV.

Before you decide: sit where you actually watch from and have someone hold a piece of cardboard at the height the screen would be. Two minutes of that tells you more than any measurement.

2. Heat, and whether it's actually a problem

It depends entirely on the fireplace, and the answer ranges from "no issue at all" to "don't."

A gas fireplace with a mantel that projects out is usually fine. The mantel deflects rising heat outward, and surface temperatures above it often stay in a range electronics tolerate.

A wood-burning fireplace runs hotter and less predictably. A flush wall with no mantel is the worst case — nothing interrupts the heat rising directly up the face of the wall.

Most TV manufacturers specify a maximum ambient operating temperature, commonly around 95°F. That's easy to exceed a few inches above an active firebox with no mantel.

Worth doing before you decide: run the fireplace as you normally would for an hour, then tape a thermometer to the wall where the TV would sit. That gives you a real number instead of a guess.

3. What's behind the wall

Fireplace walls are the least predictable surfaces in a house.

Brick or stone means masonry anchors, drilled into the brick face rather than the mortar joints, with the right bit and dust control. Very doable, but it's not a drywall job.

Some fireplace walls are drywall over a framed chase, and the framing often doesn't sit at standard spacing — it follows the chimney structure. Studs turn up in unhelpful places.

And an increasing number of newer builds have a recessed box and prewired outlet above the fireplace, put there for exactly this purpose. If you have one, most of the difficulty is already solved.

Cable management, since it's usually the second question

With masonry, running cable inside the wall isn't practical. The options are a surface raceway painted to match, or running down to a recessed outlet if the chase allows it.

Above a framed chase there's often more room to work with. Either way it's worth deciding before mounting rather than after, because the tidy solution sometimes changes where the mount goes.

When it genuinely works well

It's a good call when the fireplace is gas with a projecting mantel, when the room only really has one wall that makes sense, when seating is far enough back that the viewing angle flattens out, or when the TV is a secondary screen rather than where you watch movies.

It's a poor call above a wood-burning fireplace with no mantel, in a small room where the couch is close, or when it's the main screen for long viewing.

The alternative worth considering

A pull-down or articulating mount lets the screen sit high when not in use and drop to eye level when it is. They cost more and they're heavier, which makes proper anchoring more important — but they solve the actual problem rather than working around it.

If the fireplace wall is the only option and you watch a lot of TV, that's usually the honest answer.

Whatever you decide, decide before the holes go in. Masonry holes don't patch out.

— Kate with EasyFix Handyman Services

Common Questions

Is it bad to mount a TV above a fireplace?

It depends on the fireplace and the room. A gas fireplace with a projecting mantel and seating far enough back is often fine. A wood-burning fireplace with no mantel, in a small room where the couch is close, is the case worth reconsidering.

Will the heat from a fireplace damage a TV?

It can, depending on the setup. Most manufacturers specify a maximum ambient operating temperature around 95°F, which is straightforward to exceed above an active firebox with nothing deflecting the rising heat.

How do you mount a TV on a brick fireplace?

With masonry anchors drilled into the brick face rather than the mortar joints, using the correct bit and dust control. It's very doable, but it isn't a drywall job and the holes don't patch out afterward.

What's the alternative to mounting above a fireplace?

A pull-down or articulating mount, which lets the screen sit high when it's off and drop to eye level for watching. It costs more and makes proper anchoring more important, but it solves the viewing-height problem rather than working around it.