TV mounting on metal stud and plywood

[Mithras]

Hi,
I'm going to help a friend who lives in a newly built apartment to mount a TV on a wall in front of a shaft.

The wall is 205cm wide and the TV has a full width of 123 cm, so there's not much room to adjust it to the sides. The mount is a device that can be "pulled out" from the wall. The only place it can fit is on the stud I found in the middle, but it's quite close above the electrical outlet.

See the attached image for the drawing of how the wall is reinforced.

At the same time, I have the following correspondence to rely on:

Behind this wall is a shaft, meaning no bathroom. The wall is 70 mm and that's as far as you should need to drill to mount a TV, which I assume will be in the middle of the wall. The rule of thumb is not to drill above an electrical outlet or light switch, as you won't hit any electricals. The picture below describes how the wall is reinforced.

The problem is that in the middle of the wall, there are 3 different outlets, so the rule of thumb must be broken if it needs to be mounted in the middle of the wall.

It's built with metal studs and the wall is reinforced with plywood between the metal studs. The plywood is placed where a TV is expected to be mounted, i.e., in the middle of the wall. Thus, a wall-mounted TV stand is not recommended.

She says it only has plywood in the middle, while the drawing seems to say the whole wall is reinforced this way?

Furthermore, I've used a stud finder and got varying widths on both cc and spacing. I found 5, 6, and 7 cm on the studs approximately.

Questions for those of you who know about this:

1) Is it "normal" or "okay" for the studs to be spaced differently than 45cm/60 cm on such a short wall? Or am I possibly measuring wrong?

2) How should I interpret this drawing regarding plywood, studs, etc.?

3) If it's only plywood in the middle, is that where the TV should go up, or should I ignore it because of the electrical outlets at the bottom in the middle? What role does the plywood between the metal studs play?

4) What's the best way to anchor the device in such a wall when you want to mount in a metal stud? Drill a hole, then self-drilling metal screws? Or screws directly? Or perhaps some other type of screw?

Thanks in advance!

 

[A-Man_08]

It is reinforced with plywood behind, just screw straight in.

 

[Mithras]

It is reinforced with plywood behind, just screw directly in.

Drill directly in anywhere? So there's no need to think about hitting the metal stud?

Which screw should be used then?

 

[A-Man_08]

If it's plywood behind, just screw into it through the drywall with wood screws. You can drill a smaller 2-3 mm hole until you're through and test the thickness with a paperclip that you bend into a small 90-degree hook. Insert it and then pull out until it catches on the last sheet, there you have the thickness of the wall. The first 13 mm is drywall, the plywood is probably at least as thick, so use wood screws that are at least 5 mm longer than the wall, including the TV mount.

 

[Mithras]

If there's plywood behind, just screw into it through the drywall with wood screws. You can drill a small 2-3 mm hole to test the thickness with a paperclip bent into a small 90-degree hook. Insert it and then pull back until it catches on the last layer, that'll give you the wall's thickness. The first 13 mm is drywall, and the plywood is probably at least as thick, so use wood screws that are at least 5 mm longer than the wall including the TV mount.

Fantastic answer, thank you!

Just to confirm;

This will hold a 42-46 inch LED TV with a small arm that extends outward?

 

[MathiasS]

Yes, use 6mm wood screws and pre-drill with 3mm if you want.

 

[A-Man_08]

You see what comes out if you drill a hole, first gypsum then particleboard before you're through.