How Much Does It Cost to Mount a TV in Auckland?
This One Was $120 and an Hour

The short answer for a straightforward job: one visit, about an hour, and a price that starts at our standard call-out of NZ$90 + GST for up to an hour. The job below came to $120 — a large screen, timber-framed wall, bracket already bought by the owner.

That is the honest range for most living rooms. What moves it up is not the television.

What Actually Changes the Price

What the wall is made of. Plasterboard over timber framing is the common case and the quickest. Brick, concrete or a steel-framed wall needs different fixings and takes longer. A wall with a cavity behind it, or one that turns out to be a wardrobe on the other side, changes the plan on the spot.

Where the studs are. The bracket has to land on framing. Studs sit where the builder put them, not where you want the television centred, so the bracket often has to be a fixed-arm or full-motion type chosen to bridge the gap. That is a five-minute conversation before anyone drills.

Whether the cables are hidden. Running the cable down the outside of the wall is included. Taking it inside the wall, or adding a power point behind the screen, is extra work and in the case of new wiring is an electrician's job, not ours.

The Part Behind the Plasterboard

A television on a bracket is a long lever. The weight is not hanging straight down the wall — it is pulling the top fixings out of it. Land the bracket on framing and that load goes into the timber. Land it on the lining and it is held by plasterboard anchors, which will hold for a while and then will not.

So the order of work is: find the studs, mark them, check the height against where people actually sit, fix the bracket, lift the screen on, level it, run the cable. Most of the hour is the first three.

What to Have Ready

The bracket, if you have already bought one — bring the box, the size rating matters. The television out of its carton or still in it, either is fine. And a thought about height: the middle of the screen roughly at eye level from the sofa is the usual answer, and it is easier to agree that before the holes go in than after.

Same Day, If the Day Is Still There

This one was a call in the afternoon and a mounted television that evening — on site within the hour of the call. Small jobs like this are the ones that fit into a day at short notice, so it is always worth asking rather than booking a week out.

One hour, $120 — bracket fixed to framing, screen levelled, cable run, and twelve months on the work.