How to hang a TV from the ceiling

Yes. Most flat screen TVs can hang from a ceiling, as long as you anchor into something solid: a wood joist, a concrete slab, a steel beam, or a metal channel like Unistrut. Unistrut is a U-shaped metal channel commonly used in construction. The TV does not hang from the drywall or from a drop-ceiling tile. It hangs from the structure above them.

You would choose a ceiling mount when a wall will not work. A TV over a kitchen island. A screen at the foot of a dental chair. A patio TV that needs to fold up out of the weather. A garage or gym display where every wall is already spoken for.

Our ceiling mounts are built from three parts that thread together. You pick each one for your job.

• A ceiling plate. This is the base that fastens to your ceiling. You match the plate to what is above your drywall: a flat wood-joist ceiling, a concrete slab, an angled or sloped ceiling, or a metal channel. Browse the 1-1/2 inch NPT ceiling plates.
• A 1-1/2 inch NPT pipe. This is the pole that sets your drop length, how far the TV hangs below the ceiling. It is also called an extension column, mast, drop pipe, or pole. Browse the pipes and extensions.
• A mount head. This is the bracket the TV bolts onto. Some are fixed, some tilt, some swivel, some fold down. Browse the mount heads for 1-1/2 inch pipe.

The whole system is built around one common part: 1-1/2 inch Schedule 40 NPT pipe. It is not proprietary. It is the same rigid pipe stocked at hardware stores, so couplers, extensions and fittings are easy to source. We cover the exact pipe size, threads and dimensions in our guide to the 1-1/2 inch pipe used with TV mounts.

The drop length is how far the TV hangs below the ceiling. You set it with the pipe.

Measure it yourself. Grab a tape measure. Measure from the ceiling down to where you want the top or the center of the TV to sit. That distance, in inches, is your target drop. Do not guess from a photo. Different rooms have very different ceiling heights, and a drop that looks right in someone else's space may hang the TV in your face or up out of view in yours.

Keep in mind: you can build a long drop by threading pipes together with a coupler, and you can trim or swap the pipe later if the height is not right. If you are between sizes, or the ceiling is very high, call us and we can work out the pipe length with you before you order.

One note on how we measure. On some mounts, like the dental mount below, "length" means the total drop from the ceiling down to the mount, not just the pipe. If a product page lists a length, check whether it is measuring the pipe alone or the whole assembly, and ask us if it is not clear.

The pipe and the mount head stay the same. What changes is the ceiling plate and how it anchors. Match the plate to what is really above your ceiling, not just what the surface looks like.

Wood joist ceiling

The most common case. You find the joist, then fasten a flat ceiling plate up into solid wood with lag screws. This is the default that most people need. Start with the flat ceiling mounts.

Concrete ceiling

A concrete slab is solid all the way across, so you have freedom on placement. You anchor a flat plate into the concrete with the right concrete anchors for your slab. A flat ceiling plate is the starting point here too. If you are drilling into concrete, call us and we can talk through the plate and anchors.

Angled, sloped or cathedral ceiling

Cathedral, vaulted, sloped, slanted or angled, no matter what you call it, the fix is an angled ceiling plate. It sits flush against the slope and still hangs the pipe straight down, so the TV ends up level. Browse the angled and cathedral ceiling mounts.

Unistrut, metal channel or steel beam

If you are mounting to Unistrut, a metal channel, or a steel beam, you use an adapter made for that structure instead of a wood-screw plate. See the Unistrut mounts, the I-beam and girder mounts, and the mounts that work with truss.

Start from what the TV needs to do.

• Dental or clinical, screen facing straight down. The Dental Operatory Ceiling TV Mount tilts 90 degrees so a reclined patient can look straight up at the screen. It configures on the page: you choose the ceiling plate (flat, angled, or Unistrut) and the drop.
• Patio, gazebo, garage, or anywhere you want the TV out of the way when it is off. The Pull Down Folding TV Ceiling Mount, 33FD001, fits TVs from 35 to 70 inches and VESA hole patterns up to 600 x 400 mm. It folds the TV up flat to the ceiling and, per the product page, extends only 9 inches down from the ceiling when retracted. Designed and made in the USA.
• Not sure yet, or you want to build the exact plate plus pipe plus head combination. Start in the TV ceiling mounts collection and filter by ceiling type, screen size and movement.

Do not overspend on a specialty mount if a plain flat plate, a length of pipe and a tilt head will do the job. If you tell us the TV, the ceiling and the height, we can point you at the right parts, or possibly a different solution.