Televisions aren’t just for the living room or den anymore. In this piece, HAVPRO owner Ryan Beaugureau tells us a few of the most popular rooms in the home where people are asking to have their flat panel televisions installed these days.
Flat screen televisions can really be installed anywhere in the home, and the kitchen and bathrooms are no exception. In fact, a number of TV manufacturers even make waterproof televisions for just this purpose.
As flat screen televisions have come down in price, more and more people have started installing TVs of all sizes in their bathrooms, kitchens, and elsewhere in the home. While in the past people might have installed small TVs in their bathroom, homeowners now are asking for the full spectrum—from small flat screens to large ones.
A lot of people have bar areas right next to their kitchens, and flat screen TVs go great in these areas, too. In my own home, I have a television in my bar area that is hooked up to a cantilever wall mount, which allows me to turn the TV toward the kitchen or toward the bar area, depending on what room I am using at that particular time.
Not only is the TV important when you start looking into setups like this, but the mount that you use is important as well. Although flat mounts are generally the cheapest option, the cantilever mounts are also great because they allow you to move a TV so that it serves two rooms instead of one.
It is common for people to ask to have televisions installed in their bathrooms now, too. Most people aren’t necessarily asking to have a TV installed right in their shower or in the bathtub area per se, but if someone was willing to spend the money for that setup then we could definitely do that for him.
Having a TV installed right over a bathtub would probably cost a bit more money than having one installed in a TV or bar area, for example, just because of the moisture issue. In a room like the bathroom, we would probably be more likely to install a waterproof TV, and those are going to be a bit more expensive.
But like I said, I can install those waterproof TV models pretty much anywhere, and I can even put them in the shower for a homeowner if that’s what he wanted. I would just want the homeowner to understand beforehand that a project like installing a TV in a shower would cost quite a bit more than other TV installations.
If you are a person who is interested in getting a TV installed in a less common area, such as a bathroom or a kitchen, then that is a time when I would definitely recommend calling a home electronics installer for advice even if you haven’t ever worked with an installer before. Companies like HAVPRO can advise homeowners as to what types of TVs are going to work best in uncommon settings, such as high-moisture areas like bathrooms, along with advice on the best spot for the mounting system is going to be within that environment.
The same goes for televisions that people want to install by their pools or on their private patios. Even if you don’t have a covered patio where the TV can be installed, I can still hook up a television outside near a homeowner’s pool or anywhere like that.
For people who want TVs installed outdoors, especially near a pool, there are specialty TV models that we will usually need to buy, and the cost for these special TV models is going to be much higher than the cost for a regular flat screen TV that you would use in a typically living room or den. In fact, I would estimate that the average client who is installing a TV alongside his pool will be paying about four times more for his TV than a person who’s buying a flat screen for a regular indoor setup.
The good news is that there are waterproof televisions that we can use in bathrooms, kitchens, and even outdoor patios and pools. They are available, and a number of models are out there on the market for consumers these days.
On the other hand, it is not 100% necessary for everyone who installs a TV in a nontraditional setting to buy a waterproof model. Homeowners and the installers they are working with need to take a good look at where this system is being set up, because not all rooms are created equally. I personally have installed more than 200 televisions on patios, and not one of the televisions I have installed has been a waterproof model. So that is not entirely necessary, especially if you have a patio that is covered with some type of roof.
These days, flat screen televisions don’t have to be limited to the living room or den. If a homeowner has a place to mount a device, then there is a good chance myself or another installer can put it up in a professional-looking way.
