In detail
What install day looks like over a fireplace
We start by covering the hearth and mantel, then confirm the firebox type and mantel depth against the height you want. The bracket outline goes on the wall in painter’s tape first so you can sit on the couch and approve the position before anything is drilled. Once the height is settled, the holes are drilled with dust extraction running, anchors are set and torque-checked, and the bracket is leveled across its full width rather than at one end.
The TV goes up next, then the wiring. If the framing beside the fireplace allows it, power and signal are fished through drywall to a nearby outlet; on a full-masonry face we run a low-profile channel instead. We finish by powering everything on, checking the picture from seating, and vacuuming the hearth.
When over-fireplace is, and is not, the right call
Put a gas insert under a mantel that stands proud of the wall and the problem mostly solves itself. The shelf throws the rising heat forward toward the seating, so the panel above it runs cooler than most people expect. A sealed electric insert is easier still. We hang TVs over both every week without a second thought.
A wood-burning firebox that is open to the room, with nothing projecting above it to break the heat, is a different animal. Heat climbs the face of the wall and sits against the back of the panel for hours. In that situation we will suggest a mantel shelf to deflect it, a pull-down mount that drops the screen to eye level when in use, or a different wall. Turning down a mount that would cook a TV is part of the service, not a failure of it.
Problems we get called to fix
The most common rescue is a bracket that was screwed into mortar joints and has started to loosen. Mortar is the softest material in the wall, and an anchor there can hold for months before it starts to walk. We pull it, fill the old holes, and re-anchor into the brick or stone itself.
Second is a TV hung too high because the installer matched the mantel rather than the room. We rework the position from the actual seating distance. Third is cabling stapled up the face of the stone or draped over the mantel; that gets rerouted into a proper channel or through adjacent drywall so the finished wall looks intentional.