Wall mounting TV on wall with air intake

[homie27]

Hi all, I have a wall between my family room and dining room. that wall has two air intakes (I think that's what you call it. its the wide vent on the bottom of the wall with no ducts and I think its for cool air intake?). they are side by side, but one is in the family room and the other is in the dining room. I want to wall mount a TV right on that wall on the family room side. I know I can scan for wall studs, but do they generally leave all wall studs from top to bottom along that wall if they are putting two air intakes and not load bearing?

[GregS]

Studs are same spacing, usually 16"oc. If the air-return is double wide it just spans over the stud in the middle.
It may be load bearing, but that shouldn't change anything.

[homie27]

thanks Greg, but what do you mean by "spans over the stud in the middle"?

[Mark & Lynda]

Cold air returns are between two studs 16" apart. Greg means if the two cold air returns are side by side they occupy two stud cavities thereby using 3 studs. One on each end and one in the middle.

Yes, you can mount the TV on that wall. Cold air returns on the main floor are near the floor. You're mounting the TV above the returns. Yes, the studs run from floor to ceiling.

[homie27]

Thanks Mark. But before they put up the drywall or when the vents were removed, I remember thinking to myself that the wall was different than other walls and I may have been thinking that I won't be able to mount a TV on the wall. But I don't remember why. That's why I asked this question. Also because both sides of the wall had furniture and I didn't want to remove it to see if there full studs there. But when the time comes, I will remove the furniture and make sure.

[Halton Home Inspector]

Load bearing or not - TV's can be mounted on any wall as long as the bracket is secured to the studs. The air-return is not a problem as long as the TV does not cover it.

[GregS]

Air return does become and issue if you are running wiring in the walls. You will generally want to seal the entry points.

[homie27]

back on this issue. as I said in the original post, there is a wall between my family room and dining room and both rooms have a cold air return on this wall. is the air in this wall travelling up or down? There wall on the top floor above the wall on the main floor, but there is no cold air return. and before I had my basement finished, I did notice there is metal in the ceiling covering this cold air return on the main floor. so is the air in that cold air return traveling downwards?

[homie27]

update: I removed both vents and on both sides of the wall there are horizontal 2x4s between each wall stud above both vents. so I guess the air is moving downwards. so I guess that means above those vents there is no air movement so I technically don't really have to seal the entry points of the wires? I will put a plastic box though to make it look neater and to protect the edge of the drywall.

[GregS]

A cold air return, returns the air to the air handling unit in the basement. It would be going down if this air return is on the main floor above the basement.