TV mounting, appliances and blinds: what to expect from an installer

The single biggest factor in any wall mount is what the bracket screws into. On a standard Gyprock (plasterboard) wall, the screws have to hit the timber or steel studs behind the sheet, or use cavity fixings rated for the load. Plasterboard on its own will not hold a television. A fixer finds the studs with a detector, marks them, and sets the bracket to line up, which is why your TV sometimes ends up a little off-centre from where you pictured it.

Brick, double-brick and concrete are a different job. They hold weight easily but need masonry drill bits and proper anchors, which takes longer and adds cost. Mounting onto a hard masonry surface typically adds roughly $40 to $80 over the same job on plasterboard, per industry price breakdowns. If you're not sure what your wall is, a knock test helps: plasterboard sounds hollow, brick and concrete sound solid.

For the mount itself, national pricing puts TV wall mounting at $50 to $300 with a median around $180 (Airtasker, 2025 data). Bigger screens and full-motion brackets sit at the top of that; a small fixed-bracket TV on a stud wall sits at the bottom. Brisbane labour-only figures of $100 to $120 are the closest Queensland proxy, as there isn't a Gold-Coast-specific line.

There are two ways to deal with the tangle of cords under a wall-mounted TV. The cheaper, tidy option is surface trunking: a slim plastic raceway stuck to the wall that the cables run through. It's quick, it's reversible, and you can paint it to match. The other option is running the cables inside the wall so nothing shows at all.

Here's the catch most people don't know. It is against the wiring rules in Australia to run a standard TV power cord, the flexible cable with the plug on it, inside a wall cavity. Flexible cords aren't rated for fixed in-wall wiring. The compliant way to get power behind the TV with nothing showing is a recessed power point installed behind the screen by a licensed electrician. Low-voltage cables like HDMI and data can be run in-wall by a non-electrician; mains power cannot.

So a fully hidden setup is two jobs: the installer mounts the TV and runs the data cables, and a licensed sparkie fits the recessed point. For that recessed point, expect materials of roughly $72 to $130 and electrician labour around $80 to $132 an hour (Localsearch). It's worth knowing before you ask for a clean wall, because the tidiest finish has a licensed trade in it.

In Queensland, the Electrical Safety Act 2002 says all electrical work must be done by a licensed electrician. Doing your own mains electrical work is illegal, full stop. The list of what a homeowner can legally do is short: change a lightbulb, plug in an appliance, reset a tripped safety switch, and fit a battery (non-hardwired) smoke alarm. That's about it.

This matters for installs because hard-wired gear, such as some ovens and cooktops, rangehoods, a recessed TV point, and mains-wired motorised blinds, is legal to buy but not legal to wire yourself. The connection has to be a licensed electrician's work even if you've mounted everything else.

The penalties are not trivial. Unlicensed electrical work in Queensland carries fines up to $40,000 for an individual, rising much higher where it puts someone at risk of death or serious injury. Just as important for a homeowner: an insurer can refuse a claim if illegal DIY electrical work caused a fire. Gold Coast and Queensland electrician rates run around $100 an hour, with a call-out fee usually $80 to $150 that often covers the first 15 to 30 minutes (t42electrical, service.com.au).

Appliance installs cover a wide range. General appliance installation runs about $70 to $500 depending on the unit, with labour alone often $100 to $250 and most jobs taking one to three hours (servicetasker, Airtasker). A dishwasher is typically $100 to $200; a cooktop $120 to $500; an oven from around $286 for a straightforward electric unit; a rangehood $200 to $500 standard, more if ducting and extra electrical are involved.

A dishwasher install is also where plumbing rules can apply. Connecting a hose to an existing tap is usually fine for a homeowner, but any work on the water supply or drainage is regulated plumbing work that needs a licensed plumber. If a fit-out touches a wet area or bathroom, note that waterproofing is its own QBCC-licensed trade: wet-area waterproofing during building work must be done by a licensed waterproofer, not a general fixer.

Blinds are mostly straightforward. Per-window install labour typically runs $80 to $150 for standard rollers, venetians and verticals, with whole jobs varying widely by size and fabric (servicetasker, Airtasker). The one wrinkle: mains-wired motorised blinds need a licensed electrician for the connection, the same as the TV point. Battery and plug-in motors don't, so if you want motorisation without a sparkie, choose a battery model.

A common worry is whether a one-off install needs a builder's licence. In Queensland a QBCC licence is required for building work where the total value, that is labour plus materials plus GST regardless of who buys the materials, is over $3,300 (QBCC). Most single TV, appliance or blind jobs fall well under that, so they don't themselves require a QBCC builder's licence.

The thing to keep clear is that the $3,300 rule is separate from trade licensing. Some work needs the right licensed trade regardless of value, no matter how small or cheap the job is: electrical work needs a licensed electrician, and plumbing, drainage and gas fitting need the right plumbing licence. Those are occupational licences, not the building-work threshold. So a $250 oven hook-up doesn't need a builder's licence, but the electrical connection still has to be a licensed sparkie.

If your install is part of a bigger renovation that tips over $3,300 in total, the licensing and home-warranty picture changes, and that's worth checking before work starts.

When you call or message us about an install, you're dealing with one contact. If the job is a straightforward mount or fit, it gets done. If it needs a licensed electrician for a recessed point or a hard-wired appliance, or a plumber for a water connection, we bring in a vetted, licensed specialist from our network, manage it on site, and send you one itemised invoice.

That's the reason the legal points above matter to us and not just to you: getting the licensed parts right is what stops a tidy install becoming an insurance headache later. We work Coomera to Kingscliff, Monday to Saturday, 7:30am to 4:30pm.

Quotes are free and fixed-price. Send a photo of the wall and the gear if you've got one, and we can give you a clear price and tell you up front whether a licensed trade needs to be part of it.