How to Fit the Slim Adjustable Wedge Mount (Installation Guide)
Stick it on
Adhesive pad. No drill, no holes.
Open guide
Screw it on
Wall screws and plugs.
The adhesive pad is the quickest way to fit the mount, but it only gets one go at it. Read steps 1 to 4 before you peel anything — they take two minutes and they are the difference between a mount that stays up and one that ends up on the doorstep.
1Check the box
Everything you need to fit the mount is in the box apart from the tools. Lay it all out first so you are not hunting for a washer halfway through.
You will need two screwdrivers: a small one to punch the screw holes through the face of the mount, and a regular-sized one for the screws themselves. Your doorbell keeps its own backplate — we do not supply one.
2Check your doorbell fits
Hold your doorbell's backplate against the face of the mount before you go any further. The fixing area is 145 × 46 mm (5.7 × 1.82 in). If the backplate's screw holes land inside that rectangle you are fine. If they sit outside it, this mount is too small for your doorbell — send it back rather than forcing it.
3Punch the holes, never drill them
The mount is designed with a square-cell grid inside. A drill bit tears straight through that grid and leaves a hole with nothing for the screw to bite into, so the screw spins forever. A screwdriver tip pressed and twisted pushes the plastic aside instead and leaves the grid intact.
4Check your surface takes adhesive
This is the step people skip and regret. The adhesive pad is strong, but it can only hold on to what it is stuck to. On smooth uPVC, glass, glazed tile or sound painted metal it is excellent. On brick, render, rough timber, textured cladding or flaky paint it will pull the surface off the wall and take your doorbell with it.
We do not recommend sticking the mount to painted walls at all. If you have no other option, test first: press masking tape firmly onto the spot and pull it off sharply. Any paint on the tape means screws, not adhesive.
5Wired doorbell? Sort the cable first
Skip this step entirely if your doorbell runs on a battery. If yours is wired, do all of it now — once the pad is on the wall you cannot open the mount up to route a cable through it.
Pick the side the cable comes in on. Hold the mount where it is going and see which way your cable naturally runs.
Take out two of the four screws. Keep them somewhere safe — they go back in at the end.
Loosen the other two and open the mount up. Loosen only — leave them in place so the two halves stay hinged together. It will not lie completely flat; there is still an angle at full opening, and that is normal.
Cut out the two thin tabs. They are there so the mount arrives rigid; cut them and you have your cable channel. Gloves on, sharp blade, cut away from yourself.
Feed the cable through the cut opening and close it up. The cable goes in through the gap the tabs left — from above or from below, depending which side you cut — not through the back. Refit both screws, finger-tight for now. Leave enough slack at the front to reach your doorbell's terminals comfortably.
6Clean both surfaces
Isopropyl alcohol is ideal — it is sold as surgical spirit in the UK and as rubbing alcohol in most other countries, and an alcohol wipe does the same job. A vinegar-based window cleaner works too. What does not work is a household spray with wax or polish in it, or a baby wipe — both leave a film that the adhesive grips instead of the wall.
Clean the back of the mount as well as the wall, even though the mount is new. Then let both dry completely.
7The pad goes on the back
The flat face marked BACK is the side that meets the wall.
8Peel, press, then leave it alone
Yellow liner off, pad onto the back of the mount, press. Red liner off, mount onto the wall, and push hard for a full 30 seconds.
Now wait 24 hours before you hang anything on it. The bond keeps building over that first day, and loading it early is the most common reason an adhesive mount lets go later. Fit the doorbell tomorrow.
9Washers — only if you need them
Some doorbell backplates have screw holes wider than our screw heads. If yours do, the head pulls straight through and nothing holds. Check by resting a screw in the hole: if it drops through, add a washer under the head. If it sits on the plate, leave the washers in the bag.
10Fit the doorbell
Take the backplate off your doorbell. How it comes off depends on the make — most either unclip or release with the pin that came with the doorbell.
Hold the backplate on the mount and punch through every hole. Press and twist a small Phillips screwdriver through each one. If the tip skates instead of biting, you have landed on a grid wall — move a couple of millimetres and try again.
Screw the backplate down. Start every screw before you tighten any of them, then work round evenly. Snug is enough — keep going and you will strip the plastic.
Clip the doorbell onto its backplate. Wired doorbell? Connect the cable first.
Set the angle, then lock it. Slacken the four screws on the mount, turn the face left or right until the camera covers the path rather than your neighbour's garden, then tighten all four. Check the live view on your phone before you do the final nip up — it is far easier than redoing it later.
11Taking it off again
Moving house, or got the position wrong? Do not lever the mount off — on uPVC that cracks the frame. Take the doorbell off first, then work the pad loose.
Spray WD-40 onto a flexible filling knife and slide the blade in behind the pad at one edge. Slowly.
Work your way around the pad rather than forcing the blade straight through the middle. Top up the WD-40 as you go.
Support the mount as the last of the adhesive lets go so it does not drop. Roll the leftover residue off with your thumb, then wipe the surface down with isopropyl alcohol, surgical spirit or rubbing alcohol.
The pad is single-use. If you are refitting the mount somewhere else you will need a fresh piece of 3M VHB — or use the wall screws instead.
Stuck on any of it? Email us at info@marsoutpost.net with a photo of your door frame and we will tell you which option to use.
Screws are the stronger option, and the only one for brick, render, timber, textured cladding or anything painted. There is no curing time and nothing to wait for — but you get one set of holes in the wall, so read steps 2 and 4 before you pick up the drill.
1Check the box
Everything you need to fit the mount is in the box apart from the tools. Lay it all out first so you are not hunting for a washer halfway through.
You will need two screwdrivers: a small one to punch the screw holes through the face of the mount, and a regular-sized one for the screws themselves. Fitting from scratch rather than replacing a doorbell? You will also need a drill, and a bit to match the red wall plugs in the bag. Your doorbell keeps its own backplate — we do not supply one.
2Check your doorbell fits
Hold your doorbell’s backplate against the face of the mount before you go any further. The fixing area is 145 × 46 mm (5.7 × 1.82 in). If the backplate’s screw holes land inside that rectangle you are fine. If they sit outside it, this mount is too small for your doorbell — send it back rather than forcing it.
3Punch the holes, never drill them
The mount is designed with a square-cell grid inside. A drill bit tears straight through that grid and leaves a hole with nothing for the screw to bite into, so the screw spins forever. A screwdriver tip pressed and twisted pushes the plastic aside instead and leaves the grid intact.
This applies to the face of the mount only — the holes your doorbell’s backplate screws into. The two slots that fix the mount to the wall are already moulded into the back. Those you never touch with a drill either.
4Which job are you doing?
Screws work on every surface below, so there is nothing to test. The only question is whether there are already holes in the wall.
Doorbell already on the wall, and its holes line up with the two slots in the back of the mount? Screw straight into them. No drilling. Go to Route A.
Bare wall, or the old holes do not line up? Mark, drill, plug. Fifteen minutes. Go to Route B.
5Wired doorbell? Sort the cable first
Skip this step if your doorbell runs on a battery, or if the cable comes through the wall straight out behind the doorbell — there is a cutout in the back of the mount and the cable passes through it. Either way, go to step 6.
Cable runs across the face of the wall and enters from one side? You need a channel for it, and that means cutting the two tabs. Do it now — it is far easier with the mount in your hands than once it is on the wall, and the mount has to be open for the next step anyway.
Pick the side the cable comes in on. Hold the mount where it is going and see which way your cable naturally runs.
Take out two of the four screws. Keep them somewhere safe — they go back in at the end.
Loosen the other two and open the mount up. Loosen only — leave them in place so the two halves stay hinged together. It will not lie completely flat; there is still an angle at full opening, and that is normal.
Cut out the two thin tabs. They are there so the mount arrives rigid; cut them and you have your cable channel. Gloves on, sharp blade, cut away from yourself.
Feed the cable through the cut opening and close it up. The cable goes in through the gap the tabs left — from above or from below, depending which side you cut — not through the back. Refit both screws, finger-tight for now. Leave enough slack at the front to reach your doorbell’s terminals comfortably.
6Washers — only if you need them
Some doorbell backplates have screw holes wider than our screw heads. If yours do, the head pulls straight through and nothing holds. Check by resting a screw in the hole: if it drops through, add a washer under the head. If it sits on the plate, leave the washers in the bag. Eight in the bag, two sizes.
Route A — there is already a doorbell on the wall
You are taking the old doorbell off, putting the mount on the holes it leaves behind, and putting the doorbell back on the mount.
Switch the power off. At the fuse box or the transformer, not at the doorbell. Test that the chime is dead before you touch a terminal.
Take the old doorbell off. Doorbell off its backplate, wires off the terminals, then both wall screws out so the backplate comes away from the wall. Keep those two screws safe — they will often go straight back in to hold the wedge mount. If they turn out to be too short once the mount is in the way, use the wall screws from the bag.
Open the mount. Two screws out, two loosened. Keep the two you removed somewhere safe — they go back in once the mount is on the wall.
Swing it open. The front section hinges away on the two screws you left in place.
Feed the wires through. Through the cutout in the back. Leave enough slack at the front to reach the doorbell terminals comfortably. Battery doorbell? Ignore the wires in this photo — everything else is the same.
Align the fixing slots. Hold the mount flat to the wall and line the two slots in its back up with the holes the old backplate left. The slots give you a few millimetres of play either way.
Secure the mount. Drive the old screws back through the slots into the same holes. If they are too short now they have the thickness of the mount to get through, or the hole feels loose, use the wall screws and plugs from the bag. Snug, not tight — you are screwing through plastic.
Close the mount. Refit the two screws you took out. Leave all four finger-tight for now — they only get tightened at the end, once the doorbell is on and the angle is set.
Punch the fixing holes. Hold the backplate centred and square on the face of the mount, then press and twist a small screwdriver through each hole. Punch every hole before you drive any screw. If the tip skates instead of biting, you have landed on a grid wall — move a couple of millimetres and try again.
Attach the backplate. Small stainless steel screws from the bag. Start every screw before you tighten any of them, then work round evenly. Snug is enough — keep going and you will strip the plastic.
Reconnect the wires. Onto the doorbell terminals, then clip the doorbell on and put the power back on. Battery doorbell? Just clip it on.
Set the angle, then lock it. Slacken the four screws on the mount, turn the face left or right until the camera covers the path rather than your neighbour’s garden, then tighten all four. Check the live view on your phone before the final nip up — it is far easier than redoing it later.
Route B — new installation
Nothing on the wall yet, or the old holes do not line up. You are marking, drilling and plugging two fresh holes.
Back faces the wall. Check the BACK marking on the mount before you mark anything — fitted the wrong way round it angles the camera into the wall. Wired doorbell and no cable at the spot yet? Get the cable there first, and switch the power off before you connect anything.
Open the mount. Two screws out, two loosened, then open it as far as it goes — it will not lie completely flat, there is still an angle at full opening. Keep the two you removed.
Mark the wall. Hold the open mount where it is going and mark through both fixing slots. A level tells you about the wedge, not about the camera — the wedge sits straight, the view gets set at the end.
Drill the wall holes. On brick or render, masonry bit — and match the bit to the red plug, not to the screw. On timber you do not need plugs at all: drive the screws straight in, or drill a small pilot hole first with a wood bit.
Insert the wall plugs. Brick and render only — skip this on timber. Push the supplied red plugs in until they sit flush.
Fix the mount to the wall. Wall screws from the bag, through the slots into the plugs. Snug, not tight.
Close it, punch, and fit the backplate. Refit the two screws, all four left finger-tight for now — they get tightened at the end, once the angle is set. Align the backplate and punch every hole with a small screwdriver before you drive any screw. Then the small stainless steel screws — start them all, tighten evenly, snug is enough. Wired? Connect the wires before you clip the doorbell on, and put the power back on afterwards.
Set the angle, then lock it. Slacken the four screws, turn the face left or right until the camera covers the path rather than your neighbour’s garden, then tighten all four. Check the live view on your phone before the final nip up.
Stuck on any of it? Email us at info@marsoutpost.net with a photo of your door frame and we will tell you which option to use.