How to Fit the Slim Adjustable Wedge Mount (Installation Guide)

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.

What is included with the Tall and Slim adjustable doorbell wedge mount: the mount, adhesive pad, four small stainless screws, eight washers, four wall screws and four wall plugs Not included with the wedge mount: screwdrivers, the doorbell backplate and the doorbell itself

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.

Checking the doorbell backplate screw holes fall inside the 145 by 46 mm fixing area on the face of the wedge mount

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.

A drill bit against the face of the wedge mount with a warning not to drill it because drilling tears the internal grid

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.

Surface guide showing adhesive suits smooth uPVC, glass, glazed tile and painted metal, while brick, render, rough wood, flaky paint and textured cladding need screws

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.

Holding the wedge mount beside a doorbell cable to choose which side the cable will enter

Take out two of the four screws. Keep them somewhere safe — they go back in at the end.

Removing the two side screws from the wedge mount with a small Phillips screwdriver

Loosen the other two and open the mount flat. Loosen only — leave them in place so the two halves stay hinged together.

The wedge mount pivoted open flat after loosening the two remaining screws

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.

Cutting the two thin cable tabs out of the open wedge mount with a sharp knife while wearing gloves

Feed the cable in from the back and close it up. Refit both screws and tighten all four. Leave enough slack at the front to reach your doorbell's terminals comfortably.

A white doorbell cable routed through the wedge mount from the back and out through the front opening

6Clean both surfaces

Isopropyl alcohol is ideal. A vinegar-based window cleaner works too. What does not work is a household spray with wax or polish in it, or a wet wipe — both leave a film that the adhesive grips instead of the wall.

A spray bottle of 99.9 per cent isopropyl alcohol held against a uPVC door frame before fitting the mount

Clean the back of the mount as well as the wall, even though the mount is new. Then let both dry completely.

Spraying and wiping the back of the wedge mount and the door frame with a green microfibre cloth

7The pad goes on the back

The flat face marked BACK is the side that meets the wall.

The adhesive pad held next to the back of the wedge mount, which is marked BACK, showing the pad goes on the back and not the front

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.

Four steps peeling the yellow liner, pressing the pad onto the mount, peeling the red liner and pressing the mount to the wall for thirty 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.

A doorbell backplate screw hole that is wider than the screw head, so the screw head slips through without a washer The same doorbell backplate screw hole with a washer fitted under the screw head so the head stays in place

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.

Removing the backplate from a Google Nest doorbell beside the wedge mount fixed to the door frame

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.

Pressing and twisting a small Phillips screwdriver through the doorbell backplate to punch a screw hole in the face of the wedge mount

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.

Driving the small stainless screws through the doorbell backplate into the face of the wedge mount

Clip the doorbell onto its backplate. Wired doorbell? Connect the cable first.

Clipping a Google Nest doorbell onto its backplate on the fitted wedge mount

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.

Tightening one of the four screws on the wedge mount after setting the doorbell angle left or right

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.

Spraying WD-40 onto a flexible filling knife and starting to slide it behind the adhesive pad at the edge of the mount

Work your way around the pad rather than forcing the blade straight through the middle. Top up the WD-40 as you go.

Working a flexible filling knife slowly around the adhesive pad behind the wedge mount

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.

Easing the wedge mount away as the adhesive releases, then removing the leftover residue from the door frame

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.

Step-by-step instructions for screwing the wedge to the wall are on their way. In the meantime the video above walks through the fitting.