Each Mantel Shoppe Mantel is fully crated in plywood on all four sides to ensure it arrives safely. After receiving your crated mantel follow these steps to install your mantel.
Flip the crate on its side so that the bottom of the crate is exposed. All screws that secure the mantel to the crate are located here. All screws you see throughout the uncrating and installation process will need to be removed. A Square #2 drill bit will be ideal for the removal.
After the removal of all the screws from the underside of the crate, you will need to remove the top of the crate. All of our crates are secured with staples on all six sides so this will require a little effort to remove the top of the crate. A crow bar or similar shaped object such as the back of a claw hammer are ideal to pry into the creases in the top layer of plywood. Once you have the top popped off the easy part of the installation begins.
We have over 100 possible mantel configurations so each mantel is packaged a little different to maximize shipping efficiency. Most of the time the first thing you will see when you open the crate is the breast (the large upper part) of the mantel and two legs. Shelf style mantels without legs will be fully assembled and ready to install after removal from the crate.
For full mantels with legs, cut the strapping that secures the legs to the breast of the mantel and carefully remove the three pieces from the crate. Be careful not to scrape the mantel parts against each other after they have been unstrapped.
Remove the scribe molding from the back of the breast and sometimes the back of the legs. Once again, every screw you see needs to be removed from the mantel before installation. Do not attempt to install the mantel with any of the crating pieces attached to the mantel. Remove all screws.
After you have removed all screws, place the breast portion of the mantel upside down on its shelf. Make sure you have a smooth, clean surface to do this and do not slide the mantel while on its shelf because debris may scratch the surface.
Take the legs of the mantel and insert the appropriately assigned legs to each side of the mantel while it is upside down. The legs will fit so securely you may need to lightly tap on the feet of the mantel downward to the ground to firmly secure the legs to the breast.
Once the mantel legs are secured to the breast, look for the predrilled screw holes in the back of the mantel where the legs and breast meet and where the returns and breast meet. Take the small silver screws that shipped with the mantel and use them to secure the portions of the mantel together.
Once the mantel is assembled check out our videos below for different types of installation.
