I know a few people on here have removed builder's mirrors from walls in their bathrooms, and I was wondering how much work it took to get the mirror off? Last night we tried running picture wire up and down behind the powder room mirror which is destined for removal and reuse elsewhere, and nothing is budging. We're pretty sure the mirror is being held on with a glob of glue in the middle (the space underneath the sides is all "open), I imagine it's liquid nails-type stuff and I'm wondering if there is a different way to go about removing it that doesn't involve destroying either the mirror or the wall?
Smoodgie? KarenM? I think you've both done this...any advice from the trenches?
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If you decide to remove it at a later date remember to wear eye protection and hard sole shoes just in case. There nothing worse than standing there with all the broken glass and being in slippers or bare feet.
Thanks to all for the advice, but mirror smashing is on hold for the moment...the whole reason for removing the mirror ASAP was to have the electrician (who is coming today) install sconces to either side of the mirror. However, given how hubby apparently feels about this mirror and a variety of other factors, we decided to install the new lights above the mirror and we'll switch the mirror out at a later date, when we find one we both like.
I think I'll use the originally-intended mirror on a different wall in there anyway, so it's no real loss, just a little less work for us this week. Everything else in the powder/laundry room should be done by the weekend (painting is underway), I'll post pics in a few days.
YOu can use pretty much any tape. All you are doing is trying to keep glass from flying or falling when it breaks and the tape holds it from doing that. You may even get lucky and find there is a backing on the mirror that is like duct tape. That also holds it.
I took down one large mirror and that backing held it so well I just kept breaking and basically folding the mirror.
BTW, it helps to have a box handy so you can just throw the broken bits in and then take it directly to the garbage. Those little shards get everywhere if you don't contain them right away.
Yup, I am doomed. Hubby is currently looking for tape to use on the mirror - would painter's tape be okay or does it need to be super-sticky stuff?
Poor guy, he's tried 3 different widths of wire, a metal ruler, hairdryer to soften the glue and just this afternoon he was cursing a blue streak until he decided that there was no way to get it off the wall other than smashing it. And to boot, this is a direct quote - "all this for a mirror I don't like".
Apparently he doesn't like the mirror I'm planning to put up in place of this one...oh well, it's the laundry room, he never goes in there anyway :p , he'll live with it.
Will report back when we have smashed it....
this was bugging me so I called a glass shop and they said if the wire won't free the mirror there are no options. You have to break the mirror. So tape it up, criss crossing the tape so you won't have piece flying and throw salt over your shoulder.
Eek, we're really hoping not to have to break the mirror, since we'd like to frame it and use it elsewhere. Hubby kept working on it last night until he broke the picture wire and it became too short to use. Mirror has not budged, but he did pull out a bit of silicone from the back, so I would assume that it's a mix of the hard glue and silicone that is holding it on. Hopefully I'll be able to update that we got it off by Monday, *fingers crossed*...
Some people wouldn't do what you did because of their belief that if you break a mirror you'll have 7 years of bad luck.......
I don't believe in that stuff, but it's kind of scary having all that glass falling and breaking....hope it wasn't so in your case.
DH taped the mirror like mad and broke it in places and peeled the pieces off. The mirror is flushed on all 4 sides and there was no way we could have run any wire behind the mirror. So breaking and peeling were the only course of action.
He said it was easier than he had feared.
When I took a mirror off it had both the flexible type adhesive that was easy to cut and a couple of globs of hard stuff. They were probably 2" in diameter at most. Anyway that stuff was hard as a rock and is used to hold the mirror while the flexible stuff sets or something. maybe your installer just used one big glob of it.
Anyway, you have to keep trying things to dig into it or to cut it off the wall. With mine, once the flexible stuff was freed a light pull got the mirror off but the globs were firmly attached so they brought a bit of wall with them (easy to fix)
Have you called a glass place to see if they can tell you what might free the mirror?
It wasn't that hard, but you have to be a bit persistent. DH used a metal ruler too, it was strong and flexible and really cut into the adhesive.
Hmm...seems our builder did quite a good job withe the glue, since hubby was running a picture wire up and down behind the mirror last night and was having a very, very difficult time getting anywhere.
I read something today about sliding a saw back there, but I'm hoping it doens't come to that.
My hubby said:
[I]
because the wall was a bit curved, it wasn't all that solidly stuck
to it... I think I used an aluminum yardstick to cut what tape was
holding it.[/I]
Not sure how helpful that is!!
I'll ask my hubby how he pulled ours off -- I suspect that there was a bit of brute force involved!! I think no matter how careful you are, you're likely to pull off a bit of the drywall. Probably just the paper layer, which is easy enough to fix. In our case, there was actually a wave in the wall that my hubby filled with layer after layer of polyfil to flatten it out.
We just removed a builder's bathroom mirror and it was as easy as pie....DH did it with a metal ruler and he had to use a little bit of strength to get the clue off the wall.....the mirror is usually not all glued, just some blobs on each side of the mirror, big blobs....no damage done to the walls either.
Good luck in removing yours.