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    • #11163
      Jim Volf
      Guest

      I have a large bathroom mirror that I need to take down, but it seems to be glued to the wall. It is also
      held by a bracket on the bottom, but the nail or screw to the bracket is behind the mirror.

      How do I get this thing down without smashing it?

    • #77215
      HC Kimball
      Guest

      Try taking a piece of long thin strong wire, stretch it tight and use it as a saw to sever the glue adhesive. It was probably applied in spots, not all over the back. Of course, you’ll need room to work the wire from side to side and that isn’t always available. I’ve seen a guy do this to get mirror off but never tried it myself.

    • #77219
      Bruce M
      Guest

      Hi Jim

      HC Kimball offers a unique approach and one I haven’t tried.

      In the two or so mirror I have removed……

      The first one I worked an old handsaw behind the mirror, sawing away the spot adhesive (actually, it wound up being the paper on the drywall)….but I could only get 24″ into the mirror. Subsequent prying led to the mirror breaking into a million little pieces!

      The second mirror I was only indirectly involved with (my brother actually did the work). He got about 6 or so plumber’s helpers (those red rubber toilet plungers) and using just water to seal the rubber to the mirror, placed them equidistant around the mirror then had 6 guys pull out at once. Slowly, the mirror came off…..but they sure looked funny doing it! (I was in another room watching and laughing 🙂 But seriously, if you try this, cover all body parts (including gloves) and use eye protection.

      Hope this helps

      Bruce M

    • #77301
      Brenda Tabe
      Guest

      We have 2 bathrooms and both of them ‘had’ a mirror glued to the drywall. The biggest one was about 7 feet wide and 4-5 feet tall. The glue was like a black thick
      tar. My boyfriend was able to pry them both off by forcing the mirror to move up and down with just his hands (he never pulled away from the wall, just up and down starting at one side and working towards the other).

      I was terrified as I watched, but I realized later that the process did not invove breaking the glue, but rather ripping the outer paper off the drywall. (the drywall was
      easy to fix up with drywall compound).

      The big mirror was completely off the wall in one piece, but as soon as it was off, he was unable to lower the mirror slowly enough to the counter (since he was still standing to the one side), so a small corner broke as it hit the counter.

      If we were to do that again, I think we would avoid the breakage if we just had a thick sponge on the counter to cushion the fall. ( i.e. I wouldn’t recommend that someone stand there to catch the mirror – just in case.)

    • #148649
      Meredith
      Guest

      How about this approach for removing a mirror? I need to remove my mirror, too. I wondered if one might apply duct tape on the mirror’s surface by running the tape from all 4 corners diagonally across to opposing corners. Then, edge to edge, run (lots of) horizontal bands of tape across the mirror and vertical bands up and down the mirror. Given the mirror is probably going to break anyway, pry the mirror off the wall with a crow bar — the tape will hold the glass together and keep it from shattering and being so messy.

    • #175381
      Leslie Medeiros
      Guest

      I successfully removed a 48×40 wall mirror without breaking it!!! I sprayed a product called Googone in the back of the mirror, this softened the adhesive. Then I gently used shims and a metal strip (stiff) to gradually separate the wallboard from the glue. It took about 6 hours, and I let the googone do the work by letting it set up before using the metal shim. Everyone I talked to said I couldn’t do it without braking the mirror–Wrong!

    • #181065
      Richard
      Guest

      How did you spray the googone? I just bought a bottle based on your advice, but it didn’t have a spray nozzle…

    • #238017
      F. Davidson
      Guest

      Combining all of the tactics works. My attempt involved a 3′ x 4′ mirror which had very little room to manuever on each side. I used cedar shingling wedges tapped behind the mirror to pry it away from the wall. I let the mirror black mastic adhesive adjust to the force and then I would tap the wedges a few more times. After several repeated attempts, I was able to double up on the cedar wedges until finally the mirror gave way from the wall. I suggest you use duct tape to loosely attach the top of the mirror to the wall in the event the mirror gives way when you are not present. The whole process took about 45 minutes and there was very little damage to the wall.

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