Removing a Mirror Glued to the Wall
All you need to remove a glued mirror from a wall is some fishing line and a pair of wood blocks.
A glass mirror had been glued to a wall with a special type of mastic. The mastic had several days to cure, and the mirror wasn’t going anywhere. Unfortunately, the 1/4-in.-thick mirror, which was 27 in. wide by 90 in. tall, was in the wrong place. I had to move it 8 in. to the left.
I considered several approaches to the problem, including using a metal scraper or a saw. But those solutions likely would damage the mirror. Then I had a brainstorm. I tied a 4-ft. length of 70-lb. fishing line to a pair of wood blocks, which served as handles.
Now I had a kind of saw a little over 3 ft. long. I slid the fishing line behind the mirror and began sawing it back and forth, keeping the line as flat against the wall as possible. In this manner, I sliced the mirror off the wall with no damage.
— David Hoover; Federal Way, WA
From Fine Homebuilding #174
RELATED STORIES
Got a Tip?
Do you have any great tips like this one on how to remove a mirror glued to a wall without damaging it? Share your methods, tricks, and jigs with other readers. Tag them @FineHomebuilding on social, email them to us at [email protected], or upload them to FineHomebuilding.com/reader-tips. We’ll pay for any we publish.
View Comments
Great idea. I probably would have tried picture-hanging wire, but if fishing line works, so much the better!
Excellent tip!
I could have used it a week ago when I ripped off the bathroom mirror and much drywall doing my Christmas honey-do project.
Hopefully it saves others the patching work that I had to do.
Great idea! Yes, fishing line would work much better than wire. I've used nylon string to cut pvc pipe as well - works great in tight places!
In an ideal world, the mirror would have been installed with clips, either the cheapo plastic ones or less visible metal ones ( https://www.homedepot.com/p/Glacier-Bay-Spring-Loaded-Mirror-Mounting-Clips-4-Pack-805244/316342172 )
Although there are situations where "invisible" mounting is important, serviceability is always important too.