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
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #174
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!