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I am replacing a gold shower escutcheon with a chrome one. As I removed the old escutcheon both bolts attaching it to the fiberglass shower stall snapped.

I am currently trying to drill into the bolts to hopefully remove them. However, this is not going well.

As I am drilling I'm wondering about the possibility of just gluing the new escutcheon to the shower stall. I'm quite sure that this would work, but I wonder how difficult the new escutcheon would be to remove should I need to replace the cartridge down the road.

Any advice?

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  • Just a thought on bolt removal: If there's anything sticking out, can you get hold of it with a pair of locking pliers to unscrew it?
    – FreeMan
    Nov 26, 2020 at 1:35
  • Yeah, tried that with visegrips and snapped them both again. Now there's not enough left to grab.
    – Jim
    Nov 26, 2020 at 16:21

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Yeah, glue's a bad choice for exactly the reason you noted...

If you can't get the bolts extracted and replaced with a decent brass or stainless steel that won't corrode, I'd suggest having a helper hold the escutcheon in place while you caulk around it. Then, make a bridge of tape (i.e. not touching the caulk) to hold it in place while the caulk sets up. Once the caulk has hit its minimum cure time (preferable to wait 24 hours or until the max cure time listed on the tube), peel the tape off.

When the time comes, you should be able to scrape off all the old caulk with a razor blade to have a nice clean surface to do it all over again.

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  • I thought caulk wouldn't hold to fiberglass well.
    – Jim
    Nov 24, 2020 at 19:53
  • Thanks for your help FreeMan. Do you think caulk would hold well enough to a fiberglass shower stall?
    – Jim
    Nov 24, 2020 at 20:37
  • Silicone bath caulk sticks fine to fiberglass... as long as it is smooth, clean, and dry when you do it.
    – Jimmy Fix-it
    Nov 25, 2020 at 0:04
  • I used caulk to attache the mounting nuts for a louvre to the back window of my car, it held up fine at freeway speeds. if anything it should stick to fibreglass better than it does to glass.
    – Jasen
    Nov 25, 2020 at 5:01
  • I haven't any personal experience with caulk on fiberglass, @Jim, but I'd suggest reading the labeling on the tube you purchase. I'd imagine you could find one somewhere that says it will stick to fiberglass. If you're still not sure, contact the manufacturer and specifically ask.
    – FreeMan
    Nov 25, 2020 at 14:13

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