How do I remove a frameless glued mirror?

Question

I have an ugly giant frameless mirror glued to a tiled wall in my bathroom I want to remove.

It's probably been there > 20 years.

How do I get rid of it? I'm thinking of just covering it in tape then throwing a hammer at it and quickly closing the door. Then chiseling the pieces off.

Is there a better way?

Update : I got it off by levering it off with a claw hammer. It popped right off. Only to reveal - ANOTHER MIRROR!

Answer 1

I would...

Use a glass cutter to run scores across the face of the mirror in a roughly plaid pattern. The idea is to give the mirror some encouragement to crack when you start to pull it off. Smaller pieces are good to handle. Do not run the glass cutter along the same score multiple times. One firm score is enough.

Make the scores no farther than 6 to 12 inches apart. Now, tape up the entire mirror. Packing tape would work, as would masking tape. Use enough tape to stop any pieces from falling down and shattering or hurting someone.

Now, use a hammer or pry bar to lever up under one corner of the mirror. As you pry out slowly, tap with a metal object (a small hammer is good, but anything will work, even a heavy screwdriver or the back end of the glasscutter) along the scores you made with the glass cutter. The glass will probably start to crack now along the score line you made. Break away the mirror in small pieces so that you can carry it away easily.

Be very careful of the edges, as they will be sharp. Wear good gloves as well as eye protection. When you are done, sweep up the area carefully, then vacuum. Make sure there are no slivers of glass on the floor.

Answer 2

I had 30 mirror tiles to remove on a wall up a stairwell. Tried a hammer and it bounced off. Had to give it a real hard blow before I could break a tile and then it shattered into 1000's of bits. Next I tried scoring the tile with a glass cutter then prying behind it with a strong putty-like lnife (blade 4 inches long and about 1 inch wide)until it broke on or close to the score cut. My tiles were both adhesive tape and glued so none came off whole. As I pryed the tile off with one hand the other hand held up newspaper -several layers,across the area being pryed off so the news paper caught the broken glass. The paper was held on the tile surface. Much of it came away in medium size chunks but still left a lot of work on smaller stuck areas. I wore overalls, safely glasses and leather gloves and hd a tarp on the floor as with all the care I took shards still fell. Also I did try taping the tiles before I attempted to hammer them but thought this to be a waste of time. The whole prob started when I used the wrong glue on the back of the tile. It ate thru the silver mirror lining thus I had to remove all the tiles. It took several months before the problem surfaced. If u are glueing read the fine print carefully on the glue cartridge to see if it is suitable.

Answer 3

what is your wall made of? if it's wallboard, you can cut through the wall around the mirror and pull the entire wallboard off.

something to help this process is to attach a piece of plywood to the mirror to help pull it down and control any broken pieces:

1. buy a set of glass drill bits, a piece of plywood a little bigger than the size of your mirror, some toggle bolts, and washers.
2. cut through the wallboard around the mirror.
3. attempt to locate the studs.
4. drill holes in the plywood that correspond to spaces NEXT TO the studs.
5. put the plywood against the mirror and brace it with a couple of 2x4's against the opposite wall. (use plywood on the opposite wall to prevent damage to the wall)
6. use the glass bit to drill holes in the mirror. usually you want start with smallest bit and drill progressively bigger to prevent cracking and chipping. use your judgement here.
7. insert toggle bolts and tighten them down. use the washers here to make the bolt head bigger than the hole in the plywood.
8. since the plywood is bigger than the mirror, you can get a claw hammer or crowbar behind the plywood.