Bathroom repair.

[Arinté]

We have an older townhouse (1996) and it has the hard porcelain towel racks in the in the shower. You know the kind it has the porcelain holders and the plastic cube in the middle to hold the towels.

Well the plastic is broke, I want to either put another in there (which seems impossible since the holders are immovable) or take the whole thing down (don't know how to do that without destroying the tile in the shower.

Anyone has tips? comments? suggestions?

[Lionel C. Abrahams]

You should be able to replace the rod with a plastic one which can flex enough to fit just fine. good luck

[LBaker]

[Lou Parker]

What you can do is by a piece of 3/4 poplar, cut it to size, paint with an exterior paint, Take off one end of the bar holder by tapping up from the bottom and replace it. Or for about the same price, buy a new one.

[Paul Franklin]

I think the OP has ceramic bar ends that are set into the tile. They cannot be removed easily.

I have the exact same problem; here's what I plan to do. Buy a replacement plastic rod. McMaster-Carr

has a variety of materials and sizes; I'll probably try pvc or acrylic. I will cut it to length, and then slice it into two pieces using a scarf joint (45 degree cut). That will allow me to slip the two pieces into the ceramic ends. Then I'll apply solvent cement to the scarf joint and clamp it. A little clean up of the joint, and it should do fine.

An alternative to the scarf joint would be to place the bar in a 200 degree oven until it softens just enough to bend enough to slip the ends into the sockets, and then quickly straighten it and hold it straight until it cools. This seems a little more likely to go wrong, so I'll probably try the scarf joint first.

HTH,

Paul

[RBV]

Sounds complicated. I had the same problem, went down to Lowes and they had new plastic bars that can be cut to length and have spring loaded ends to hold it in place. The way to install it is insert one end into the ceramic holder, then mark/cut the other end so that it just fits, the spring loaded plungers do the rest.

RBV

[Dorot29701]

I've been able to find cheap plastic rods at places like the Dollar General store - they had enough play in them that I was able to slip them in to existing ceramic fixtures. The last time I looked was about two years ago so they may not still have them.

Dorothy