advice on mounting a big mirror on bathroom wall

[RobertL]

i wonder if anyone has words of wisdom about how to mount a large mirror in the bathroom. In my case the mirror is 2200mm x 600mm and

6mm thick and weighs about 25 kg. It will be vertical (almost from floor to ceiling). It has 4 holes along each vertical edge for screw mounting to the wall. The wall is traditional plasterd blockwork (internal).

The wall is not perfectly even. Obvioulsy I want the mirror to be flat but i don't want it to have large hollows behind so that it could bend/break if someone leaned on it. It has a safety backing so that it does not fall apart if it breaks but it is not toughened.

My idea was to first mark, drill and plug the eight screw holes. Then I would put blobs of sealant on the wall dotted over the surface at, say, 150mm centres. Then I'd mount the mirror screwing to the wall but not too tightly. This would squash up the sealant blobs which are sandwiched between the wall and the mirror.. Once the sealant has hardened the mirror would be flat and well supported.

I am worried the sealant might damage the reflective coating on the back of the mirror so I plan to cover each 'blob' with a bit of vapour barrier plastic to isolate it from the mirror. This would also make removal easier.

Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

Robert

[The Natural Philosopher]

Skim the wall flat and GLUE the mirror on. Ask your glazing company for suitable glue.

If the wall is flat +-3mm, don't bother to skim. The glue is plenty strong enough to fill that sort of gap. So is the glass.

The recommended glues do not affect the silvering in any way.

Put dummy screws in the holes

[RobertL]

Wow, that's radically different from what I had in mind. thank you.

Robert

[Stuart Noble]

I wouldn't rely on glue. You'd have to support it while the glue goes off so you might as well fix it with proper mirror screws. These normally come with a chrome cap and a plastic liner to stop the screw thread touching the glass. Tighten gradually obvioiusly

[George]

Why would anyone want a mirror that size in the bathroom? and more to the point it'll get steamed up in no time.

[RobertL]

Why? To make the room look bigger and so couples can see themselves. Steaming up could be an issue.

Robert

[RobertL]

the mirror comes with the special type of screws that you describe.

R

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would definitely rely on glue. Its FAR safer than 4 screws into plasterboard.

Supporting it is easy. You screw a batten to the wall where the studs are, using a level to get it horizontal, and gunk away, and plop the mirror up

A bit of duck tape will stop it falling forward for an hour or two while the glue grabs.

I had to remove one after *ten minutes* when my wife said 'no, its too low' and I nearly broke it getting it off.

Leave it 24 hours, remove batten, make good the plaster and there you are.

Immovable.

[The Natural Philosopher]

To do their make up with=, gorgeous!

We have about 800mmx1.2m on ours..also helps spread the light around from the sunset. Nice.

[RobertL]

I don't have plasterboard. I have plastered blockwork, so screws would be very strong. Also I have 8 screw opints. Nevertheless I take your point however.

Is there an issue with damp getting behind it?

Robert

[F]

I glued one on in similar circumstances and the adhesive I got from the glaziers grabbed the mirror almost immediately. There was no need for any support within a very short time.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh well..screws are fine then..depends whether you want a fixture or a fitting :-)

Not if its full of glue :-)

I tend to tile around anyway, in bathrooms. Mines sealed into the tiles with grout and decorators caulk.

The glue is a sort of acrylic - it sets pretty waterproof. Its LOOKS a lot like waterproof tile cement, or no more nails..

[The Natural Philosopher]

I reckon ten to 20 minutes..BUT if its big and heavy thats long enough to slide crooked..hence shove a batten under.

It sets off hard overnight, on plaster anyway. Guess it takes a week or two to go full strength.

[RobertL]

the mirror is supposed to sit on top of the capping that covers the turned up edge of the lino. I don't think this will take the weight of the glass, even for a short time, so I might fix a batten in place temporarily to take the weight while I fix it to the wall. caluking around the edge to prevent damp getting behind is a good idea. it wil

thank you everyone for your helpful responses.

Robert

[Lobster]

I put up a big mirror recently - nearly as big as the OP's - and used mirror adhesive from Screwfix. The instructions advised IIRC something like running 7-10mm diameter beads of adhesive vertically down the mirror at 10cm intervals; doing that used up 3 tubes of the stuff. I had previously screwed a temporary batten to the wall for it to sit on.

Instructions said to ensure the mirror wasn't less than 5mm (?) from the wall, to ensure there's enough adhesive in the gap to do the job, and/or to ensure enough airlow for it to cure. So I stuck a number of bits of

5mm packing all over the wall where the mirror would hang, so I could press the mirror against the wall as hard as I liked without the glue being extruded too much. I screwed three more temporary wooden turn-pegs into the wall above the mirror to stop it falling forward.

It also said to leave it something like 48-96 hrs to set until the support was removed.

All worked fine.

David

[Dave]

Same conditions as a bedroom ceiling mirror then ;-)

Dave

[Lobster]

Yup - that's the gospel according to St. Beeny...

and so couples can see themselves.

Not sure about that one but I'm now not convinced about our mirror since we put it in: it extends the width of the room, over the toilet cistern, which means that when you stand there taking a leak you have a full view of yourself from head to knee. Just a bit weird when you're not used to it! And TBH I could do without the view when I exit the shower.

David

[Fred Snord]

[RobertL]

thanks for that. I bought only one tube of that from Screwix this morning (damn). I hope that as I am using screws (8 in fact) as well as glue, that i will be able to use less glue. I'll probably use blobs of glue at 100mm centres rather than long vertical lines.

The mirror arrived this morning; it weighs 25kg.!

In order to get the small gap behind it I could pack it out with tap washers embedded in the blobs of glue.. I could put one behind each screw fixing as well. A 3mm washer plus 6mm of mirror will make the surface level with the existing 10mm thick tiles nearby.

Robert

[RobertL]

Mirrors over the bed are overrated in my view. If the ceiling is 2 metres above the bed then the people you see in it a 4 metres away . One on the wall beside the bed is much better, and not quite so obvious.

R