Mirror Tile Removal

Vic Smith · 2010-09-08T15:53:28+00:00

Some observations that might be useful.Dining room wall with 9' x 5' mirrored with 12" square tiles.These were stuck onto painted drywall with glue tabs at each corner.Glue tabs are 1" square. Orange-ish color, still spongy in places.They kept the tiles 1/8" off the wall.Tiles are some kind of glass about 3/16" thick.The tiles have minor flex when pushed/pulled in the center.Look like every other glass tile wall I've seen, but that's all I knowabout glass tiles, so YMMV.Wife wanted them gone since we moved in but I put her off for 13years. Then I caved for a china cabinet, which has to go on thatwall, which meant I had to cave on the tiles.I don't know for sure how long the tiles were on the wall, but frompaint evidence I'd bet 30-35 years.I spent an hour or so on the net and all the advice I saw there wasbasically hammer with glass shards all over the place.Really nothing that I found suitable.Since I've done body work I thought I'd try a suction cup first.Went to O'Reilly's auto parts and bought a simple push on suction cupfor $5. It's 5" diameter.My son was over and he pushed it on the center of a tile, turned hishead away and jerked it straight back. Tile popped right out, taking the paint on all 4 tabs and the outerlayer of paper.I told him to not do more because I wanted a tarp down.A few days ago I put the tarp down and went after the rest.Popped the lower 3 rows of 9 with no breakage, then I needed to usethe ladder. Wife said to wait an hour, as son was coming over.I should have known when he put the stepladder sideways to the wall.Still haven't learned he's just not as careful as me and it's best Ikeep a close eye on him.He lackadaisically jerked his first tile off center, and it broke intomany pieces the biggest one jumping to his chest.Minor cut on his skin right through his shirt.Glass shards all over. This is vicious glass, hard and sharp slivers.Cleaned it all up and he backed out being glass-shy, so I did the restwith the ladder properly...

Sep 08, 2010 21 Replies

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Ron 15 years ago

I'm not talking about tiles, which so 60's. I'm talking about a nice floor to ceiling (or however far up you want to take it up) mirrored

*wall*.

Also, it's not just tiles that point out that a wall isn't flat, you have the same problem with big plate glass mirrors. And the mirrors aren't perfectly "flat" either.

If you are butt joining the mirrors and not covering the joints with bevel strips, you have to use a suction cup to pull and push the mirrors to get the edges flush.

IOW, you have to work the mastic on the back of the mirror to get a perfect butt joint.

Some installers take it so far that they use a level on the surface of the mirrors to get them perfect so there is no "distortion" while looking at the mirrored wall.

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Vic Smith 15 years ago

The liquid nails sanded down fine without too much effort. The 180 mirror tab spots were spackled and sanded. Two coats of Kilz covered everything well. Wall looks perfect. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Kudos to my wife, who did most of the work. She might have a different opinion on how hard the job was.

--Vic

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