Best Mirror Adhesive?

The mirror in my garage is stuck on with silicone mastic (likely Wickes own). I want to move it, but cannot get it off the wall...

Depending on the quality of the back of the mirror, the acetic acid given off during curing of silicone can wreck the silvering. There is a special mirror equivalent which does not risk damaging the mirror silver. A glass shop will have it, but I think I've also seen it in one of the sheds.

Assume you won't ever get the mirror off without wrecking it.

It's been up there for years...

Oh, it was only the horrid one from when we redecorated the downstairs loo, and it's in the garage because that's where I trim my beard. I assumed it won't come off without breaking ...

Tried a hedge lopper ?

DerekG

There are actually different sorts of mirror adhesive, as I found out not long ago. Both come in cartridges; one sort is similar to silicone, and you apply thick parallel beads of the stuff all down the back of the miror; when you apply it to the wall it needs the weight supporting for a good while till it cures (I use a batten screwed to the wall) and you need to take care that there's a decent thickness of adhesive twixt mirror and wall (I use spacers behind the mirror to ensure this), and that there's free flow of air to all the adhesive so it all goes off OK (ie a big spiral or concentric circular beads are not good).

The othet type is an impact adhesive; you spread a thin film on both wall and mirror, wait 5-10 mins and apply the mirror to the wall; and that's it, stuck. No support needed.

I prefer the former type myself as my walls are rarely (never) billiard-table-flat, so I'm more confident that the adhesive is actually doing its job!

David

I have used one of the no-more-nails type products, but that was in a case where the mirror had a plastic backing, so it wasn't going to be able to react with the silver. It was an IKEA bathroom cupboard where the door was a mirror glued to a wooden frame (but not originally glued well enough).

My parents have a full length bathroom mirror which was fixed to the wall 30-40 years ago with double-sided sticky pads. I took it down a year or so back whilst some work was done in the room by gently pulling away so the sticky pads failed, and then refixed with new sticky pads. The originals came with the mirror and were presumably chosen not to damage the backing.

Last time I fixed a mirror to a wall, I used the edge fixings which screw to the wall behind the mirror, with a small metal bracket to hold the edge of the mirror, the top ones sliding into place after positioning the mirror on the bottom ones.

That's in the shed.

go into any decent glaziers and buy - wait for it

MIRROR ADHESIVE.

Its a fairly inert variant on the no more nails theme.

It is usually a neutral cure silicone, but an MS polymer (short for mental short-dwarf polymer) works as well.

I fixed some mirrors to the plastered walls of a bathroom some years ago. The mirrors were fixed with several spots of silicone and the walls were then tiled. Before fixing the mirrors I covered the backs with a self adhesive foil to stop any reaction with the silicone. I bought the mirrors and foil from a local glazier.

Yep.