How to Remove Builder Mirrors

I’ve been asked how to remove builder mirrors a few times over the last couple weeks.  Despite my inquiries and offers to help anyone who wanted it, I could not find a single person in my area that had a builders mirror they wanted removed.

So, here is my best explanation with not enough pictures of how to remove builder mirrors.

   How to Remove Builder Mirrors

How to Remove Builder Mirrors

First, I tried to criss cross tape all over the mirror in case it broke, so it wouldn’t shatter…because that’s what they do on DIY shows!  But, I ran out of tape so it ended up being a useless V of tape!  You might want to do a better job, just in case!

My mirror was about 8 feet long and HEAVY!  So, it was a 2 person job.  (Thanks Melissa!)  I just put a pry-bar behind the mirror on one corner and SLOWLY, GENTLY pulled.  See the globs of glue?

Each one popped away from the wall, one at a time as I moved down towards the other end of the mirror.  We each stood on the counter and once the top row of glue was “popped” off, we both pulled GENTLY and SLOWLY and each additional row or GLUE GLOBS popped away from the wall.  Then we lifted it out of the metal track.

How to Remove Builder Mirrors

There is nothing you can do (in my opinion) to avoid damaging your wall.  The glue is made to STICK and it does.  It tears the drywall paper off with it!  Whoever installed my mirror used Black adhesive which I had to scrape off before I could patch.

After removing the black glue residue, I patched the drywall with joint compound.  Some of the areas with torn paper required a little drywall tape too because the paper kept bubbling from the water in the JC.
patch drywall

It took about 3 coats and sandings, about the same as an actual “patch”, to get it smooth enough for paint.

bathroom vanity

Then you can install you mirror of choice.

The actual mirror removal took about 5 minutes.  The patching took a couple days.

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29 Comments

  1. Hope it works as easily for you as it did for me. Good luck! 🙂

  2. Good luck Fran. Hope you get that bad boy out of there –no problem and get your bathroom looking beautiful!

  3. hi there

    i to just read her post and i am over joyed to get rid of my eyesore in the bathroom….. but i myself have had mirror cut to size from bit old mirrors and u can even frame them in old picture frames…where we found to get them cut is the little hardware stores the mom and pop shops do it for as little as 1 a cut ….got luck……..

  4. omg thanks so much , i also have been looking for the easy way to take down the big out dates mirror in my masterbath.i will be trying it tomarrow . the way u explainded it was the way i was going to do it but its not that we dont know how to do it (because we all watch hgtv .lol) but just reading that someone did it gives us all hope that we can do it……thanks and it looks nice.

  5. Sandra,
    Thank you so much for this post as well as the others. My husband was in the military for 20 years and we lived on bases the whole time. This is our first home and it was new so it has all the builders stuff that I’m trying to get rid of. That big mirror is exactly like the one in the master bath and I HATE it. I have been wondering if it would be hard to remove and how to do. Now because of your post we will be able to do. Thank you so much for helping me personalize my home.

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