Mirror Removal for Dummies

Mirror held by metal clips

The staff of the Antisocial Network are pretty much divided between DIYers and folks with science and technology backgrounds. That's why you don't see any articles on this blog about Kardashians, Kanye, or Meghan Markle. Oops... was that clickbait? Anyhow, today's a DIYer's turn, and she wanted to point out the error of yet another eHowian's ways. Here's Keith Dooley on his second trip to the podium; this time for a HomeSteady.com article called "How to Remove a Glass Mirror from a Wall."¹

Dooley, a football coach in real life, reworded an article from "This Old House" about taking down a glued-on mirror using piano wire to carve through the glue. That might work (if you used a wrapped wire). Except that his rationale for the project...

"Glass mirrors may be glued to a wall due to their size and weight."

...had nothing to do with the actual ToH post, which was about a wall covered with stick-on panels. He also missed the chance to cite an article with an entirely different approach at Lowe's. Either way, he didn't bother to read through the entire article he copied, which concludes with this advice:

"...[R]ather than tackle this work on your own, let a professional from a glass company handle it."

Of course if Dooley had ever tried removing a mirror himself, he might have known that not all mirrors are glued to the wall. Our staffers have taken down 5' x 3' bevel-edge mirrors, and regardless of their "size and weight," they weren't glued on. Instead, they use pairs of clips screwed into the wall studs. The bottom clip is stationary, while the top clip is spring-mounted. To remove the mirror, just push up on the bottom until the edge clears the lower clip, then swing the mirror away from the wall until you can remove it from the top clip.

Dooley didn't know that. We did. So now do you know why we give people like Keith our Dumbass of the Day award? It's for trying to write instructions for tasks they've never done themselves, that's why!

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group but can still be viewed with the Wayback machine at archive.org. The original URL was   ehow.com/how_7408927_remove-glass-mirror-wall.html

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