Bathroom Mirror

[Greg Pavlov]

We need a new mirror for one of our bathrooms. It will be roughly 3'h X 4'w. I would like to buy mirror glass and build a frame for it. I have two questions (welll.... two sets of questions....).

I read that mirror glass to be used in a bathroom should be sealed to keep moisture from creeping in between the silver backing and the glass. Is that really necessary? And if it's something I should be concerned about, could I seal the back and sides of the mirror myself, but with what?

How do folks usually secure the mirror glass on the back side? The option I thought of was to rout out an insert for the mirror, but make it about an 1/8 of an inch deeper than necessary, and then to rout out a 1/8' deep by 1/2" wide section next to that, insert the mirror glass, and then staple in a 1/8" thick by 1" wide strip as a "frame" all the way around, or perhaps short strips spaced around, enough to hold the mirror securely (I don't know if that's understandable....). Are there better ways to do this?


Thanks for your help!

[Russell Sansom]

Three of the 5 mirrors I put in my bathroom remodel 10 years ago have lost a strip of mirror along the bottom. They are unsightly, and if I wanted to sell my house, I'll have to replace the glass. In this case, the mirror is sitting on a small aluminum "shelf" which holds the glass in place and perhaps it has acted as a trough that holds water.
Your mounting method is the right idea. Antiques I've seen have either 1) short clamps, one or two along each side or 2) a full back or 3) partial back. Here are some pics of a bedroom mirror I made for my wife 30 years ago. The retainers are poplar. I installed them one hair shy of bearing on the mirror surface. I was afraid they'd shadow through.
I can't remember for certain, but I probably chose this design after consulting Ernest Joyce's "Encyclopedia of Furniture Making," always my go-to book for questions like this.

[Sam Layton]

Greg, I just had a mirror installed in one of my bathrooms a little larger than you are doing. I did not use a frame. The installers used some sort of a hot glue and glued it to the wall. They used what looked like a heated ice cream scooper and applied the glue to the wall. They used an aluminum angle between the mirror and back splash. They also placed a couple of plastic shims between the mirror and the aluminum angle to keep any water off the glass. They did not say anything about sealing the mirror. However, that does not mean anything.

Sam

[Greg Pavlov]

...... The retainers are poplar. I installed them one hair shy of bearing on the mirror surface. I was afraid they'd shadow through.......

Shadowing through??? SOmething else to worry about.... one of my backup plans was instead of wood strips, use a bunch of glaziers' points all around... I have a life time supply of those laying around. I wonder if that would work?

[Greg Pavlov]

Greg, I just had a mirror installed in one of my bathrooms a little larger than you are doing. I did not use a frame. The installers used some sort of a hot glue and glued it to the wall. They used what looked like a heated ice cream scooper and applied the glue to the wall. ...... Sam

We thought about that and might still go that route - my wife prefers it, I think - but one twist in all this is that there is tile a good ways up the wall which was partly cut out to hold the last mirror that was there, so then we'd have raw tile edge to cover over. That's not that big of a deal but it's going to be difficult, I think, to make that look good. I figured that if I make a frame that overlaps the tile a bit and rout the edges where the frame overlaps, I would end up with a neater-looking installation (if I do it right ). Thanks.

[Randy Blake]

Check with your local glass shops. They should be able to supply a copper free mirror which is less susceptible to water/steam. The edges should not be sealed on copper free mirror but should be on regular mirror.

Randy

[Lee Schierer]

The mirror in our bathroom is 35-40 years old and is not sealed on the back. About 15 years ago we remodeled the bathroom and cut the large mirror in to several smaller ones to fit in the doors of the new medicine cabinet. There has been no discoloration of the mirror.

The 1/4" plate mirrors in the size you mention are quite heavy so be sure your frame and mounting method will hold the weight.This mirror is similar in size to the one you are looking at. The frame has a 1/4" plywood back screwed into the back of the frame pieces and it is hung using a french cleat.

[Chris Padilla]

I actually took an old mirror from a bathroom remodel and built a frame for it to use elsewhere in the house: Mirror Frame

[Greg Pavlov]

Check with your local glass shops. They should be able to supply a copper free mirror which is less susceptible to water/steam. The edges should not be sealed on copper free mirror but should be on regular mirror.

I guesss that our local glass shops - or the four that I called, anyway - didn't know about this because all of them insisted that there is no such thing as mirror glass for bathrooms. Mebbe I wasn't precise enough. I'll know what to ask next time.

[Greg Pavlov]

....The 1/4" plate mirrors in the size you mention are quite heavy so be sure your frame and mounting method will hold the weight.....

I hope so...