Hi, we were wondering if anyone could help with a tricky problem...
We're trying to sell the house but there's these ugly mirrors built into the tiling in the bathroom, basically 2 big square rectangles have been cut in the tiles so these large mirrors could be attached to whatever is behind them. They're quite useful (for shaving in the shower for instance) but they've gotten brown patches all over them like the foil backing has gone rusty or something.
My first plan of action was to remove them and replace the area with matching tiles. However having bought what I thought were the right tiles it seems since 1994, the tile people have made them a few mm bigger so theres no way my new tiles are going to fit into the gaps that are left. Wasted £35 :(
I then bought some replacement mirrors but having removed the screw covers from the existing mirrors I find whoever put them up didn't attach the mirrors with screws, oh no, that would have been too easy. Instead the mirrors seem to be glued in.
I tried to remove some of the ground rounds the mirrors to get something round behind and break them but ended up just damaging the tile that was next to it. I hit the mirror with a claw hammer (really hard in various places) but it won't break! Maybe they are some kind of steel backed safety mirror?
I had a plan to remove a tile so that I could get behind the mirror and try to lever it off, but the wife doesn't like this idea cause it's too distructive. She is suggesting me simply glue the new mirrors on top of the old ones.
If we try this they are going to stand proud of the surface so look a bit crappy, in any case I'm not sure what kind of glue would stick them together (the new mirrors are acrylic but pretty delicate).
The other weird thing is when I removed some grout from between the mirror and the adjacent tile there seemed really deep like maybe the mirrors weren't even stuck onto the plasterboard, maybe they're stuck to the wooden studs directly.
Help, I've already cracked the mirror around the screwhole by trying to screw a screw in so I had something the pull on to pry the mirror off. Someones coming to look at the house Saturday and the bathroom is going to look naff, and I'll be like "yeah, I'm replacing those mirrors" :(
Has anyone ever dealt with an issue like this before or have any elegant ideas on what I could do?
Thanks
Wayne