It costs $500 on average to remove a single wall mirror or as high as $3,300 to remove a whole wall or room of mirrors
Did you buy a house with glued-on wall mirrors but want to get rid of them? Or maybe you had them installed but just don’t want them anymore. Because a glued-on mirror can damage the drywall behind it, this job is trickier than it looks. Here are all the cost factors to consider when deciding to move forward with this project.
| National Average Cost | Minimum Cost | Maximum Cost |
|---|---|---|
| $500 | $100 | $3,300 |
If you decide to tackle this project yourself, you will need the following tools and materials:
| Tools/Materials | Average Prices |
|---|---|
| Safety glasses | $10 |
| Safety gloves | $10 |
| Plywood (enough to cover the floor as well as a piece to help pry the mirror off the wall) | $15 – $80 per 4-by-8 board, depending on the thickness |
| Plastic sheet or canvas tarp (enough to cover the floor) | $10 – $40 per pack |
| Packing tape (about one roll per mirror) | $2 per roll |
| Drywall knife | $12 |
| Blow dryer or heat gun | $20 |
| Wire saw | $10 – $30 |
| Drywall putty | $3 – $15 per container |
| Interior paint | $15 – $40 per gallon |
The total average cost to DIY is between $100 to $500.
The cost to hire a handyperson is typically around $60 to $125 per hour, while hiring a mirror installer costs $50 to $150 per hour.
If you need a pro to remove the mirrors but want to try to save money, consider if there are simpler parts of the project you can do yourself, such as painting the room after the mirrors are removed.
If you want to have mirrors removed, you’ll need to factor in the number of mirrors you have, whether they were hung with adhesive or fasteners, and what type of pro you want to hire for the project.
The more mirrors you have to remove, the longer the project will take. Since contractors for this project are typically paid by the hour, the longer it takes, the more you’ll pay for their service. If you have a whole wall or room covered in mirrors, there is more potential for drywall damage.
You’ll also likely need to paint the walls afterward or hire a professional painter to do it for you. Professional painters typically charge $200 to $1,000 for a single room.
There are a few different ways to hang a mirror, including brackets or fasteners, mirror adhesive, or liquid nails. Brackets or fasteners make it easier to remove the mirror with minimal damage, but glue-like adhesives usually cause divots or holes in the drywall when prying off the mirror. If this is the case for the mirror you’re removing, you need to plan for the additional cost to repair the drywall as you budget.
The cost to repair drywall is typically only about $45 to repair a small hole yourself, but it could cost as much as $1,100 if the damage is extensive and you need help from a professional drywall repair company.
You will likely pay more if you hire a mirror installer, drywall repair service, and professional painter separately. Consider hiring a handyperson to do all three jobs in one day for you.
Every contractor has different pricing plans, timelines, and quality, so check reviews to hire the right contractor for your project.
If you’re hiring a pro, this is probably a quarter to a full day’s job, depending on how many mirrors you have to remove and whether or not you want to keep the mirrors intact. If the mirrors are bracketed versus glued on or you don’t mind breaking the mirrors, it is faster and easier to remove them than it would be to keep them from cracking.
You can probably remove one average-sized mirror yourself in an hour or so, especially if you have help from a friend. However, it will also take a few hours to fill in divots in the drywall and paint the wall. A whole wall or room or mirrors will take significantly longer to remove on your own.
To remove a mirror yourself involves taping up the mirror to ensure shards don’t break off and cause personal injury or damage to the house and then using a heat source to loosen the mirror from the wall. Then, a wire saw can be used to cut the mirror from the wall. Once the mirror is removed, fill in divots in the drywall with putty and paint over the wall to finish the project.
Whether you do the project yourself or hire a pro, it is important to cover the floor with plywood followed by a plastic sheet or canvas tarp. This way, if broken mirror pieces fall from the wall during removal, your flooring is protected from damage.
If you want to keep the mirrors intact, then this is a project best left to a mirror installer to do the job with the right equipment. If not, a local handyperson can probably pop off the mirrors, make minor drywall repairs, and repaint the wall.
If you’re going to reuse the removed mirrors, you’ll want to make sure it is attached securely in the new location. As much of a challenge as it can be to remove later—by not properly attaching a mirror to a wall with adhesive or secure fasteners—you’re putting yourself and your family at risk of injury if the mirror falls or shatters. To avoid the pain of removing the mirror adhered directly from the wall again later, try building a new mirror frame to help hang it or convert it into a freestanding mirror.
