Mirrors near you

A mirror is a sheet of glass with a reflective metal layer and protective paint on the back. The choices below change how it looks, how long it holds up in a damp room and what happens if it breaks.

The building code says little about an ordinary wall mirror, but it does address mirrors used as doors or near water. Part 9 of the National Building Code, as reproduced in British Columbia's Building Code, allows mirrored glass doors only at the entrance to clothes closets, and those doors must be built to their own CGSB standard. A replacement closet door should therefore be a complete panel or door made for that use, not a piece of mirror cut to fit an old frame.

The same section allows nothing but safety glass in a shower or bathtub enclosure, so a mirror can't stand in for an enclosure panel or splash screen. Mirrors hung near a tub or shower still meet steam and splashes, so edge sealing and backing matter even outside the enclosure. Provinces adopt the national code with their own changes, so the installer should confirm the local version for any door.

A mirror's weight climbs quickly with its size, and glass gives no warning before it falls. How it is held depends on its size, whether it has a frame and what the wall is built from.

Health Canada warns that children sometimes try to climb bookshelves, dressers, appliances and TVs, which can make them tip over, and advises anchoring furniture to the wall with anti-tip devices such as angle braces or safety straps, fastened to a wall stud or with heavy-duty drywall anchors. Its guidance doesn't mention mirrors, but a dresser with a mirror mounted on top is exactly the kind of furniture it describes, and the mirror adds weight near the top.

The dark creep that starts at the edges of an older bathroom mirror is desilvering: moisture and cleaning products reach the reflective layer through the edges or scratches in the backing and corrode it. It can't be reversed once it starts, but on a newer mirror it can be slowed.

Some older builder-grade bathroom mirrors sit in clips and come down easily, but many were glued straight to the drywall. Prying one off can shatter it and usually tears the paper face of the drywall, so a careful removal starts with taping the face of the mirror to hold shards together, then cutting through the adhesive, and it plans for the wall to be patched and painted before the new mirror goes up. Gloves, eye protection and a second person are part of the job.

Mirror glass is often handled differently from bottles and jars in municipal recycling, so check your municipality's waste guide before putting it out, whole or broken. Wrapping the glass and labelling it as broken glass protects collection workers. Ask whether the installer takes the old mirror away, and remember that an undamaged framed mirror can often be donated or reused.