I just made a shocking discovery....

The second floor bathroom in our house is pretty much wife's and daughter's exclusively, so I am rarely ever in there. Except on such occasions, as now, when the light bulb in the ceiling above the tub/shower needed to be replaced.
As I am stepping down, my elbow bumps this mirror that she has hanging on the tub/shower wall. Now I have seen this mirror a million times over the years and never gave it a second thought. It's a very stylish mirror, about 8 x 18" with a nice gold frame around it. It's something you would expect to see hanging in a hallway, or the living room.
Well, when I bumped it, the mirror swung back and forth pendulum style. So out of curiousity, I wanted to see how this mirror is hung.............

SHE DROVE A NAIL RIGHT THROUGH THE GROUT AND INTO THE WALL!!!

Well Hell's Bells..........how come I never looked at this before? It's been there for at least 5 years. And the reason it looks like a living room mirror, is cuz IT IS a living room mirror.

OK, so let's inspect the damage.........
The only mold was from the cardboard backing of the mirror, none on the wall, or around the nail hole. No tiles were cracked, and the grout looked fine. I can't inspect the integrity of the wallboard, cuz it's a perimeter wall, so I just kinda "tapped" all around it to see if I could hear any softness. So far, so good. All seems well.
I figure, since the nail hole is about 6 ft from the floor, not much, if any, water has gotten to it. I also figure that if I remove the nail, at this point, would probably cause more harm than good. Don't fix what ain't broke, right?
So I got out my trusty caulk gun, and sealed around the nail real good.

Nice story, huh? Sheesh........

Just thought I'd share.

Regular glass in a shower is just asking for trouble, regardless of the way it is hung. If for some reason it fell and broke, serious injury could occur. That is the reason that shower doors are required to be tempered. Not anywhere near as nasty (although still is) when it breaks into chunks rather than shards. There is normally so little moisture above the showerhead that moisture damage to the wall with a nail hole at 6' is slight.

All these years I thought it was something designed for the shower. I was expecting to see suction cups behind it.
The mirror is gone now, but the nail is not. I just know that if I try to remove that nail, I'll crack the grout, the tile, or worse.
I'm sure that by the end of the week, she'll have something else hanging up there.

It's not unusual to install things in the tub area, e.g., towel bars, handicap bars, etc. Usually a pilot hole is drilled first, right through the tile, and screws are used, rather than nails. I actually thought you were going to tell us about what the mirror used to be like, before you smashed all the glass with your elbow.

New girl totally confused - PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

Hi, I'm new to this whole remodeling thing, so I really need alot of help, and I was reading your story and all of your comments and I think you all may be able to help me out. Basically this is the situation - my towel rod, or towel bar, whichever one you perfer, has its ends built into the wall - by that, I mean that, the ends are literally part of the wall, they are made of what I believe is tile, or sometype of cement which is painted white to accent the decor of the bathroom. Now on the insides of the ends are two carved in spaces, in which the actual bar is suppose to be placed - thus creating the towel bar, or towel rack. Now, a couple weeks ago, the bar broke - it slipped out of the carved in spaces, and it broke. All that's on the wall now, are two white protruding ends, waiting for a rod so it can become a towel rack again. I have no clue what to do - I've contacted, and shopped around at certain stores - Home Depot, etc, but they only seem to sell the contemporary towel bars that have the ends included - what I need is an actual bar that I can put back into the tile ends jutting out of the wall - I just basically need a replacement for the simple bar that broke a couple days ago. Again, I'm not familiar with any of this, so I don't know what the standard proceedure is for a situation like this. I was thinking of just breaking down the tile ends, and then just getting a brand new towel rod with ends. That's fine with me, but then again I've never bashed a whole into the wall before, so I would definatly need some advise. I'm just really confused as to what to do, and all suggestions are welcomed.

Pewterpower, all should be fine as long as you don't change anything. If you do you will have more problems from the boss that anything that nail will cause at this point.

Astrid198 said:

Hi, I'm new to this whole remodeling thing, so I really need alot of help, and I was reading your story and all of your comments and I think you all may be able to help me out. Basically this is the situation - my towel rod, or towel bar, whichever one you perfer, has its ends built into the wall - by that, I mean that, the ends are literally part of the wall, they are made of what I believe is tile, or sometype of cement which is painted white to accent the decor of the bathroom. Now on the insides of the ends are two carved in spaces, in which the actual bar is suppose to be placed - thus creating the towel bar, or towel rack. Now, a couple weeks ago, the bar broke - it slipped out of the carved in spaces, and it broke. All that's on the wall now, are two white protruding ends, waiting for a rod so it can become a towel rack again. I have no clue what to do - I've contacted, and shopped around at certain stores - Home Depot, etc, but they only seem to sell the contemporary towel bars that have the ends included - what I need is an actual bar that I can put back into the tile ends jutting out of the wall - I just basically need a replacement for the simple bar that broke a couple days ago. Again, I'm not familiar with any of this, so I don't know what the standard proceedure is for a situation like this. I was thinking of just breaking down the tile ends, and then just getting a brand new towel rod with ends. That's fine with me, but then again I've never bashed a whole into the wall before, so I would definatly need some advise. I'm just really confused as to what to do, and all suggestions are welcomed.

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Sounds like you have a grouted-in ceramic towel bar set. You can buy just the plastic bar at a hardware store. It has springs on the ends that retract, so it fits snugly. Don't do anything with the wall. You can generally cut a towel bar down to the right size.