… at least on this exercise room project.

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’

Isaiah 46:10

We ordered these mirrors five years ago, and they have been leaning up in the front of the garage in their crates, ever since they were delivered. Mainly because I couldn’t quite figure out how to handle them. They are 4’x8′ quarter inch glass and weight a little over 100 pounds each. Does putting those up in the exercise room qualify as exercise?

After breaking the first one, this homemade glass cart came into existence, which enabled moving them from the garage to the exercise room in one piece.

The glass cart is pretty obviously composed of two piano dollies and some scrap lumber. There is a piece of 3/4″ plywood tying the two together at the bottom. The lumber laying on the cart in the picture was a 2×6 that I ripped in half and then cut a dado slot halfway through from the edge. By placing those on each long edge of the mirrors, they were stiffened enough that they could be stood up longways without breaking over my head. I used a couple of lengths of perforated plumbing strap to tie the stiffeners together so they would not slip off the edge while raising each mirror. The strap was wrapped around to the outside edge and screwed with a single #6 by 1″ drywall screw. A longer drywall screw would possibly have touched the mirror, so short is important.

Without ever having measured, I had it in my head that the ceiling was higher than eight feet. Based on that assumption, I had made nice baseboards with a quarter-inch dado for the mirrors to sit in. Only after moving in the second mirror, did I discover my error. The baseboards had to be removed because the ceiling only allowed about one-half inch of clearance for the eight-foot mirrors if they were sitting directly on the carpeted floor. I will reinstall them after I cut them down to fit where the mirrors are not. I am grateful for that half-inch of clearance.

Based on my error about the height, I had bought sliding mirror clips. That proved to be unworkable because of the tight fit. The tops are held to the wall by a cleat screwed into the ceiling. (Instead of sheetrock, the room is sheeted with oriented strand board that was sealed with oil-based barn paint. The exercise room is framed inside a pole barn with six-inch insulated walls.)

If you look closely on the right side of first picture, you can see a 58″x26″ mirror horizontal near the floor. This is the largest piece left from the broken one. My wife thought that would help her with floor work on the mat. I now have lots of smaller mirrors salvaged from the broken one. Not sure what to do with those, but cutting it up in to usable sections seemed better than throwing the bulk of it away.

The original plans had to be modified as the project went along and I discovered that my plans were not going to work as anticipated. I will admit, I am happy to have this done (finally). I come back to the quote from Isaiah that I opened with, Only He has flawless plans. The rest of us are wise if we align with His plans.