How To Install Mirrors With J Channels

Step 1 - Check your wall and specification

Your mirrors must be either 5mm or 6mm thick and must be safety or foil backed. Check your mirror thickness and also the back of the mirror to see if a film has been applied.

You must not install 4mm mirror or non safety backed / foil backed mirrors into J channels as this is unsafe.

Check your wall is strong enough to support the mirrors. For stud walls you will need to find the studwork joinery to attach to.

Step 2 - What you need

You will need a drill, flat head counter sunk screws with a 15kgs carry weight or possibly 20kgs if fixing into studwork, appropriate sized rawl plugs and drill bit for the wall type, pencil, tape measure, hacksaw and sandpaper if required.

You may want to consider using glass suckers, but most clients do not use these but it does make installation far easier /mirror-extras/

Step 3 - Install your mirrors

The J channels come as pair with a top runner having a lip of 16mm and bottom runner having a lip of 7mm which allows you to push the mirror from the front, as opposed from the sides and sliding the mirrors, up into this rebate. Once you have lifted over the bottom lip you can position and then lower the mirror into position. Do not slide the mirrors from the sides as you will chip them on the screws.

The channel material is 2mm aluminium and the channel has an internal width of 7mm. The channels are 3.66m long (12ft) and if you need to cut the channels use a hacksaw once you have measured and marked where to cut. If your hacksaw is sharp it should not leave any rough edges but we recommend you check your edges before installation and if the cut requires deburring simply use the sandpaper to remedy this.

To start your install mark where you wish to place the bottom runner using a spirit level and then measure the height of your mirror and add on 10mm to this for the J channels and then do a preliminary check that your mirrors will fit.

If you are happy with the location of your bottom runner you need to identify hole locations. If it is a solid wall this is not an issue and we simply advise you place 4 15kgs flat head counter sunk screws underneath each mirror evenly across the channel.

If going into studwork you need to locate where these are and then mark the locations onto your j channels. The J channels are not predrilled specifically for this reason. If your studwork is located such that you cannot get 4 holes evenly across each mirror please change your counter sunk screw head carry weight to 20kgs. The simple rule for fitting is ensure there is 60kgs of screw carry weight evenly spread on the bottom runner for "each" mirror.

Once the bottom runner is in position take one mirror and position in the channel and then use this to mark where you wish to place the top runner. Remeber the top runner rebate is larger so it can be used to push the mirror up into it to get over the bottom lip loading from the front. For the top runner we advise you place one screw every 450mm and across all your studwork points. Once both runners are up you can lift the mirrors into position.

Generally this installation requires one person to drill all the channels onto the wall in advance and once complete two people can easily slot the mirrors into position in under three minutes.

TOP TIP - If you place a 50 pence blob of glue in three corners and the centre (always leave top right corner free) this can help align the mirrors if your wall was slightly uneven. So little glue is used it will simply hold the mirrors in alignment but can still be popped off if you need to move them in the future.