Black edges on a bathroom mirror? What causes them and how to slow the spread

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Black spots creeping in from the edges of a bathroom mirror look like dirt at first. They are not. The dark patches are the mirror's reflective backing breaking down, and once it starts, no cleaning product will bring the silver back. What you can do is understand why it started and stop it from spreading fast. What the black edge actually is A mirror is glass with a thin layer of silver on the back, protected by paint. Where moisture, cleaning chemicals, or salty air reach that backing, the silver oxidises and turns black. Because the backing is behind the glass, the damage shows through as dark spots or a dark border you cannot wipe away from the front. People call it desilvering or mirror rot. Why bathrooms speed it up Three things attack the backing. Steam and condensation keep the mirror damp for hours, and water wicks into the edges where the backing is most exposed. Ammonia-based glass cleaners, sprayed directly on the mirror, run down and pool at the bottom edge, eatin...
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Shower glass door leaking at the bottom? Check the seal before reaching for silicone

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A puddle outside the shower door after every bath is annoying, and the usual instinct is to run a fresh bead of silicone along the bottom. Half the time that does not fix it, because the water is not coming through the frame joint. It is coming under the door itself, past a plastic seal that costs very little and takes about fifteen minutes to change.

What that bottom seal actually does

Frameless and semi-frameless glass doors have a clear plastic strip clipped onto the bottom edge. It is called a sweep or a drip seal, and it does two jobs: it blocks the gap between the glass and the floor or tray, and its angled fin flicks dripping water back inside the shower. When it is new it is soft and sits flat. With age it turns stiff, yellows, cracks, or the fin bends out of shape, and water starts tracking underneath.

Check it before you buy anything

Run your finger along the strip after a shower. If it feels hard and brittle, has visible cracks, or the fin no longer touches the floor evenly along its length, that is your leak. Also look at the ends: seals shrink slightly over time, and a few millimetres of gap at the hinge or handle end is enough to let a stream out. If the strip looks fine, run the shower with the door closed and watch where water actually appears. A leak at the frame-to-wall joint is a silicone job. A leak under the moving door is a sweep job.

Replacing the sweep

Measure the thickness of your glass (usually 6, 8, or 10 mm) and the width of the door. Sweeps are sold by glass thickness and simply push on. Pull the old one off - it slides or unclips with firm pressure, no tools needed on most doors. Clean the bottom edge of the glass with soapy water and dry it fully. Cut the new sweep to length with a sharp knife or fine saw, then press it on starting from one end. The fin should point into the shower, toward the drain side.

A few cautions. Never drill, screw, or clamp anything onto tempered shower glass - one point of pressure at the edge can shatter the whole panel. If the door has dropped and drags on the floor, adjust the hinges or rollers first; a new sweep will just wear out in months against the wrong gap. And if you do end up re-siliconing a frame joint, remove every trace of the old bead first, because new silicone does not bond reliably to old.

Most bottom leaks end at the sweep. It is a cheap part, it needs no drilling, and the difference is visible after the first shower.

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