How to Remove a Towel Bar

Towel bars get a lot of use and abuse over time. The weight of wet towels and even leaning on them occasionally eventually cause the towel bar mounting hardware to come loose. This results in some wall damage behind the mounting brackets. When this happens, you need to remove the towel bar and make repairs. Fortunately, towel bars are not complicated pieces. Most install in the same general manner regardless of the manufacturer and design.

Things You'll Need

• Phillips screwdriver
• Hex wrench
• Needle-nose pliers

Instructions

1. Look under the bottom of each end of the towel bar. There is one setscrew securing the towel bar ends to the hidden mounting plate.

2. Loosen and remove the setscrews with a Phillips screwdriver or hex wrench, depending on the screw head. Grab each end of the towel bar and lift straight up to remove the towel bar from the mounting plates.

3. Remove the screws securing the mounting plate to the wall, using the screwdriver. If the mounting plates use toggle screws, the wings on the toggle will fall harmlessly behind the wall cavity.

4. Pull the mounting plates off the wall once you remove the screws. If your mounting plates were secured with plastic anchors, pull the anchors out of the wall with a pair of needle-nose pliers.

References

• This Old House; Installing a Towel Bar; Natalie Rodriguez
• Overstock.com; How To Install a Bathroom Towel Rack; Tonya Goodspeed