Walls – What’s the best way to remove a rusty, broken screw from a tiled bathroom wall

bathroomscrewstilewalls

The previous inhabitant of our apartment used screws which aren't rust-free in the shower. Now the screw holding our shower head rail broke off – or rather, just "came off" without any resistance.

The part of the screw sticking out of the wall broke off, the rest is still in the wall. this is what it looks like right now:

half a rusty screw in a tiled wall

If it's possible I'd like to reuse the hole because

  • the upper part of the shower rail is still attached, so it's in "the perfect position"
  • it's not like it needs to carry a lot of weight
  • I'd like to avoid having to drill into the tile and possibly cracking it

That's just the best case though and might not be possible as I can't get a good hold of the screw with pliermy general question is what to do next?.

Best Answer

You could try a screw extractor, i have had moderate success with them.

You use the first end clockwise to make divot in the screw so that the second end that turns counter clockwise will have something to bite its teeth into. Go slow and apply pressure into the screw. In your case the head is missing so it makes it very difficult but worth a try.

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The set does not cost to much and is good to have on hand anyways even it does not always work.