Question

White boards are in my opinion one of the most important tools developers have. I work for a startup company who found me some free office space at a local univeristies innovation office. The offices here didn't have a white board, nor the cash in the budget too purchase them.

We ended up buying cheap tile board from Lowes which works fairly well; however, if you leave stuff on them for too long it will be harder to erase.

What cheap white board solutions can you come up with? We are trying to figure out if we can coat the tile board with something to make it a little less resistant to staining. But so far our solution costed $30 for two 4x8 sheets. I'm tempted to use this tile board instead of drywall when I get around to building my home office.

Answer 1

Use a window or other sheet of glass, or bath board, or whiteboard paint. Lifehacker have a load of tips on how to build them.

If you use glass you can light it from one end and the writing will glow. Which of course no geek would be interested in.

Update: as far as cleaning a whiteboard, I found that a few pumps from one of those alcohol hand-cleaner dispensers (that are everywhere now thanks to swine flu) and a few sheets of paper hand towel work like a charm to clean a whiteboard, even if someone's been using flip-chart pens on it.

I just stumbled upon an Instructables article on creating a glass whiteboard, complete with some pictures:

One from some TV show/film (pic is from NUMB3RS):

And the Instructables version:

Answer 2

The cunning trick to erase old writing is to scribble over it with a FRESH marker, then rub it off.

Answer 3

For a few years, one of my walls was covered with whiteboard contact paper, which was quite nice.

Answer 4

The absolute cheapest white board you'll find comes from home improvement warehouses like Lowe's or Home Depot. That sounds like what you already have. Anything higher-quality is going to cost more. As for old markings being hard to erase... well, that's a problem with almost any white board, particularly the cheap ones. Good ones just are not cheap.

Answer 5

You could always paint one on:

Product:
http://www.rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=128

Result:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chriswburke/2608401158/

Warning For Magnetic Layer:
http://raubinc.blogspot.com/2008/01/magnetic-paint.html

Answer 6

A couple of companies make dry-erase sheets that cling to a smooth surface like those stickers people put in car windows that don't use adhesive. If your wall is not smooth, you can use push pins or tape. Amazon has one here. Big advantage is they are portable, and can be moved around. So when planning a project, a sheet may start in the middle of the wall, but if we need to keep it longer, move it to the top corner, where it is out of the way. Or if planning code modules, the programmer for that module can take it back to his work center after the planning meeting.

Answer 7

DON'T USE WINDEX OR OTHER GLASS CLEANERS ON WHITEBOARDS!

Sounds like you cleaned your board with Windex or other window cleaners. If you did, you tarnished the finish that allows you to erase easily. This is a common mistake, my office did this and wasted a lot of expensive boards.

Answer 8

Here's a $40 method that should work

if you've not got white walls, then just substitute the clear acrylic for white opaque....

Answer 9

You could check out Johnny Lee's solution. But the method assumes you own projector - what is less probable, I guess.

But anyway, be informed.

Answer 10

I just discovered Magic Whiteboard, "only £29.99 for 25 A1 sheets".

The quality isn't awesome but you can take your whiteboard back to the desk after a meeting without getting a hernia.

There's also Magic Blackboard for old school fun:

Answer 11

Why don't you try www.ideapaint.com. It is paint that dries to the same thing as a white board. So you could just paint your whole wall and have a huge white board. It works great.