Do It Yourself Whiteboard

I'm not sure if this is the same material but I've used what's called "Showerboard" to do this. It was $7 a board if I remember correctly. I put some particleboard behind and made a nice wooden frame for it.

In terms of "erasability" it's more than acceptable for the cost of it. Basically if you erase something within a few day it erases fine with minimal ghosting. If it's longer than a few days then you need to erase a little harder or use windex, which works just like the dry eraser liquid.

Having used the very expensive whiteboards at my previous job I don't see a big difference. The expensive ones still left ghosting and needed to be cleaned every week or so.

Lastly, I would experiment with markers. I've found that some (brand and color) erase better than others.

For what it cost, I definitely recommend doing this.

EDIT: Here is a picture of my whiteboard. https://app.box.com/s/jby2cznhev66ec1izvck

We've wall mounted many Ikea Torsby table tops (53 1/8x33 1/2") and really enjoyed the streamlined look and hassle free cleaning. Best whiteboards I've ever used. There's actually a white backing behind the glass so everything is easy to read.

For $80 it's much more affordable than actual whiteboards while clearly outperforming cheaper alternatives.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90154644/

When I was designing our office I had dreams of having giant wall-covering white boards everywhere. Of course, to save costs, we tried using the shower board material from Home Depot like this post is suggesting.

The ghosting ends up being a pretty big problem. We found some window cleaner (not windex) that does a pretty good job cleaning it, but the boards are getting more and more worn over time. Eventually I hope to replace them all...

I've ended up going a different route in my home office, and it's been quite successful.

Ikea sells these long and skinny white-colored glass. 63" x 19" for $32.00 USD.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80160645/

I have two of these mounted on the wall forming a pretty good-sized white board. It's a little bit weird with the seam in the middle, but it matters less than you'd think. The glass ends up looking WAY better and classier than the shower board would, and you don't have to worry about ghosting ever.

I'm sure this material works OK, but why not just go with glass? Glass will not ghost, and even paint can be removed easily with a razor blade.

YES, these panels are awesome and I've put them on 2 full walls of my office.

The price for the 8' x 4' whiteboards: $13. Great value. You can have them cut the panels at the store into 2 x 4 foot sections if you don't have a way to transport the full panel.

I also just use an alcohol/water mix rather than real whiteboard cleaner.

I use normal drywall screws with a countersunk washer which helps the looks. https://www.google.com/search?q=countersunk+washers&tbm=isch

A friend of mine introduced me to this... one of the best moneysavers I've come across. I've had a smaller section, 2'x4', mounted on my wall for about three months. It was $7-$9! I use it heavily and it erases just like a normal board. Maybe a little more ghosting than a good metal whiteboard, and sometimes I have to put a little more effort in to erasing older marks, but nothing worth spending an extra even $10 to rectify. I've never had to use cleaner, but will just use some diluted alcohol if it ever gets bad enough.

I bought three other "real" whiteboards from big box stores or office supply stores (for about 5x the price each) in the 6 months prior, and every single one has had the surface peel and bubble from the backing, so some areas of those whiteboards are now pressure-sensitive. They are unused since mounting the new board and will eventually find their way out of my possession.

I found 3'x2' "Board Guys" magnetic whiteboards while browsing through Target, on sale for $11 each. Two 3x2 is good for me personally, although 3x2 boards would probably not be for an actual office. Good material, backed, framed, magnetic and a tray. There's something to be said for not DIY sometimes.

My company got some of those peel-and-stick whiteboards after we moved offices (I think whiteyboard, but I'm not certain). Prior to the move we had IdeaPaint; it soon had erasure problems, and ended up looking like a disgusting mess. I'm really pleased with the peel-and-stick kind after about 6 months.

We tried this at our work, where we use whiteboards extensively. I am not a fan. You spend a lot of time trying to make them clean over a 2 year period. It's annoying to be constantly replacing them.

We have moved on to http://www.ideapaint.com/products/ideapaint and are really happy with the result. Cheaper then traditional white boards and better then the Showerboards. The room we tested it in currently has had it up for a year and still works well and easily erasing things that have been up for a month.

Another common name for these boards is "shower board."

One thing I noticed with the one I previously built was that different color / brand markers made a big difference in how easy it was to erase.

IIRC red and black Expo brand were the hardest to erase while green Expo would wipe clean even after a couple months (we left a couple of test marks on the board once we realized color made a difference to see how each fared).

I tried a stick on whiteboard decal approach and it just didn't stay on the wall in Australian summer temperatures. Cost me $100+ and is now in the bin.

At the office, another business uses a thin magnetic sheet with magnetic whiteboard tiles they can move around, write on, etc. Means that anything likely to be written up for a long time is usually isolated to a small replaceable piece.

During construction of my office walls in the '90s I had this same paneling installed over raw drywall. I was almost the same cost because the contractor didn't need to finish the drywall (very labor intensive) but rather used liquid nails to glue the paneling onto the drywall. Don't try using this paneling directly as the wall.

The problem with using shower board is ghosting. Even Expo markers will leave behind tracks.

The smoother and harder the surface, the easier it is clean. The actual whiteboard material is very smooth and hard, almost like porcelain. Glass is an ideal surface, so long as you don't have children around. Windows work pretty well too.

They also sell whiteboard material, whatever that is. It cuts good, erases as well as the real thing. I recommend it.

I can't find the post, but there was an article about this stuff on here a while back. Like large sheets of dry erase contact paper.

http://www.amazon.com/GoWrite-Dry-Erase-Rolls-White/dp/B0037...

When we really needed dry erase boards at one place I worked we laminated white cardboard. That was fairly cheap and it actually erased. We had inherited a 60-ish inch (maybe 65) roll laminator. You can buy some big cardboard sheets to fit in those things.

I've been using this stuff for years. Can't beat the price! Just be careful of scratching it too much. After a while my boards get pretty un-eraseable and the grooves will tear up markers at an unfavorable rate.

Would be great to see how well this works (especially over time). I've used IdeaPaint before, but it always seems to get worse and ghost over time. Also it's quite expensive.

Can confirm, did this in college and it worked great.