

Dry Erase White Board Paint for Offices - beagledude
http://www.ideapaint.com/work/ideapaint

======
ErrantX
I pressed for a long long time to get whiteboard walls at our office. Mostly
because it would be a cool/hip thing to have, and, you know, cool and hip
makes you productive right?

Seriously though; it is pretty useful when brainstorming. But the BEST use is
the one next to my desk where I can lean over and jot notes & progress updates
etc. at will. No more post-it notes cluttering up the place :D

The other advantage over a traditional Whiteboard is the sheer size. I always
run out of space on normal boards, an entire wall isn't infinite, but it takes
significantly long to fill.

Some tips. This is only a "chuck it on the wall" product if you are not overly
concerned with the look (for example; using it for a cafe price board etc.).
In an office w/o the proper prep it can look nasty, uneven and start to get
messy in very little time.

You really need to re-plaster the walls, then sand them finely (this is the
big pain). And then seal them properly with a skinning under coat (that will
iron out any tiny bumps). Hopefully leaving you with a nice flat surface.

We skipped this bit the first time and had to re-do the entire test wall after
about 2 months.

------
philipn
The big problem with this is your walls have to be really, really flat for it
to work like a real whiteboard.

What we found that works even better -- and cheaper! -- is to go to your local
hardware store and pick up some tileboard (used for doing shower interiors,
etc). It's like $5 a sheet and is the same material used in whiteboards! And
if you're cheap you can just glue it directly to the wall.

~~~
reemrevnivek
Yup, I actually did this same thing this weekend! It was a little over $10 a
sheet (not $5 as you say), but that's nothing compared to OfficeMax quoting me
$163 for a 4x6 foot (framed) whiteboard.

$13.04 for a 4x8 sheet at Lowes: <a
href="[http://www.lowes.com/pd_16605-46498-300_0__?productId=301523...](http://www.lowes.com/pd_16605-46498-300_0__?productId=3015239&Ntt=dpi&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Ddpi>DPI)
1/8"D x 4'W x 8'H Trifty White Hardboard Wall Panel, Item #: 16605</a>

Or, they also stock a 32"x48" piece ( <a
href="[http://www.lowes.com/pd_61082-46498-31023248_0__?productId=3...](http://www.lowes.com/pd_61082-46498-31023248_0__?productId=3042205&Ntt=tileboard&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dtileboard>Item)
#: 61082</a> ) if you just want one for a cube wall.

Note that this won't be magnetic. The OfficeMax representative said that the
magnetic variety was around 3x as expensive as the non-magnetic. Comparing
$13.04 to $489, I think I can make that sacrifice.

I'm cheap, but I secured mine to every other stud (32") with some polebarn
screws I had on hand (nice white hex head, rubber washer to avoid crushing the
hardboard). That way, I just have to spackle and repaint 8 little holes,
instead of re-doing the drywall. Cheaper in the long run!

Oh, and it works great as a whiteboard.

~~~
reemrevnivek
Curses. How do I get URLs to work? I've tried
`[markdown](http:\\\example.com)` and <a href="http:\\\example.com">HTML</a>.
Those URLs are ugly; I don't want to use the URL->link facility recommended in
the formatting help: <http://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc>

------
woodpanel
nice idea. ideapaint has been around for some years now. at our office, we
gave it a thought.

pros:

\- biggest possible room for your ideas (your walls)

\- that's it - but the above is a big one

cons:

\- toxic

\- pain in the ass to get on the wall

\- uncleanable since walls are not flat

\- even bigger pain in the ass to get it off the wall once you change your
office location

also:

we compared the cost/m² and it turned out that ideapaint costs more than
regular whiteboard (at least in Germany that's the case).

------
dotBen
I'm not sure if it is the same specific brand, but I bought a tin of this and
was warned it is toxic until 100% dry.

In fact, even when it is dry it is toxic but inert. However do be careful of
the fumes as you apply it - especially if your office is not well ventilated.

------
gotwilly
We use this at the office and it works pretty well. It's not exactly the same
as writing on a real whiteboard, but having an entire wall for drawing
database diagrams is very useful. Our wall is like most walls, I guess, in
that it is not perfectly flat like a whiteboard. The small divots and bumps
make it nearly impossible to clean (especially if the writing has been left
there for a while).

~~~
chromic
The cleaning is the biggest thing. I've seen this in a few places and there
are always red and blue tints left over from erasing. Old writing tends to be
a bit hard to take off without some kind of liquid spray.

~~~
eustatius
I think the big problem is that plaster walls just aren't flat enough to
prevent ink hiding in the divots and creases. So you can wipe over the surface
but never get the little spots out of those imperfections.

We've painted a whiteboard-sized area of our office with this stuff. There's
no border to tell you where the whiteboard paint finishes. As you'd expect,
the ink is no longer confined to the bit that's wipe-clean. Otherwise (with
the spray proviso above) it's been very useful, and we can always extend it
with another pot later.

Another alternative is those statically charged pieces of "whiteboard paper" -
Whiteyboard is mentioned below, and there's also
<http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/> \- although they don't stay up tidily for
much longer than a couple of weeks. I think they're only really meant to last
e.g. a day-long meeting.

------
sharadgopal
Previous Discussion of IdeaPaint:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=699602>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=701255>

------
squirrel
Wall-based whiteboards are a standard at youDevise. We found whiteboard
wallpaper that seems better than the paint - can dig up the name for anyone
interested.

Agree it is important to keep clean as you go but ours seems fine after 6
months of heavy use.

~~~
moeffju
I'm interested. Ideapaint is intriguing, but has too many drawbacks.

~~~
squirrel
It'll take awhile to find out (the person who ordered and installed it has
moved on, so I really do have to dig around for it). How can I send you an
email with the name?

~~~
squirrel
I found it!

[http://www.tektura.com/pages/display_pattern.asp?Type=Range&...](http://www.tektura.com/pages/display_pattern.asp?Type=Range&PID=5&PAT=7)

------
bobds
I'd love to paint a couple walls with this when I get a more permanent office.

If you like moving around with your whiteboard check out:
<http://www.whiteyboard.com/>

You can move it around and wash it and it's fairly cheap.

~~~
mynegation
Seconded. I live in rental apartment and painting walls is not an option for
me. I have their biggest size surface stuck to my wall and I love it. The only
downside that I found so far is that if dry erase marker writing stay there
for a longer time, they do not come off as easily as from traditional
whiteboard. But paper towels (and sometimes a little bit of cleaning solution)
easily solve that.

------
Jach
Very cheap alternative: cellophane. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBMUI-
Mj_YU>

~~~
trun
We tried this at our old office -- wasn't a huge fan. It tends to bubble up
and doesn't erase well. Our new office heavily uses IdeaPaint, and assuming
you can swallow the cost, it's an infinitely better solution.

------
JoeAltmaier
Malamine board from hardware store, 8X4: $14

Install in 20 minutes (screw to wall), doesn't have to dry, removable,
perfectly flat.

~~~
reemrevnivek
The word is "Melamine", which is the name of the resin used to bind the wood
powders in that family of engineered wood products.

You actually want tile board, which is a coated, thin hardboard used in
bathroom walls. The particles in hardboard are finer than medium-density
fiberboard (MDF), which is finer than particle board), all of which are
varieties of melamine board.

------
ricefield
has anyone used this and give a recommendation? I'd love to try this, but it'd
be nice to have a third-party perspective or even see it in action somewhere

~~~
cellucci
I don't know if it's the same brand, but they use it in the conference rooms
at one of the places I work and it's terrible. It's so difficult to clean that
they've already repainted after just a couple of months. Now no one is allowed
to keep their work on them overnight, and they've banned low-odor markers
(apparently those stain more?).

------
endlessvoid94
I used one of these on Friday, and I was disappointed. It was painted well -
very flat and consistent. But it just wasn't the same as a whiteboard. There's
a smoothness and a polish to a real board that doesn't seem to happen with
these paint types.

------
nickythegreek
WhiteyBoard has peel and stick whiteboards in large sizes at pretty affordable
prices. I'm trying to decide between this and the shower wall method right
now.

<http://www.whiteyboard.com/>

------
glenjamin
As a general tip for dried on marker with whiteboards, I've always found that
drawing over the old stuff, and the rubbing off the new ink works very well.

~~~
joezydeco
That tip also works when someone accidentally writes on the board with a
permanent marker.

------
kerben
We used Ideapaint at our office and it still works and looks great two years
later. I would highly recommend it.

