I want to make a demountable white board wall

Amigu

Hey guys I've had this pipe dream of having a white board that covers my entire wall, like the one that Mike and Jerry have in their office. I've had a look at this page and it explains how to make large white boards on the cheap. TLDR:

Fortunately, the same material that they make most commercial whiteboards out of is available at most big-box lumber stores like Home Depot for less than $15. “Showerboard”, which is basically cheap plywood with a waterproof white plastic coating on one side.

Now that's great but I live in a rental and I don't really know how the owner would feel about a permanently fixed white board wall so I need a way to attach it to the wall which leaves minimal traces when I remove it and can be mounted and demounted fairly easily.

For an idea of size the area of wall I want to cover is roughly 2x4 meters.

Any ideas?

ThornMartin

How do they feel about nail holes in the wall?

A 2x4 sheet of what's shown there shouldn't be too heavy, so you can probably buy some basic mounting hardware that you would use for picture frames and attach that.

Amigu

I think a few nails would be alright. I've never really hung up any properly sized picture frames, what kind of mounting hardware are you thinking of?

Roland_tHTG

It looked like the guy in your link used a frp panel which are quite flimsy which is why they are often glued to a stiffer board like he showed in his link.

Good luck on filling your wall without having any seams, and basically you should copy his example, and just screw it to studs if you want it mounted.

Amigu

Sorry I'm a terrible handy man. Do you mean drill it to studs in the wall? I should probab;y ad it's quite a flimsy wall only a few inches thick. I'm not even sure whether it has studs as such. Would it still hold? I guess it should seen as there is already a coat hanger screwed to the wall.

Lintilla

Have you considered some sort of wall decal? You should be able to peel it right off the wall when you'r ready to move. There are tons of dry erase ones out there and I imagine you can find something big enough somewhere or sort of wallpaper a few smaller square together, no drilling or hammering required.

I found this one on etsy after just a bit of googling: http://www.etsy.com/listing/58908212/unique-dry-erase-board-decal-notepad

thisisntwally

you could fix a few hooks into the studs and hand the white board from them. minimize the impact to the wall while still getting a fairly firm support.

arguably you wouldn't even have to take the hooks out when you leave.

Jokerman

AFAIK they actualy used whiteboard paint for there wall.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=202041135&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=202041135&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D24X-_-202041135&locStoreNum=901&marketID=15

Should be kosher with the landlord then mounting a board, but i dont know.

Figgy

You can use mirror hardware to mount the board, which would leave only a few screw holes when you take it down.



Really, the landlord can't do anything about you putting nail/screw holes in the wall. Hanging things/hooks/pictures/etc. is considered reasonable wear and tear. Unless you're causing severe damage, don't worry about it.

finalflight89

Figgy wrote: »

You can use mirror hardware to mount the board, which would leave only a few screw holes when you take it down.



Really, the landlord can't do anything about you putting nail/screw holes in the wall. Hanging things/hooks/pictures/etc. is considered reasonable wear and tear. Unless you're causing severe damage, don't worry about it.

I've made one of these cheap whiteboards before, exactly like the like describes, except I made a wooden frame to back it. I don't think the mirror hardware will be able to support the paneling without it buckling in the middle. I needed to put a row of nails down the center of the panel to have the panel flush with the frame and not move in and out when trying to write on it.

I think that nailing/screwing along regular intervals in the studs should work great. The drywall is your flat, hard backing.



Say the grey rectangle is your whiteboard, then put some nails or screws in a pattern like above. I used small enough nails so that they're virtually unnoticeable from afar. I can get some possibly get some pictures if you think it might be helpful.

By the way, it works great, and erases quite well.

Figgy

You're right, only supporting the edges would likely cause buckling unless the board itself was fairly thick.

OP: When you move out, it would take you 20 minutes to putty over the nail holes in the wall and another 30 minutes the next day to paint said wall.

DeathPrawn

Not your exact question, but I just wanted to pipe in and say showerboard is definitely the way to go. I've bought a shitton of it in my day from Home Depot (just bought another 4x8 this week for $12), and it works like a charm. I've heard very suspect things about whiteboard paint; apparently it's very difficult to get it to dry evenly.

Other ideas to consider: I cut a sheet down to the size of my desktop and nailed it down for a kickass whiteboard desk.