Is Chalkboard Paint as Effective as a Real Chalkboard?

[spacetimedude]

Hello,

I'm wondering if anyone has an experience with chalkboard paint. I just moved into a new house and I am considering painting a wall with chalkboard paint.

Is it as effective as a real chalkboard? I'm going to write intensively on it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[turbo]

What materials are the walls made of? Gypsum wallboard (sheet-rock) might not be a good substrate for a painted chalkboard. If you can source a large enough piece of masonite, prime it and paint it with the chalkboard paint, you might have a sufficiently flat, durable surface for writing. Best of all, if you have to move that chalkboard, you can take it down with minimal wall-repairs. Good luck, no matter how you decide.

 

[Evo]

Turbo's idea is very good.

Odd, I just watched a show on tv oh how they make chalkboards. They apply three coats of chalkpaint.

 

[Integral]

While working at a University I got to take down and move chalk boards. I was surprised to find that they were painted plate glass. So chalk board paint is not uncommon. As Turbo said you need to find a good substrate.

While at Lehigh U in eastern Pa I observed real slate chalk boards in the 100+ yr old building my office was in.

 

[George Jones]

Why not whiteboard paint?

 

[turbo]

While at Lehigh U in eastern Pa I observed real slate chalk boards in the 100+ yr old building my office was in.

When my wife and I decided to remodel our kitchen, my niece's husband had secured a good supply of slate blackboards. Those are now the countertops and back-splashes of our kitchen. One conspicuous exception is a corner-counter and back-splash made of fossil-rock that I got from my friend, who is dying from liver cancer. It all goes well together.

 

[Dr Transport]

I have done three projects using chalkboard paint, the first was a wall down in the basement for my kids when they were little, it worked pretty well, it was on wallboard. The second is a small board in my library/office, not too bad, it was on a piece of cabinet plywood, it isn't too smooth, but it works. The 3rd was in a really smooth sheet of cabinet grad plywood and I sanded the paint layers in between coats, it is in my son's room and is obviously the best of the bunch.

I also suggest mounting on a wall and trimming it after the fact, it looks so much better.