At Boards Direct we offer an extensive range of writing surfaces for various applications from small offices to large corporate and educational facilities. There is a difference!

Choosing the correct surface is important to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations. 

Porcelain (or vitreous enamel) surfaces are a white ceramic glass fused onto a steel substrate under extremely high temperatures. This offers a highly scratch resistant surface suitable for heavy writing uses which typically carry a 25 year warranty. Porcelain whiteboards are ideal for schools, educational and conference facilities.

Projection Porcelain is different again—with the surface embedded with mica crystals to better assist viewing with projectors. It is a matte surface, so for best results use a wet wipe, rather than dry wipe, when erasing or cleaning. These boards typically carry a 25 year warranty and are recommended, where your use is generally 80% projection and 20% writing.

Standard Whiteboards are comprised of multiple layers of painted steel with a white top coat baked under moderate oven temperatures. The surface is not as hard as the porcelain (vitreous enamel) finish and can therefore be scratched. Typically, our standard commercial whiteboard surfaces carry an 8 year warranty and are suitable for all moderate use applications. 

Glassboards (or glass boards) The writing surfaces are made from a tempering process that makes them up to 8 times stronger than standard glass. The surface never deteriorates, never stains.. or absorbs ink (even permanent markers) and offers a smooth, easy writing experience with the best cleaning results. Our glassboards typically carry a LIFETIME warranty on the writing surface and ideal for heavy use applications.

What is the difference between Regular glass and Starphire glass?

Starphire glass is toughened glass that has been processed to remove the slight blue/green tinge that is associated with regular toughened glass. This tinge alters the appearance of some colours. So white becomes slightly blue/green, and yellow becomes green etc. However, the low iron (starphire) glass has no tint, so white appears ‘whiteboard white’ and you can enjoy the true majesty of your chosen colour glassboard.

Care and Maintenance of your Whiteboard

• All surfaces need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Ensure you use the correct dry erase marker rather than a permanent marker.
• Ensure that your eraser is clean. Our Microfibre cleaning cloth is an excellent environment friendly solution capable of removing difficult marks.
• If you have permanent writing or stubborn stains you can ‘write over’ them with a dry erase marker which will help to remove.
• Ghosting is the feint remains of writing and is not evidence of a faulty surface. 
• Alcohol based cleaning fluids and board conditioners can be used for stubborn stains. DO NOT use abrasive cleaners.
• Leaving whiteboard marks on the surface for longer than 24 hours is not recommended as the longer they’re left, the more difficult they become to erase because of various external effects from UV lights to air conditioning.