Installing Hardwood Flooring On Particle Board

Begin with the first row pre drilling holes.

Installing hardwood flooring on particle board.

The reason you can only float a floor over particle board is because nails won t hold in the particle board and glue will ruin the particle board. Use a skillsaw to cut through the particle board 1 1 2 from the walls use a sawzall or something similar to finish cuts. Install the remaining lines of hardwood across your particleboard subfloor spreading more glue for each line. Typically used for engineereed hardwood staple down installation works well with 3 8 5 8 inch flooring.

To our dismay when we ripped up the old carpet we found that the whole subfloor was covered with particle board. Sheet vinyl can be installed over an old hardwood floor but a layer of 1 4 inch or thicker underlayment has to be installed over the old hardwood flooring first. Hardwood floors also help cut down on dust mites. It is particle board and not osb.

Try not to cut into the joists or blocking so set your skillsaw depth carefully to 7 8. A floating install is the only way to go over it and i don t know of any 3 4 solid on the market that you can float. The home is about 35 years old. Using a standard nail gun to install the floor was out of the question particle board isn t structurally sound enough to bite nails.

Next using your hammer insert a nail 1 inch from the wall and about every 4 inches along the board. It s best to vacuum the particleboard first to help the glue adhere. The particle board does not run under the walls. Use a thick piece of plywood to help shore up your.

That option is floating a floor over top of the subfloor. I pulled up all the carpet and found 3 4 particle board over 1 2 plywood board subfloor underneath the carpet. Here s how to install flooring using the staple down method. Pull up the existing flooring and baseboards in the room you are working in.

Last year we installed solid oak hardwood floor in our main bedroom and family room. Stop when you have about 5 feet of flooring remaining to be laid or when you don t. Hardwood flooring that is fastened by any method whether it be mechanical fasteners or glue should not go over particle board. Particle board underlayment has the appearance of oatmeal but is actually made up of tiny wood particles glued and pressed into 4 x 8 sheets.

When thinking about installing wood flooring in a situation where the only subfloor is particle board you really only have one option. Don t mop the floor as it can absorb the water and damage the particleboard.