Installing Hardwood Flooring On Particle Board

When thinking about installing wood flooring in a situation where the only subfloor is particle board you really only have one option.

Installing hardwood flooring on particle board.

Maintenance is easy for a pre finished hardwood floor keep grit off of the surface by sweeping regularly and use a flooring cleaning kit alcohol based and spray on and wipe off with a damp cloth. The home is about 35 years old. Try not to cut into the joists or blocking so set your skillsaw depth carefully to 7 8. Hardwood floors also help cut down on dust mites.

Use a skillsaw to cut through the particle board 1 1 2 from the walls use a sawzall or something similar to finish cuts. Hardwood flooring that is fastened by any method whether it be mechanical fasteners or glue should not go over particle board. It s best to vacuum the particleboard first to help the glue adhere. Begin with the first row pre drilling holes.

Don t mop the floor as it can absorb the water and damage the particleboard. To our dismay when we ripped up the old carpet we found that the whole subfloor was covered with particle board. Use a thick piece of plywood to help shore up your. 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.

Stop when you have about 5 feet of flooring remaining to be laid or when you don t. Here s how to install flooring using the staple down method. Typically used for engineereed hardwood staple down installation works well with 3 8 5 8 inch flooring. 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.

Install the remaining lines of hardwood across your particleboard subfloor spreading more glue for each line. 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. We want to install either laminate or hardwood flooring throughout most of our home. 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. 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. 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. 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.