Installing Solid Hardwood Floors Over Particle Board

Use a thick piece of plywood to help shore up your particle board subfloor at least 3 4 inch thick.

Installing solid hardwood floors over particle board.

When thinking about installing wood flooring in a situation where the only subfloor is particle board you really only have one option. We want to install either laminate or hardwood flooring throughout most of our home. The home is about 35 years old. The reason floating installations work and are the best suited for installation over a particleboard sub floor is because a floating floor is not secured to the sub floor in any area.

But the additional height of both the particle board and the new flooring may pose a problem with doors and appliances. It is particle board and not osb. 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. Installing solid hardwood floors over particleboard plain and simple answer is no.

Nails won t grip the particle board but screws do a better job. Once you have insured the particle is in good condition you are able to install any floating type flooring engineered hardwood strand woven bamboo or eucalyptus laminate or cork over the particle board. Solid wood floors should not be installed in basements or below grade. To our dismay when we ripped up the old carpet we found that the whole subfloor was covered with particle board.

Using a standard nail gun to install the floor was out of the question particle board isn t structurally sound enough to bite nails. They are available in 3 4 inch thickness as well as low profile styles that are 5 16 to 5 8 inch thick which are a good or installing over existing flooring. Start with a small area so you can reach across wet glue without stepping or kneeling in it. If desired particle board underlayment can be left in place if a floating engineered wood floor or a floating laminate floor system is going to be installed over it.

Last year we installed solid oak hardwood floor in our main bedroom and family room. Make a line of glue the length. The particle board does not run under the walls. Spread flooring adhesive on the particleboard with your flooring trowel.

That option is floating a floor over top of the subfloor. Like unfinished hardwood floors the prefinished types typically have tongue and groove edges on all sides.