First I want to thank the Administrator of this site for all of the valuable information about hardwood floors. I have learned a great deal since deciding on pulling out my rugs and going hardwood all the way on the main floor of my house.

I am just beginning and I am sure I will be back to ask many more questions.

My question is in regards to what was posted in the FAQ section of this site.



My question is how do I find out if it is OSB? I had a gentleman yesterday say that I had particle board on top of plywood.

I live in the southeast and my home was built in 1971 if that will help to answer my question.

Post a photo is one way. A home built in 1971 would NOT have used OSB. So more than likely, you have particle board over plywood.

Thanks for your response.

I will be spending my Thanksgiving holiday researching the info on this site before I go ahead with having it done.

Almost guaranteed it is particle board.

OSB stands for oriented strand board, which is an engineered product with the wood stands oriented in layers to provide a much better product than particle board. Exterior or surface layers are composed of strands aligned in the long panel direction; inner-layers consist of cross- or randomly-aligned strands.

It drives me nuts when OSB and particle board are interchanged. Kind of like designer shows that call laminate flooring "hardwood".

It was the early to mid 90's when I first saw OSB. My first impression, was "I aint installing over this stuff"

I would only glue over it. As fasteners wouldn't hold in it, unless it was a screw. Ring shank's were even easy to remove.

Todays OSB is much different.

Just when I thought I was all set and cleared to cleat down my boards to the 23/32 APA rated STURD-I-FLOOR, PRP-108 OSB in my 1991 built home. (heavy sigh)

Floorguy: Is it your experience that OSB made in the early 90's is found lacking when used as a base for hardwood installation, or was the stuff you disliked back then created at an earlier time?

What you have is alright if you run the floor perpendicular to the joist. I prefer staples over cleats though.

Thank you for your input and experience, Jerry.

After several readings of the sticky, regarding cleats vs staples, I would have preferred staples. The deciding factor for cleats was that I will be putting down tiete rosewood.

My understanding of the general consensus is "staples break tongues on harder than normal hardwoods". This stuff is hard enough to require my rocking the moisture meter back and forth, with a lot of pressure, just to get the pins inserted half way.

I may still test a board or two with staples before I start. Especially since, with the hardness, the Bostitch manual nailer I have will probably hurt me quite a bit.

Thanks again.

For the original poster, RCL:

The best description I've read, regarding how to tell OSB vs Particle Board was: If it looks like sawdust glued together, it's Particle Board. If it looks like shavings of wood glued together, it's OSB.

Thank you all for your very informative posts.