i just pulled up the carpet in anticipation of installing my strand woven bamboo, and found a mix of plywood and particle board over a plywood baselayer.
most of the particle board is in segments and pieces ranging from 12 x 12 to 6 x 4 sheets.
some of it is trashed from previous water damage.
i spoke to my installer, and he thinks we should nail down 1/2" plywood on top of everything, and install the bamboo on top of that...taking into consideration door height, etc. not being an issue.

my question is, should i rip up all the particle board, and the small amount of plywood and start over with some brand new plywood as the subfloor?

thanks
scott

after reading more about the difference between underlayment and subfloor, i have determined that my situation is that i have a totally junior varsity particle board underlayment on top of some thickness plywood subflloor.

to reiterate my question, is it ok to nail new 1/2" plywood to the existing particleboard underlayment, or should that be taken out, and new underlayment, solid plywood be added for the best possible finish??

thank you for your insight.
scott

Particle board should never be in the mix or made into a sandwich.

Get that junk out of there.

Replace it with plywood. I prefer using an underlayment grade BC plywood instead of the cheaper CDX grade. It's made for underlayment and will not have voids in the inner layers like CDX does.

thank you for the info.
i will start ripping up the particle board tonight.

scott