My wife and I are planning on installing 3/8" engineered hardwood in our 'new' home. Upon discovering that we have particleboard subfloors in the areas we plan on installing the hardwood and finding out that particleboard is not the most desirable subfloor for hardwood, we have decided to put a 1/2" plywood underlayment on top.

The question I have is what is going to be the most effective way to fasten the 1/2" ply to the particleboard?

Going off some recommendations I've found, I've found 6" fastener spacing on the perimeter, and 12" in the field. Will nails work for this or would we be best off screwing the ply down?

Thanks

Rob

If it were my house, I'd glue it down to the particle board if it is excellent shape and not showing any kind of moisture damage.

I'm soon to lay 3/4" hardwood flooring. I have 3/4" particle board subflooring (which is over 1/2" plywood subflooring). I was told that I should level the subflooring, put on tar paper and then add the hardwood.

I thought about putting down 1/4" luan plywood underlayment (recommended by Lowe's flooring people) and then found Tim Carter of AskTheBuilder.com who said to NOT put down underlayment! He said to level the dips with roofing shingles, then put the tar paper over the floor and put the 3/4" hardwood flooring on top of that.

I'm totally new to this and wish us both the best.