When the hallway gallery in Jamaica Plain recently decided to add new floors to its space, there were many flooring options to consider. But Brent Refsland, owner and curator of the gallery, had his mind set on a longstanding aesthetic vision for the space, which was to construct the new floors using dense particle board. Particle board is a unique, yet approachable, flooring option, and for the hallway gallery it proved to be a beautiful compliment to the space and its featured art.
The cost of adding the new particle board floor to the hallway gallery was somewhere around $300. Pretty inexpensive when considering other floor alternatives! But not only is this flooring option budget conscious, it's also gorgeous and unique.
If you need new floors, consider what particle board could do for your room.
What you'll need:
- particle board
- baseboard
- nail gun/hammer nails
- saw
- wood filler
- putty knife
- sandpaper
- polyurethane
For your project, you'll want to measure the square footage of your space and purchase the necessary amount of particle board. The thickness of the particle board is dependent on the ceiling height and/or whether you are ripping out the preexisting floors, but 3/4-inch should be good for most projects.
After measuring and cutting the pieces of particle board for your room, nail the board to the floor/subfloor. After laying out and nailing the particle board, begin to fill in the cracks between each board with wood filler. Also, fill in the nail holes if you wish to have those hidden. After the wood filler has dried, sand the filler down with 120-grit sandpaper.
Once the particle board is secure and the wood filler is sanded, you can add polyurethane to protect and aesthetically enhance the floor. Make sure the surface is completely clean and free of sawdust. Use a nap roller when applying the poly, and be sure to have your space well ventilated. Allow at least 12 hours of dry time between each new coat of poly. The hallway's particle floors have 3 coats, but Brent intends on adding a couple more coats throughout the year, after normal wear and tear.
Once the poly has been completed, be sure to include baseboard to hide the space between the particle board and the wall. There are many options for baseboard, so choose one that's right for your space.
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Comments (10)
love it! i've been considering stained OSB in my living room for years now. it's nice to see others thinking outside the box!
I have never done this before, but would suggest that prior to laying the boards down to apply some wood hardener to the exposed ends of each sheet. Particle board can be porous. Moisture getting in on the ends could cause warping/bubbling.
I've always wanted to do this with MDF. Seems that chipping, denting, and moisture resistance would be big(er) problems particle board.
Good thing about MDF (and PB somewhat) is that they take stain REALLY well. you could so all kinds of interesting stuff with it. Instead of filling the seams, I would probably use some type of shallow relief on a grid that would make it easier to make selective repairs without ruining the look of the floor.
I'd love to hear how this wears.
I'm veryyyy curious about this. I have particle board furniture and it is a dust collector. Obviously the finish on floors would be a lot different but I'm curious to see how these floors hold up day to day.
There are several chip-board floors in art galleries and architect's offices in Seattle, which I think are even more striking than the smaller particles. The chip-board stains beautifully, too - I've seen it done in gray, green, and blue, as well as left natural.
The particle board, and MDF, looks like linoleum to me, which is lovely if that's what you want. I prefer the more obvious industrial look to the rougher stuff.
I was just there! But I was too busy looking at the art and the ceiling(!) to notice the floor.
looks fantastic in person! really opens up this small space in a great way.
A martial arts studio in Austin used plywood. One could still see the screws and seams, but with several coats of poly, the the patterns in the plywood looked amazingly beautiful.
It can be hard to find full sheets of any of these kinds of wood products that aren't marred by the darn stamps they use. Does anyone have suggestions/experience with that? I always try sanding, but am wondering whether the ink comes off with some kind of product that would make things a lot easier.
We recently did an OSB floor in my son's bedroom. It looks great, is wearing well, and was CHEAP compared to the other options we were looking at. The only bummers: it was torturous trying to carry the large 4x8 sheets up to the third floor room and my husband did not seal down into the edges with poly and a water leak may have permanently damaged one corner. Other than that, it's an awesome solution.
This looks awesome in person. And it had potential to really stand out (in a not so great way) because the space is so small.