When you install 3/4 inch solid flooring you should never nail to particleboard. The reason is that solid flooring expands and contracts with humidity changes. If you have ever had particleboard cabinets or bookshelves you know it can break very easy under stress. When a wood floor that is nailed to particleboard expands or contracts the particleboard simply breaks.
Plywood on the other hand is made by cutting the tree much like paper towels come off the roll. You didn't think they had four foot diameter trees did you? The thin veneers are flattened into flat sheets and then glued together. The grain is alternated with each layer giving it tremendous strength.
Although the veneers aren't in the circular pattern as they were cut from the tree the structural strength of the tree remains. Sawdust and glue just doesn't have this natural strength.
Knowing why you should not nail over particleboard the question becomes how to remove it and what to do with it.
One of the easiest ways I have found to remove it is to simply drive the nails clear through the particleboard so that they sink into the 1/2 plywood that is often below it.
Using a large nail set and a small sledgehammer the nails can be set fairly easily and the sheets will come up in one sheet instead of the shards of pieces which would normally result trying to remove it without setting the nails.
I often cut the sheets into shelving boards for the shop. The overspray paint from the painters who first painted the walls doesn't make much of a problem for shop shelves. The painters knew that the particleboard would be covered with wall to wall carpet so the overspray didn't matter.
There are lots of uses for this particleboard rather than using it to fill our landfills. This is a remodeling tip you should share with anyone you know who is considering installing wood floors. You might even want to share it with people who sell wood floors.
