Owens Corning
Wood Products: Particle Board, Strand Board, and Hardboard
Particle Board

The development of improved-strength chemical adhesives has helped the lumber industry use materials that once were discarded as wood waste. Particle board is one of those waste by-products that uses sawdust and small wood particles, combined with adhesives and formed into sheets of uniform thickness, using high pressures and temperatures. The resulting product, called particle board, can be used in houses as underlayment (under carpet only: particle board should not be used as a base for installing vinyl or ceramic floorcovering).

Particle board is also used for cabinet countertops, for partitions between cabinets and drawers, for closet and other shelving and for furniture applications. Particle board is also used as a base for door jambs and other trim, where a ply or veneer of hardwood is glued over the particle board base.

Particle board and other manufactured board products help us to completely utilize and conserve our forest products, and also help hold down the rising cost of construction and furniture items. Because of its construction, particle board is not suited for use on outdoor projects or anywhere that high humidity or moisture levels are present.

If you install laminate countertops that have a particle board base, you should apply a coat of paint or wood sealer around the edges of the particle board, where you make the sink cutout. Sealing the edge of the sink cutout will prevent moisture from penetrating into the particle board and cause a degradation or glue failure between the particle board and the plastic laminate material (such as Formica). Particle board is available in a choice of thicknesses (1/2 in. thick being most common) ,depending on its intended use or application.

Wafer/Oriented Strand Board

Both of these products are made from wood fibers that are mixed with resins and formed into sheets. Both of these products enable the forest industry to utilize less desirable or less mature wood species to manufacture building materials. Wafer board is made by slicing soft wood into wafers that resemble potato chips in size and shape. These wafers are then mixed with resins and formed into sheet materials that can be used for most of the same applications as plywood. Because the wood wafers are completely wrapped up or encapsulated in the resin, the wafer board can be used for both interior and exterior applications.

Rather than slicing wood into wafers, as is done with wafer board, oriented strand board is made by separating wood fibers and then bonding them together with resins into sheets. Like wafer board, strand board enables us to use lesser species of wood to manufacture building material. Fast-growing wood species of trees such as poplar, which would not otherwise be commercially utilized, cannot only be used but their rapid growth means they are truly a renewable forest resource.

Hardboard

Hardboard, like the sheet products listed above, uses what might otherwise be waste products to make building materials. Hardboard is made of cellulosic (wood) fibers bonded together at high pressures. The material is very dense. It is made in 1/8 in. or 3/16 in. thicknesses, and is used for furniture construction, as the bottom of cabinet drawers or as the back or wall side of furniture or cabinets. Hardboard is smooth on one face and embossed on the opposite face.

Tempered hardboard is hardboard that is heat-treated to improve its strength and moisture resistance. When drilled in evenly spaced holes of uniform diameter, it may be nailed on the shop wall and used to hang tools, or it may be used for decorative purposes. It is then called pegboard or perforated hardboard. Hardboard may also be made into siding such as Masonite(TM). Hardboard siding is usually pre-primed at the factory.

Written by Gary Branson
Reprinted with permission. Copyright HouseNet, Inc.

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