Compressed Wood flooring

[J. Jay]

Can't remember where I read this.. but seems like somewhere someone posted that Oakwood's usually have a version of compressed wood flooring that does not do well at all if it gets wet.

We do not have access YET to the 1999 Oakwood doublewide that we are in the process of purchasing because the contracts are not yet finalized... when we do have access for inspection, I plan to pull up the carpet in closet to see what is underneath. (the carpet needs replacing from pet damage)

So... IF we find compressed plywood.. do we need to replace all that flooring in the entire house??? with real plywood?

Or .. would it be helpful if instead of putting in new carpeting.. we put down vinyl in the entire house and use area rugs instead of carpeting?

We also have pets (cats and dogs) and would not want to have to worry a whole lot about wet floor problems.

Any other suggestions?

We are anxiously awaiting delivery of the mobile home repair and addition book in the bookstore here.

An aside.. Krystal suggested (in her tips posting for newbies) that we look closely in the underside of the house.. we will especially check under the bathrooms for wet board and mold and missing insulation etc..

Thanks again for your help.
JJ and Kim
+ 10 cats, 2 dogs and 10 miniature horses!

[David Oxhandler]

If the compressed wood is ORIENTED STRAND BOARD (OSB) you don’t need to worry. We have not had any problems with this type of floor. OSB is now used for roofing and seems to have as much resistance to moisture as plywood.
Here is what OSB looks like
You can do several things to protect a particleboard floor from moisture damage. The easiest is to give it a heavy coat of high quality paint.
You can lay vinyl floor covering thru-out the house. There is no reason to abandon carpet. Run carpet over it in the areas that you like rug. When I do this I shop around for some slightly defective or really ugly vinyl that I can get at a discount. As I am going to bury it under the carpet it is not important what it looks like.
If you are really ambitious and have the funds you can overlay the painted particleboard with plywood. I have done this in several of my rentals and it has eliminated all the problems associated with particleboard.