wood flooring as workbench top

[jussi]

I'm thinking of using wood flooring on top of pieces of 3/4" mdf. How should I attaching the wood floor to the mdf. Floor staples on tongue, face nail, wood glue? Do I need to allow for expansion?

[Duff]

No more or less than you would for the floor itself. Neat idea, durable, attractive, and easy to replace

[jackellis]

I tried an engineered flooring material on MDF with wood glue. Didn't hold well because the material on the bottom of the flooring was not compatible with the glue.

[SARGE..g-47]

Morning Jussi...

I would just let gravity hold it down, well...... after boxing both the wood top and MDF with a wooden outer skirt. Tie the MDF to the table base and then drop on the flooring. I would tonge and grove the outer perimeter of wood flooring to the outer skirt with deeper than needed groves to allow for expansion. You could run a few counter sunk sheet metal screws down center line to tie to the MDF, but gravity will hold it down fine if the flooring and MDF are properly boxed with the skirt.

Regards...

[crokett]

There are reasons MDF is not used for subfloors. One biggie is that nails through the tounge or face of the flooring won't hold. Use flooring adhesive or contact cement and/or screws through the MDF into the back of the flooring if it is thick enough. Either that or trade out the MDF for some 3/4 ply and nail to that.

I used contact cement to glue laminate flooring to MDF for my bench top. Worked great. If you go the glue route edge glue the flooring together to make your bench top before attaching it to the substrate.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

I'm thinking of using wood flooring on top of pieces of 3/4" mdf. How should I attaching the wood floor to the mdf. Floor staples on tongue, face nail, wood glue? Do I need to allow for expansion?

Is this engineered material? Seems that would work a lot better than standard 3/4" flooring material. Engineered stuff should be a lot more consistent in flatness, etc. Also, little concern about seasonal wood movement with engineered flooring material.

[TheRic]

Here is a discussion on laminate flooring for a bench top. You might want to do a search might find what you are looking for, or something even better.

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=19456