um... don't breathe too much of the dust. OSB is held together with some pretty heinous glues and fillers...

Oh, so you like splinters, eh?

Just kidding. It does seem like it would be very difficult to seal. Make sure you pick your feet up when you walk. If it works it would look very cool, though.

I've lived on untreated osb subfloors and except for chipping at the panel margins it is fine. You might consider a polyurethane flood coat over the entire installation to address the splinter issue.

Is it the aesthetics that your are interested in? If you were to sand, stain and finish osb you'd probably be better off using AC plywood or another finish material.

would you have anything under it or would it be the only thing? Oriented strand board has oriented strands and is designed to withstand certain types of stresses. I'm sure you probably wouldn't run into too much of a problem, but I'd expect it to have quite a bit of bounce, and I'd be leery of putting any high point loads on it. I'm going to go ahead and assume you no more than me when it comes to how a building works, but that's just my thought.

The Stuff (osb)is like a sponge so figure your going to use alot of polyurethane. It will most likely take a long time to dry between coats due to the amount of product soaked into the osb.

Bruce Goff used osb in a house in Tucson for all the cabinets. I'm sure the contractor found it to be difficult to work with. Then again I wasn't the contractor but for a lay person it looked like it would have been a challenge.

osb is super easy to work with an does not soak in poly like some may believe.
it usually comes to sided, on side finsihed and the unfinished.
put the finished side up, lightly sand seal and finish with water based poly and you will have no problems.

did this in '95. the smooth side chips, the textured side is tougher to clean. must use a sealant to reduce splinters either way. the thickness varies slightly at the edges, so you'll need to sand if you choose to have the smooth side up.

You can thin the first coat to act as a primer - aim for at least 3 coats of sealer.

Anyone have any pics?

'osb flooring' image search on google.

'osb flooring' image search on google.

i've seen this done to great effect. walls, and ceiling of a small room all in o.s.b. with a thinned-out silver/metallic paint.

you can just barely see what's going on in this photo:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2348/2378300644_ed2df4d294_b.jpg

sorry, i dunno how to link the image. :( it's the room in the background.
and, yeah, it's waaay better in person than in this photo. :)

We have used it in a couple of stores and in our office.

The staining/sealing is almost less important aesthetically than what batch of OSB you get from where. the quality of the flake, coloring, etc. varies a lot. When you find one you like, buy it and buy extra, because when you go back, it might be gone. Speaking from experience.

For the warmer, yellow tones, we did some light sanding on the "a" side (as mentioned above), water-based poly (yes, several coats) and it came out similar to birch.

We have also stained with water-based grey/black stains, which worked well. No sealer/stain product will recommend using their product on OSB, but don't sweat it.

When it wears, which it is doing under the rollers of our chairs, the flakes come off and its gray underneath.

And hey, its cheaper than carpet, so if one goes back just take it up and replace it.

looks like there's a possiblility of using "too much" of it.