[...] you
should never use particle board to carry loads.
Manufacturers of computer room
raised floors will disagree [...]
They also are supported around the whole edge of
a two-foot-square
square.
Eh? They're supported at the corners only. Some do have metal
cladding round the edges, but it's not very strong.
I suppose the ones I am familiar with from the one job I've worked at
that used them are atypical, then. They were supported by a network of
metal (steel, presumably) braces which in turn were supported by small
pillars to the floor where the braces met (which was under the corners
of the tiles). The tiles themselves were _heavy_ and definitely had
metal covering the bottom and edges; the top was metal too, but had
something over the metal, something a bit like linoleum, or perhaps
melamine. I'm quite sure of the metal on all six sides; a few tiles
had cuts in them to allow (eg) cables to pass, so I got to see their
cross-section.
I know how heavy they were, too; I once dropped one I was holding up by
one edge - and caught my finger between its edge and the edge of the
one already in place next to it. It caught the nail part, and my first
thought was I might lose the nail (at least temporarily). Fortunately
I didn't; I ran cold water over it until it began to hurt from the cold
instead of the drop (probably chilled the end of the finger
substantially below its normal temperature), and after throbbing
slightly intermittently for the rest of the day, it never bothered me
again.
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