It is one thing to have your dream laminate floors in your home; it’s another to clean it properly. Laminate floors are becoming increasingly popular because of their features and low cost. Laminate flooring is a floor option made out of composites of wood. That means materials like sawdust are made out of wood but aren’t wood.

It may not be wood, but the final product of a laminate floor looks exactly like a hardwood floor. This time, however, your floor looks better than the regular hardwood floor. Also, the floor is durable, costs less, and is extremely easy to install. As if that isn’t enough, most laminate flooring options come with a protective layer.

“What should I clean laminate floors with” is a question you will ask yourself after installation. Because it looks like hardwood, it can be a tempting offer to clean your laminate floors the same way. However, you will be making a mistake if you clean your laminate like hardwood.

Cleaning your laminate floors is a task that requires technique. There are some specific cleaning products, machines that you need to use at certain times, while others must not touch your floor. Please keep reading to learn how to clean laminate floors properly to preserve their lifespan.

How to Clean Laminate Floors

Whether you have the best professional install your laminate floor, cleaning it is vital if you want to last. If you ignore the neatness of your laminate floor, you will most likely need a replacement. With laminate flooring, you can’t refinish and replace only the top to have it new. It’s not hardwood, so in most cases, a total replacement is necessary when it’s spoiled.

Cleaning your laminate floor is the same as maintaining it. While it requires special procedures, the best way to clean laminate floors isn’t difficult.  Some of the steps you can take include;

Using a vacuum

To clean laminate floors, you need to take your time. First, you have to take care of your floor every day because the more dirt remains on the surface, the dirtier the floor becomes. Of course, at any moment you can try to remove any packs, nylon, and others from the floor immediately you notice. However, there is some dirt that you can’t remove because of its composition and location.

For instance, you can’t precisely pick dust with your bare hands, and neither can you pick dirt from the tight corners of your floor. What you need, in this case, is a vacuum. A vacuum already has a design and working process that supports debris removal at the worst location.

For example, most vacuums have a microfiber pad at the back of the head. The pad’s primary function is to capture dirt that managed to escape the vacuum itself. Therefore, if any dirt manages to escape the vacuum head, it won’t escape the head.

On a laminate floor, dirt and other contaminants hide along the crevices. Using a vacuum to clean laminate floors helps you remove dirt from the surface to beneath the floor itself. A vacuum can also come in handy whenever you need to clean fast. It is a machine that’s easy to use, and you get to clean every day, which is the best for laminate floors.

Note; before you start vacuuming, ensure your vacuum settings are on the soft brush not to cause any damage.

Using a dry mop

Before you buy laminate flooring, you must remember that you need daily routines to ensure your floor remains beautiful. One of those daily routines is ensuring no debris is on the floor. Vacuuming is a great option to remove this, but sometimes it can damage the floor if misused. Also, buying a vacuum may not be the next financial investment for you.

What you can do in this case is to use a dry mop. There is no rule stopping you from using a dry mop before or after vacuuming the laminate flooring. From experience, using a dry mop as regularly as daily will prevent debris and scratches away from your laminate floors. However, you have to be sure of the dry mop you choose.

The best laminate floor cleaner for dry mops is the one that has a wide head made of microfiber. This microfiber head will easily attract and capture dirt from daily activities. Examples of this dirt include shoes, dust, and many more.

Because the microfiber head is wide enough, capturing this dirt is easy. However, the best feature of microfiber is the reusable feature. That means you can wash your microfiber and reuse it when it’s dry. However, that’s not the only benefit of dry mopping.

Dry mopping is more or less a preventive maintenance culture for your laminate floor. First off, dry mopping ensures that dirt doesn’t stay on your laminate floor even when people continue to come in and go out of your home. Also, dry mopping is necessary before you decide to clean with deep soap and water. If you do not dry mop this debris before cleaning, the dirt will cause more scratches.

If you want to dry mop your laminate floor, try to do it frequently. Dry mopping may not precisely have your laminate floors shining. But at least, you can rest assured that your floor will not get worse due to dirt.

Using baking soda

It is not advisable to use water to clean your laminate floors, but it is not something you can escape. What you can do is reduce the water content as much as possible. We’ll get to using water on laminate floors, but not many people know that you can use baking soda to clean laminate floors.

Baking soda is effective at removing stains; it is also friendly to the environment. So you are not causing any harm to the environment with chemicals while you are cleaning your laminate floors.

The first step is to sweep the floor with a dry mop to remove all debris or use a vacuum. After that, you spray the baking soda on the area of the floor you are trying to clean. Get a bucket and mix hot water with vinegar and very little soap. Be sure to check the soap for chemicals and labels that can remove the shine of your laminate floor.

With the water mix, put it in your mop and clean the area with the baking soda. Again, ensure the mop you are using is broad and is made of microfiber. That way, it can attract enough dirt and won’t put so much water on your floor. Be patient enough to clear off all baking soda remaining after cleaning.

Related Article: How to Clean French Oak Floors?

Use a damp mop routinely

Most laminate floor cleaning guides will advise you not to use water to wash your laminate floor. That is absolutely correct because water and laminate floors aren’t exactly friends. Water and wood themselves are not fit for each other because the water causes the wood to split over time. When the water stays on the wood for long, it causes swelling within the wood.

Remember that laminate flooring is not wood exactly; it is wood composite. There are many layers of wood composite used to make the laminate flooring. Each of these layers combined are not as strong as the wood itself. So water staying on the surface is hazardous.

However, you can’t escape using water to clean laminate floors forever. You will, at one point, need to clean the floor thoroughly. In that scenario, you will need a mop to clean the laminate floor.

The same mop used for dry mopping or similar is what you should use for your laminate floor cleaning. It should have a microfiber head that is wide enough to collect dirt yet reusable. Ensure that the mop does not have too much water on it.

To mop the floor with a mop, you will need a cleanser, so the cleaning is thorough. But almost immediately, it is better to clean off the water from the surface. That way, you can rest assured that the floor will stay clean and safe.

Damp mopping is not a type of cleaning you should frequently do for your laminate floors. The frequency of how you clean laminate floors with a wet mop depends on the traffic of the area. Usually, damp mopping your laminate floor should be over a large area like your apartment, for instance.

If you live alone, you may decide to clean the laminate floor once every two months.

Using cleaners

If you want to clean your laminate floor properly, you can not use just any product. There are some specific laminate floor cleaning products you can use for your floors. These floors ensure that your laminate floor is clean, and at the same time, it doesn’t affect the floor.

As much as you can, do not put a large quantity of the cleanser in the water you want to use to clean the floor. With a large amount of cleanser, you need more water to clean the floor. Remember, the more there is water, the weaker your laminate floor gets.

Because of the popularity of laminate floors globally, more companies are trying to dabble into the production of specific cleansers for laminate floors. That way, there is room for competition, which leads to better products. At the same time, some companies have little knowledge of cleansers, so you have to find them patiently.

The features of a laminate floor cleaner should influence your choice of laminate floor cleanser. First, on most packs of the cleansers, there should be a sign indicating that it works well for laminate floors. Also, you can check the pack for bleaching chemicals like chlorine. Let’s take a look at some factors that should guide you to choose the best laminate floor cleaner;

The constituents

The most important factor is what is inside the cleaner. Because it is a laminate floor, just any soap is not okay. It would be best if you did not use a too potent soap and will require plenty of water. Also, you shouldn’t use a cleaner with chemicals constituents that can damage the flooring

Usage

We live in a world of innovation, and with laminate floor cleansers, there are different methods to apply. Some cleansers allow you to clean laminate floors by spraying them on the floor. Other ones either require you to use a mop.

When considering how you can apply the cleanser to your laminate floor, you should consider the area you want to clean. For a small area, the spray cleaners may work just fine, but in larger spaces, using a spray cleaner is a lot of work. You should use the mops.

Your needs

The primary purpose of buying a laminate cleaner is to keep your laminate clean at all times. But after a while, your laminate floor may lose its shine and beauty. In this case, you may want some specific laminate floor cleansers that help the floor regain its lustre.

Also, you may have some specific scratches or odours on your laminate floor based on the traffic in that area. In this case, you can’t be using the regular cleanser for the job; you will check for specific cleansers.

Related Article: A Guide to Refinishing Hardwood Floors

Final Thoughts

Maintaining clean laminate floors is essential to the lifespan of the flooring option. Not only does it make the floor last longer, but it also makes it look better throughout its lifetime. However, you can’t clean your laminate floors the way you can clean any other floor. There are specific processes as we have described in this guide.

While the cleaning product and technique of your laminate floor are essential, the quality of the floor matters. Using the best cleaning products for your laminate floor is a futile activity when the floor has terrible quality. If you want to buy quality laminate floors, you can check out our online stores. Three Trees Flooring offers top-quality floors that require minimal maintenance.