Tips on How to Clean & Maintain Laminate Flooring

Laminate floors have a lot of great benefits, and easy maintenance is one of them. Provided you look after the floor, it is sure to look and perform like new for many years to come.

Their easy maintenance is partially what makes laminate floors so popular with modern households and businesses. So, how do you maintain laminate flooring to ensure it lasts as long as possible? Here, you’ll discover everything you need to know to keep your laminate floor in pristine condition.

How to Clean Laminate Flooring

Gone are the days when cleaning laminate floors used to be a pain. The kind of technology being used to produce laminate flooring these days has made cleaning them a breeze. So, how should you clean your laminate to keep it looking and performing like new? Here’s a brief guide you can follow…

Sweeping Technique

The best way to clean a laminate floor is to use a vacuum cleaner or a dry mop. Avoid using traditional brooms to clean your laminate floors as they will leave a lot of particles behind. When these particles mix with a wet mop, they will spread all over the floor.

If you use a vacuum cleaner, use one with a hard floor setting or a brush roll with an on/off button. Keep the brush roll turned off when vacuuming the floor to avoid scratches and damaging your laminate.

Use the Right Floor Cleaner

If you love a particular brand of cleaning liquid and are thinking of using it on your laminate flooring, think twice before you do so. Using an expensive chemical floor cleaner is not necessarily the answer as they can damage the surface of the floor. Always pick a cleaning liquid that works with the type of floor you have installed.

The best solution is to use a little bit of water. If you choose to use a liquid cleaner, ensure that you don’t use too much. If you do, it will leave behind a residue, which will dull the finish of your laminate.

Use Water with Caution

When you want to wet mop your laminate floor, never use too much water. Ensure that your mop is semi-wet at best. Water and any other liquid spills will run into your laminate board, causing it to swell. This will eventually damage the floor.

Rinse and drain the mop well before you use it on your laminate. The floor must dry up within a minute or so of mopping it. If it doesn’t, you have used too much.

Buff it Up

Want to ensure your laminate floor shines and sparkles? Be sure to buff the floor dry after you have cleaned it. You could use a mop head or an absorbent cloth. Microfiber cleaning cloths tend to be the best option for buffing. Use them to buff your floor gently for a nice, smooth shine.

If you follow these steps, your laminate is sure to retain that brand-new shine. However, there are some additional measures you’ll want to take to maintain a nice clean floor. Let’s move on to some of the main things you can do to maintain and protect your laminate against damage.

Protecting Laminate Floors Against Dirt & Damage

The best way to maintain laminate flooring is to prevent dirt and damage in the first place. There are several ways you can do this, including:

• Using doormats near entranceways
• Covering heavy furniture legs with felt adhesive pads
• Removing your shoes prior to walking on it
• Avoid using harsh chemical cleaners
• Clean the floor regularly

Investing in high-quality doormats will help to prevent dirt and debris being trailed across the floor. They are also great at soaking up moisture when you walk in with wet shoes. Ideally, you should take your shoes off before walking over the laminate. At the very least, you should avoid walking across the floor in heels.

Furniture can also damage laminate flooring. Heavy furniture can leave dents in the floor, and it can also leave scratches behind if you move it. Adding felt adhesive pads to the legs of heavy furniture can greatly help to protect against both dents and scratches.

Although it isn’t made from real wood, laminate flooring can still be damaged by harsh chemical cleaners. Follow the maintenance instructions provided by the manufacturer to ensure your new floor remains damage free.

The last prevention tip is to make sure you clean the floor regularly. This will prevent a build-up of dirt and dust from accumulating. When it is left to build up, dirt can become much harder to remove. By spending just a few minutes cleaning the floor each day, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and potentially money, further down the line.

Daily Laminate Flooring Care

You don’t need to spend a huge amount of time cleaning your laminate each day. As mentioned earlier, you can simply give it a quick brush or vacuum to keep dirt and dust at bay. However, there are some rules you should follow to ensure you don’t damage the floor with your daily care routine. Discover some of the best protective measures you can take below.

Clean Up Spills Quickly

Although laminate flooring is more water resistant than engineered or solid wood, it can still incur water damage. So, unless your laminate is waterproof, you are going to want to take care of any spills quickly.

If spills are left to soak into the floor, it can lead to issues with warping over time. Clean up any spills with a dry cloth as soon as they occur.

If your laminate flooring is too dirty to bring back to a good condition then we recommend you hire a professional floor cleaning company to take care of the task or you. This way you can be confident the job will be done to a high spec.

How to Repair Laminate Flooring

If your laminate floor does become damaged, you may be able to fix it yourself. Everyday scratches and dents can be easily fixed with a laminate floor repair kit. However, if the damage is quite deep or significant, you may need to replace the planks.

Replacing laminate flooring is fast and simple thanks to their click system installation. You can simply disconnect the damaged plank and click in the new one.

As you can see, maintaining laminate flooring is a simple task. With just a few minutes of maintenance each day, your laminate will look and perform like new for many years to come.

Interested to know which floors offer the lowest maintenance? Check out our post on the best low maintenance floors for inspiration.

Browse our laminate flooring range here