We don’t always get to choose the flooring in our homes. Sometimes we inherit it from the previous owner, or our landlord chooses it for us, but whatever floor you do have, it’s important to know how to care for it and clean it effectively.
If you don’t take good care of your flooring then it can mean an expensive shopping trip for you to choose new flooring and pay to have it installed sooner than you should have needed to, or it can mean the subtraction of your security deposit if you rent a place.
Generally, laminate flooring is a great choice for home or work settings because unlike hardwood floors, they don’t require regular polishing or sealing and you can get thick laminate flooring boards for high foot traffic areas such as hallways, the lounge, or kitchen areas which are long-lasting and durable.
Despite this, laminates do require a little maintenance and regular commercial cleaning to keep them looking their best.
If you want to find out how to clean your laminate flooring then you’re in exactly the right place. We will tell you all about how to keep your laminate flooring in tip-top condition to save you embarrassment when guests come to visit. Let’s get started.
How To Sweep Your Laminate Floor
If you prefer to sweep your hard floors with a good old-fashioned broom and dustpan then you need to be careful about what type of brush you use.
The worst thing you can do to a laminate floor is to scratch either the sealed topcoat or deeper down to expose the woodchip, so don’t use a stiff or wire brush to sweep or clean laminate floors. Instead, make sure you have a soft-bristled broom to sweep up dust and debris from your floors.
To sweep your laminate floor, simply remove any area rugs or mobile furniture out of the way, then sweep towards you from the outside of the room towards the centre.
Once you have gathered all the dust, lint, pet hair, and whatever else is littering your floor into a pile or several smaller piles, get your pan and sweep up the mess. Dispose of what you have collected in the trash as you normally would.
You should try to sweep your laminate floor at least every other day if not daily, so as not to risk small stones or dirt scratching your laminate flooring. Once a laminate floor is scratched or damaged, it is difficult to repair them without replacing the boards.
How To Vacuum Your Laminate Floors
Using a vacuum cleaner to clean your laminate floors is often quicker and easier than sweeping and depending on the vacuum you use, it can also do a better job of removing surface dust and debris than sweeping alone.
CLEANA has a handy and impartial guide to the best vacuum cleaners available that are compatible with laminate flooring.
Some vacuum cleaners are better on carpet than on hard floors and some have abrasive bristles on attachment heads that could potentially scratch your floors, so it’s best to choose a product that has been specifically designed for laminate floors, or wood floors.
Other things to consider if you are looking to buy a new vacuum cleaner unit, are whether it is bagless or has a bag that collects dirt. Bagless vacuums have a compartment in the unit that collects and condenses the mess. These are typically easier to empty than bagged ones.
You’ll also need to think about whether you want a cordless vacuum or one with a power cord. Cordless vacuums are battery-operated and need charging between uses.
The batteries can last anywhere between 5 minutes and half an hour so they are great if you have a small home, or only tend to vacuum one or two areas at a time.
If you have a larger home then a corded one will let you get all your vacuuming done at once, but you’ll have to factor in the time and effort it takes for you to move the power cord between sockets as you clean different areas of your house or property.
Cordless vacuums also tend to be lighter and easier to handle and store than upright types of traditional vacuums, so they’re particularly great for the elderly but you don’t need to be over the age of 70 to appreciate them.
Whatever vacuum you use on your laminate flooring, try to remove surface dust and dirt every other day if not daily to minimize the risk of tiny stones or similar dirt scratching the surface of your laminates.
How To Mop Your Laminate Floor
It’s important to use an appropriate mop on your laminate floors and to remember that laminate flooring boards are made predominantly from woodchips. This tends to absorb water and warp after some time if surface water is left to sit on them for too long or often.
Because of this, we don’t recommend using a traditional string mop with a bucket of water. A traditional mop and bucket can leave too much water on top of the laminates, which can seep down the cracks between them and warp the wood chip underside.
Eventually, you will start to notice bumps or dips in your floor or it will not feel flat as you walk on it.
We feel that the best alternative to a string-headed mop and bucket is a spray mop because no sooner has the detergent and water been sprayed on the surface of the laminate flooring boards, it is swept away by the mop head and therefore minimizes the time that moisture is in contact with the floor.
Something similar to this spray mop from Amazon would be best because the microfiber heads are soft on laminate floors and there are several machine-washable cleaning pads so you always have a spare while one is in the laundry.
Try to mop your laminate floors at least once a week, but you may need to mop more than that in high-foot traffic areas such as hallways or kitchens.
Whatever you do, always sweep or vacuum the area thoroughly right before you mop, or you could risk spreading any surface dirt around and creating a foggy look to your flooring instead of the nice shine you were hoping for.
In terms of detergent, it’s a good idea to use a cleaning agent that is specifically designed for use on laminate floors, but you can use any standard floor cleaner on laminate flooring.
Many floor cleaning detergents are designed with several hard floor types in mind and these are suitable too as long as they specify their compatibility with laminated floorings.
Final Thoughts
It’s important to regularly clean your laminate floors to avoid a build-up of surface dirt and to minimize the risk of scratches occurring. You can also use rugs or anti-scratch pads underneath heavy furniture to reduce the risk of creating unsightly marks on the floor that you cannot repair or hide.
As a general rule, you should sweep or vacuum daily or every other day and mop your laminated floors at least once a week without letting water sit on the flooring for any length of time.
