Laminate floor care and maintenance

Laminate is durable flooring option that does not require too much effort, attention and any other extra care from homeowners. Spending relatively a small amount of time caring about your laminate floor will still ensure that it will last longer and provide you with years of trouble free satisfaction. Nevertheless, laminate floor materials will continue to look its best with some reasonable routine care and maintenance and without the need for costly replacements. As any other flooring materials, daily wear and tear of laminate surface can still have an impact. That’s why for this reason, read on about basic laminate floor care and laminate care don’ts in order to prolong its good looking appearance.

How to care about laminate floor?

Homeowners should perform or do regular cleaning which can keep your floor looking like new for many years. Laminate floor should be cleaned with a moistened cloth or vacuum cleaner without a beater bar which are usually recommended. The cloth can be moistened with plain water or with manufacturer suggested laminate flooring cleaners or mild, non-abrasive cleaners. Homeowners can test a new cleaning product on an area of laminate flooring that is out of sight (i.e. under the furniture). However, wet cleaning should not be done too often. It is better to use mats or area rugs for very heavy traffic areas in your house.

Heavy spots, such as oil, paint, permanent marker, tar, shoe rubber marks can be removed by using a neutral cleaner on a soft cloth or even nail polish remover if necessary. For drops of candle wax and chewing gums normally recommended letting them to tender and/or harden first and then gently remove them from the laminate surface. It is also a wise idea to put under heavy furniture legs protector pads and if necessary lift them while moving from one place to another. If the furniture is too heavy that it cannot be lifted, then you can put underneath of furniture legs pieces of carpet face down to slide it on the floor. It should prevent from occurrence of dents and scratches on the laminate surface. It is recommended to read carefully manufacturer guidelines about care and maintenance concerning particular cleaning for specific laminate floor product.

Laminate floor care - Don’ts

Do not apply any soap solutions, bleaches, waxes, lacquers, sealers, or polishes on the laminate floor in order to avoid it ruining, discoloring and other undesirable damages that can cause its use.
Do not allow water or any cleaning solution to stand on the laminate floor for a long period of time, despite the fact that laminate floor is relatively water resistant. Excessive moisture can go in between laminate boards underneath to subfloor and could cause the edges of the laminate boards to start expanding and the whole floor may start to buckle the boards or swell. That’s why if any spills occur you should wipe them with dry cloth immediately.
Do not use to clean this type of floor any sand paper or scouring powder.
Do not use steam cleaning for laminate surface in any case because it can cause irreversible damages.
Do not drag heavy furniture on the laminate floor.

In addition, even though, laminate flooring can be installed relatively easy as a do-it-yourself project, prolong longevity of laminate floor depends a lot on the way and quality of installation. Laminate floor that has been poorly installed can start causing you troubles sooner and even some costly maintenance and replacements. Homeowners should consider also that laminate floor is not laminating boards itself. That’s why the right quality underlayment should be chosen to protect laminate floor against moisture coming from the subfloor. In addition, you should be sure that your subfloor is level or at least flat, clean, and dry. Therefore, sometimes it is better to hire installers to do the installation of your laminate floor that can save you not only time but money in the long run.