Red Rock Flooring - Your Premiere Choice for Laminate Flooring in St. George, Utah
Laminate flooring is a modern marvel of sorts. Originally introduced in the late 70’s by the Swedish company Perstop, laminates took the world by storm and revolutionized the flooring industry. Initially laminates were viewed as an economy style flooring, but increases in technology and the floorings reputation for durability is pushing laminates into high end applications.
Because of laminates increasing popularity the desire to properly clean laminate floors is becoming a topic of interest.
Laminate floor cleaning can be divided into interventions: a lifestyle intervention and a chemical and supply intervention.
Life-style Interventions
The first line of laminate flooring defense relates to the things we do to guard our laminate flooring. Regular patterns of sweeping, moping, the removing of shoes and the use of door mats will guard the life of your laminate flooring.
This is really the category of prevention. The more you can do to minimize the amount of dirt and grime on your floor the easier the cleaning process will be.
Sweeping is important because dirt and sand creates a grit that can wear at the finish of laminate floors. Regular sweeping to remove this dirt will maintain the life of your floors and will make cleaning an ease.
In this same vein of thought having a heavy duty outdoor floor mat and a secondary indoor mat will diminish the amount of dirt that makes it into your home or commercial space. And, if your laminate flooring is in your home, having a practice of removing shoes at the door will prevent the tracking in of dirt.
Along with regular sweeping, mopping is also important for the removal of dirt.
Chemical and Supply Interventions
The second aspect of maintaining your laminate floors is the use of the right tools and the right cleaner. Be warned, the wrong cleaner and mop will ruin your laminate flooring.
It is recommended that you use a flat-head micro fiber mop and a spray cleaner specifically formulated for laminate flooring.
A temptation is to use a bucket of mop water made from pine, lemon, oil, soap, or bleach (among a number of other homemade concoctions). These cleaners can ruin your laminate flooring and create a white haze, or, also known as “the haze of horror” — you don’t want this.
This white haze is a damaging of the laminate top layer and therefore cannot be cleaned.
Oh yeah, and no waxing or polishing either. Your laminate floors are designed to look polished and shined, as long as you properly mop with laminate flooring spray using a flat micro fiber mop, your floors will maintain their shine and beauty.
Remember to mop with the grain of the laminate to avoid any visible streaks.
When cleaning your micro fiber mop do not use fabric softener because this chemical can also cause a white haze to your laminate flooring.
Final Thoughts
And that’s it. To properly maintain and clean your laminate floors there are low-tech and high-tech interventions you need to make. Avoid dirt and grime from getting to your floors, pick it up often to avoid damaging the finish and then mop regularly with the right tools, a flat micro fiber mop and a laminate flooring spray — and don’t make the mistake of using a mop bucket with a typical flooring cleaner, you will soon learn to regret it.
Happy flooring! Contact Kevin at Red Rock Flooring today to get a consultation scheduled.
