How to Clean Waterproof Laminate Flooring – [ Mohawk DIY ]

Laminate floors are in trend because, if taken good care of, they are highly durable. They resemble wooden flooring a lot, but you can’t acquire the cleaning methods you use for wooden floors. For the laminate floors, you need to be specific about the methods. Have you ever wondered how to take good care of your laminate floor and clean them properly so that your flooring also lasts long?  Let me tell you; you need the right mob and a few tricks to do the magic. Here is a handy guide at your rescue having all the effortless tricks to help you clean your laminate flooring.

How to Clean Waterproof Laminate Flooring

In order to clean the floor, firstly you should get the right tools.

Cleaning Materials or Tools Required

• Laminate microfibre mop
• Vacuum cleaner
• Spray bottle
• Cleaning solution

The first and foremost thing that you need to be highly careful about is choosing the right cleaning tools for the laminate floor. For your wooden floor to which laminate flooring resembles a lot, you use specific cleaning techniques but do not apply those for laminate floors. Your usual sponge mop, broom, or brushes can ruin your laminate floor. Use a microfibre laminate mob for cleaning the laminate flooring; it catches the dust and debris effectively and is a perfect and safe tool for laminate floor cleaning (see here if laminate need to acclimate first after installation).

You can use a vacuum cleaner to remove the debris and dust from the floor other than this other broom, string mop, or sponge mob is highly non recommended as they can easily damage the laminate flooring. Remember, excess water warps the laminate flooring. No matter how much the manufacturer convinces you about the laminate being waterproof or sealed, excess water will find its way to seep into it and warp it. That is why you should arrange a spray bottle to apply little water for cleaning.

Cleaning Solution

For cleaning products or solutions, it is up to you to go with an organic homemade option or buy a product from a market. There are dozens of cleaning products available in the market; the best one I would recommend is Black Diamond Stoneworks Wood & Laminate Floor Cleaner. It does wonders. However, if you are in a hurry and guests are coming over, and you don’t have a product at home, you can simply use items from your kitchen’s cabinet, and you are done. For your DIY cleaning solution, have some vinegar, hot water, and detergent in a spray bottle.

Step To Follow

1. Vacuuming

The first step is to vacuum the floor to remove all the large mass of debris present on the floor. This way, the dust will get removed from the floor so that mopping will be easy and more effective.

2. Apply the Solution

The next step is to apply the product on the floor. Remember not to wet the floor too much as water is not suitable for laminate flooring. Damp the floor slightly with either your DIY solution or the commercial product available at home. You can dampen the mop in the solution too but don’t make it too soggy; slightly dampen it.

3. Clean With Mop

After applying the product, you do not have to do much hard work by scrubbing the stains. Your microfiber mob will do all the job as it cuts through the dirt and quickly absorbs the dust and dirt. If your mop pad gets dirty after cleaning 2 to 3 rooms, simply detach, rinse and reattach it to clean again. Remember to let the pad dry out before reattaching it. One pad can efficiently clean 2 to 3 rooms, so you do not have to wash it and reattach it several times.

4. Wash And Sanitize The Pads

Once you finish cleaning the whole floor, the mop pads will get decolorized and dirty. Wash it in a washing machine with detergent and sanitizing solution to have healthy and safe cleaning the next time. That’s it! Cleaning your laminate flooring is easy; you just need to be mindful of a few things.

Other Precautions

Do not use any sharp object to scrape any stain or bubble gum out of the floor; it will leave scratches on the floor. Similarly, you should know that a laminate floor might look a lot like wood flooring with a bit of whitewashing as explained here, but you can’t wax laminate floorings. Similar goes for polish, where you must be careful to use the right floor polish in your daily cleaning routine.

Cleaning Routine

The best way to keep your flooring always shiny, clean and make it last is to clean it after every two days. If there is more load on the flooring or you have many family members, it is preferred to clean it daily. Don’t get lazy and leave any spill on the floor, thinking that you will clean it afterward because the spill might leave a stain, and then it gets very tough to remove it. As precaution is better than the cure, Be cautious and immediately clean the spills out of the floor.

How To Remove Hard Stains

Your floor can have different kinds of stains, so that is why we thought of giving you tips about all types of stains you can encounter on your floor, and you should be ready to deal with them. The first one is pervasive chewing gum sticking on your floors. To remove chewing gum from the laminate floor, we recommend using a plastic knife or some other blunt object.

Never use any sharp knife or object for this purpose. If there are any grease stains on the floor, harden the stain with an ice pack, then remove it with a plastic knife. For crayon marks, you can remove them with mineral spirit using a cloth dampened with it. If there are heel marks on the floor, you can erase them with a pencil eraser.

Related Laminate Floor Guides: How to prevent footprints on laminate floors | Best polish for laminate floors

Wrapping It Up

I hope this article helps you and answers your question about how to clean your laminate flooring. It isn’t any hard-core job, get the proper cleaning material and remember the preventive measures, and you are done. These are the safest and the easiest methods to make your floor shine like a diamond.