Laminate care guide

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Laminate flooring can be a great look in any room of your home, and with the correct care and cleaning, laminate flooring can keep its good looks for decades. Here are our top tips for cleaning laminate flooring and caring for it properly.

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Barnes Bolan - K375 Tomahawk Oak

How to care for laminate flooring

Knowing how to care for laminate flooring will help you prevent damage before it happens. It’s easy once you have the basics sorted:

Our top tip for laminate floor care: do your best to stop scratches from happening in the first place. Your new floor is scratch-resistant, but it isn’t scratch proof. For a daily clean, use a soft brush or vacuum cleaner (with a soft parquet brush attachment) to pick up dirt and dust. If scratches do happen, you can read our useful ‘how to repair scratches on laminate flooring’ guide for some quick help.
When possible, spot clean any marks or spills rather than washing the whole floor.
Cleaning laminate flooring is a lot easier when dirt doesn’t even make it onto your floor. Mats outside and inside your main entrance doors can pick up a surprising amount of dirt, so put them high on your priority list. Avoid wearing outdoor shoes on it where possible, especially high heels or metal-trimmed soles
Your furniture can potentially cause dents or scrapes where it comes into contact with your floor. Floor protectors can minimise the chance of this happening.
Lift items instead of dragging them across the floor.
If you have furry members of the family, make sure their nails are trimmed regularly!

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How to clean laminate flooring

When the time comes for cleaning your laminate flooring more thoroughly, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Use as little water as possible. Laminate will expand if exposed to too much water over a period of time, and the joins in the laminate are particularly susceptible to water damage. If using a conventional mop, ensure it’s wrung out so that it’s almost dry before it touches the boards. Or spray with a laminate floor cleaner and wipe away with a microfibre mop head.
Vacuum and/or sweep your floor regularly as this will remove any debris which could scratch it - discover how often you should hoover your flooring in our handy guide.

Never use harsh chemicals, ammonia or wax-based cleaners, or abrasive materials when cleaning as this can lead to permanent damage. If in doubt, test the cleaner on a spare board first.

Arm yourself with a handy Tapi Maintenance Kit, especially designed for laminate, vinyl and luxury vinyl tiles. You’ll get a daily cleaner, a spot cleaner, cleaning pads and felt floor protectors for furniture legs, all in one amazing little box. Please make sure you follow the instructions.

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Como Ammonite

Laminate floor care FAQ

Many customers have questions about caring for their engineered wood floors. We’re always on hand to help should you wish to contact us or in-store, but we’ve compiled some of the most common questions below:

How to shine laminate floors?

After some time, you might notice that your floor seems to have dulled a little. Don’t reach for wax or polish intended for solid wood floors – this isn’t the way to make your laminate floors shine again! Wax helps smooth and resurface scuffs and scratches in wood, so isn’t suitable for the clear top coat of laminate – and could leave your floor slippery. It’s worth remembering many modern laminates are designed to be low sheen to better mimic the appearance of solid wood. But if your floor has developed a dull look beyond the matte quality of wood or what you’d expect from normal wear and tear, it’s likely the culprit is a residue left by cleaning products.

What is the best laminate floor cleaner?

Surprising as it may sound, the best laminate floor cleaner is plain water with a squeeze of lemon to cut through grease. You may read advice to add a splash of washing-up liquid or another detergent, but this can leave a dull, faintly sticky residue that attracts dust and dirt over time. If you’re dealing with a stubborn residue, you may have to repeat this step several times. The key step is to ensure the mop is just barely damp, not wet! Your laminate flooring comes with a hygienic antibacterial topcoat, so there’s no need for cleaners with harsh chemicals which could cause damage.

Your homemade water-and-lemon juice laminate floor cleaner works best with microfibre mops – don’t use your steam mop, no matter how tempted you may be! And if you do decide to try a commercial product, we do suggest choosing a specialised laminate cleaner and testing it on a spare bit or sample of the laminate before using it on your floor.

Hopefully, you’ve learned everything you need to know about cleaning laminate flooring from our care guide, but if you have any more questions about how to care for laminate flooring or even to take a look at our range of laminate flooring, why not book a visit at your nearest Tapi store, or head on over to our ideas hub, which is full of inspiration, including how to acclimatise laminate flooring, tips for styling tiled flooring in your lounge, and much more.

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Published: 30-09-2022