Ways To Clean & Maintain Wooden Laminate Floors

Improvement

oi-Anwesha

By Anwesha Barari

Monday, January 16, 2012, 11:33

To clean wood floors especially ones that are not solid can be a bit of a challenge for an amateur. Wood is expensive and most homes do not go for solid hardwood floors. What we have instead is paneling with ply boards thus making wood maintenance all the more difficult. Unlike solid hardwood flooring, these boards can puff up or crack faster. So what you need is expert tips on these types wood floors to care for them and make them last as long as possible.

Here are some tips to clean wood floors that are not solid but paneled.

Ways To Clean Wood Floors:

1. The first thing you need to ensure while cleaning this type of wood floors is that the boards should not come off. These kinds of wooden ply boards are stuck together with glue at the edges. When you are cleaning floors make sure you do not scratch out the adhesive.

2. Regular dusting is the best way to keep wood floors clean. In fact you need not use water at all until and unless you drop something sticky on the floor. Dry sweep the floor regularly, once everyday, twice if you can.

3. Any kind of oil based soap will work well on wooden floors. Wood maintenance is mostly done with oil. Wood does not have great affinity for water even when it comes to flooring. But you cannot probably use cooking oil or body oil for cleaning floors. You need special wood polish oil.

4. For everyday cleaning it is advisable to vacuum clean whenever you can. Wiping with wet cloth may be faster and more of a norm but you should stick to dry vacuum cleaning for the sake of wood maintenance which will be better with dry cleaning.

5. Vinegar is a magic cleaning agent and its utility proves very efficient even it comes to wood floors. When in trouble you can always fall back on vinegar to clean up the mess. White vinegar is great for removing greasy stains and the obvious odour that comes with it. You can clean up a sauce or curry stain in minutes by soaking with vinegar.

6. Another wonder trick to clean laminate floors (as such floors are popularly called) is to use toothpaste on them. Tooth paste can often remove the toughest of stains like crayon or sketch pen marks by children.

7. Scratches on your laminated wood floor may need you to replace them. Never drag furniture on the floor.

8. There are certain stains like cold drinks or blood that are impossible to remove without water. You can use warm water with soap solution to clean these stains but never use scalding hot water or else the polish might come off. Also use as little water as possible. Soak up the dampness with tissues before it permeates the wood.

Use these cleaning tips to keep your laminated wood floors clean