Valentine’s Day is right around the corner—this year, pay some love forward to your floors by learning the proper cleaning and maintenance techniques needed to keep your floors looking like new. With a little tender loving care, you’ll be surprised at how resilient and long-lasting your floors can be!
Hardwood
Hardwood flooring is an investment, and requires proper care and maintenance to ensure it remains in good condition for many years. To ensure your hardwood flooring stays clean and scratch-free, a light sweeping or dusting should be done at least once a week. When dusting, avoid using regular household dusting and cleaning products; stick to using only products that are specifically designed for hardwood floors. While washing your hardwood floors with a damp cloth is acceptable, you should never use water to mop hardwood or pour water directly onto the floor. In the event of a spill, remember to clean up the spill immediately with a soft, dry cloth or paper towel.
In general, some common household cleaning products that should never be used on hardwood floors include ammonia, wax, powdered all-purpose cleaners and petroleum-based products.
Laminate
The most important thing to remember about cleaning laminate flooring is to never use steam cleaners or wet mops. These moisture-filled cleaning products will cause your laminate flooring to buckle, resulting in irreparable damage to your floor. To clean laminate flooring properly, stick to using a damp cloth to blot up spills as soon as they occur. For tough spots or spills, such as oil, paint and ink, use acetone or nail polish remover on a clean cloth to remove the residue from the floor. Much like hardwood flooring, sweeping, dusting and vacuuming your laminate flooring on a regular basis is vital to keeping your floors looking like new.
Luxury Vinyl Tile
Most homeowners want a shiny floor, but when it comes to luxury vinyl tile, you must be careful about the amount of shine you try achieve. Luxury vinyl sheet floors naturally have a low gloss, so if you wish to add some shine, be careful to only use polish or “mop and shine” products made specifically for LVT. After several applications of polish, an occasional stripping and reapplication of polish may be necessary—this may also be necessary for excessive dirt and grime buildup, as well. When it comes to stripping your LVT flooring, we suggest contacting the manufacturer or flooring retailer for suggestions on the proper products to use.
Carpet
Time is of the upmost importance when dealing with spills on carpeting. The longer a spill sits on your carpeting, the harder it will be to remove, and the more likely it will be to leave a stain. If a stain still remains after cleaning a spill, moisten tuffs in the stained area with three percent hydrogen peroxide and let stand for one hour. Blot and repeat this pattern until completely clean.
To keep your carpeting clean on a regular basis, vacuum your carpet regularly using a vacuum with a rotating brush. If you run across any sprouts or snags in your carpeting when vacuuming, use scissors to clip them out—do not pull out snags. Pulling out snags may result in further damage to your carpeting and cause surrounding carpet to become loose.
Now that you know the best ways to care for your flooring, put your knowledge into action with regular maintenance and upkeep. For additional questions on how to best care for your specific flooring type or brand, contact Carpetland USA. You can also check out our full line of cleaning products—all designed to gently and thoroughly clean your flooring.
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