Comments on: How to Clean Laminate Floors

By: Jane

Jane — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:03:00 +0000

I made the huge mistake of having dark laminate installed! It is always marked and streaked and dull. I have tried everything mentioned and absolutely hate them. Anyone have any answers for dark laminate?

By: what do i do now

what do i do now — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 23:49:39 +0000

I thought I was told it was okay to move furniture across my laminate floor, but I see marks (not scratches) which don’t come up with the recommended bona cleaner. Any ideas?

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:24:28 +0000

Right or wrong, I have always used the swiffer type wet cloths on my three rooms of laminate wood flooring and NEVER had any problems. From the point of installation I thought the recommendation to use only a product from the flooring manufacturer was to get you to purchase more from their companies. One room of per go is probably fifteen years old and looks as good as the day they installed it. Another room with our laminate flooring is a high traffic area, and also is the room where our dog eats and drinks. I think the answer is not to get the flooring excessively wet during the cleaning. I use the dry mop or vacuum first and then go over the floor with the wet mop. Looks great.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:25:53 +0000

So glad I found these postings! We have dark brown laminate wood, and the streaks and footprints were killing me! I tried every cleaner out there, vinegar solutions, steam mop, all left bad streaks. The magic eraser worked but I decided quickly that it is impossible to clean 1000 square feet on your knees with a little magic eraser. So I tried the alcohol only and it works the best from all suggestions. I put some rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle and misted the floor, then took a mop with a clean microfiber pad and mopped until it was all dry. For the size of our floor I need two to three microfiber pads because it starts streaking as soon as the pad gets too damp. So, thank you Betty, you saved me from going nuts over this floor mess!

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:10:38 +0000

I hate my flooring. I would never get it again. Reading the comments I see others have the same issue-footprints/streaks/film. I will try some of the cleaners and hope at least one works!

By: Donna Brown

Donna Brown — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:25:48 +0000

Oh my goodness. I wish I had investigated Pergo Laminate further before purchasing. I have 80 boxes right now waiting to be installed. Have I made a huge mistake?

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:20:50 +0000

I was starting to get worried because the new floors I put in at my business were starting to build up streaks, marks, and a chalky dull haze. My solution for cleaning was water and Zep hardwood floor and laminate cleaner, until tonight when I decided to clean the floors using a wet swiffer (24 pack). I cleaned the floor in smaller sections, let it dry and re-cleaned it about 4 times until the new swiffer pads were staying clean. I went through 22 swiffer pads in one 2 hour cleaning session and the floors look new again. This is a business, so everyone who comes in wears shoes. I’ve walked all over the new floors since the cleaning and they look very good. Just to let you know, my business is in Minnesota and we salt our roads when the snow comes. This year the snow melted easily as it was warmer than usual, so when people came in my store they usually had wet, salty feet which is what I believe was causing the chalky haze left over after cleaning. I’m going to go over the floors once daily with the swiffer and I’m confident that they should stay nice from here on out. Daily maintenance, to me, is an easy trade off for having a carpet that would have been permanently destroyed from these conditions. Anyway, I put in the hard work and it looks great. But if I ignore the floor, it looks terrible.

By: J.

J. — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:14:02 +0000

I’ve read through all your comments and am seeing a common theme, one that has not been addressed.

Most complaints seem to center around ‘smears’ and cleaned floors that look instantly ‘dirty’ again minutes after a thorough clean. My experience is that laminate floors ‘reflect’ marks according to how much natural light comes into the room at any given time. How do your ‘dirty’ floors look at night in soft artificial lighting? My hunch is most of you will be saying they look really good.

I have laid good, quality laminate floors throughout the entire upstairs area of our house, and in our kitchen, and our large, high traffic mudroom. Upstairs (down for one and a half years) looks great until the afternoon sun comes flooding in the windows, then you see the footprints. Downstairs looks constantly great because both rooms are not as well lit by natural light.

I use nothing but water over a microfiber cloth to wash my floors once a week, and they look fine. Believe me when I say I am extremely anal about floors looking good so it is not as though I have low expectations for this flooring. We live in a rural, cold, northern climate with two dogs and two cats so my floors are subject to a real workout on a daily basis.

I understand that no floor is ‘no maintenance’, and I understand that dirt and gravel will damage any surface over time. I sweep on a daily basis to keep the floors free of dirt and gravel which will scratch the surface and eventually lay it open to accelerated wear. That’s another reason I don’t use vinegar; if the surface is scratched at all I can’t imagine that vinegar, over time, wouldn’t be corrosive to some degree.

I love laminate flooring with a passion! I have hardwood in our living room and while it is a wonderful, ‘alive’-looking floor, I love the laminate for ease of maintenance. Don’t be put off by all the negative talk. With realistic expectations and regular cleaning (yes, all floors need constant cleaning – it’s part of being human and having feet that track dirt!), your laminate flooring will serve you well.

By: nancy

nancy — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 04:33:12 +0000

I hated carpets and all the cleaning and vacuuming I had to do, not to mention all the germs and smells that hung in the carpets. So for my birthday we did laminate flooring. Not only was it tougher than they said to install, but after, well, I just loved it. So sweeping every few days, no big deal, right? Wrong! Now my floors are dull. We live in low light so no one sees the footprints or pug prints. I don’t want to wreck my floors, I just want them clean and shinny. Oh yeah, my floors are Shaw floors, and the customer service line was no help when I called them. Someone help!

By: Annelie H

Annelie H — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 01:11:10 +0000

Okay, I agree with all who say laminate floors are definitely not “easy maintenance”. We have laminate on the entire bottom floor, which is high traffic (due to kids): kitchen, family room, dining and living room, as well as the mudroom/bathroom. Everything is a gorgeous cherry color. I do believe that when you have tried a cleaning solution, and then vinegar (which I believe makes it dull), you are making a layer of build-up that might not come off the first time you try something new, like steam cleaning or alcohol.
The magic eraser trick works OK, but “elbow grease” doesn’t even cover it. I can’t imagine doing the entire floor like this. But when I do try that, I can literally see the vinegar/cleaner film come off, which is what I want! I don’t know, but the hot water with alcohol and microfiber cloth, then dry after, sounds like the best to me.

The reason why I had to comment on here is to ask all who insist you want your carpet back: Do you think the carpet isn’t dirty, or do you love not seeing the dirt? Americans are so fooled into thinking their heavy vacuums with rollers CLEAN carpet. It’s crazy. Everywhere else, people realize carpet is a wonderful haven for dirt, parasites, dust, and other awful bugs, etc., causing horrible air in our homes, possibly allergies, and trapping dirt or worse. It’s a wonder to me that people even compare carpet to laminate. Obviously, the laminate is going to show the dirt more, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there on the carpet. To compare laminate to linoleum, hardwood or even tile makes more sense. Don’t fool yourself and think it’s sanitary or healthy to have carpet in kitchens/dining areas/bathrooms or even high traffic living rooms. Especially with kids. YUCK.
-European living in the US