How to care for a laminate floor?

The problem of laminate care concerns everyone with this flooring at home. When repairing, evaluate all the positive and negative sides of this material. From the article you will not only learn how to care for a laminate floor, but you will also understand what to do in an emergency. You can also get skills to repair such damage to the coating as swelling from water, chips from fallen heavy objects.

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What is laminate flooring made of?

Laminate flooring, or, as it is also called, “laminated parquet”, is a kind of “layer cake”, consisting of such parts:

• Stabilizing layer of durable kraft cardboard, which is saturated with melamine. To enhance the soundproofing effect, stabilizing and sound-absorbing layers are sometimes combined.
• The carrier layer is the main part of the floor covering. In materials of economy class and some models of the middle price category, the bearing part is made of durable chipboard. The basis of expensive laminate varieties is natural wood. It is much stronger and more practical than chipboard. In this layer, locks are cut to connect individual lamellas to each other.
• The decorative part. This is melamine-impregnated paper on which a drawing is applied. It can be an imitation of wood, gemstone, ceramics, sea pebbles and other materials.

Important! In addition to the classic, there are also waterproof varieties of laminate. The bearing part is not formed by chipboard, but by high-quality plastic with air chambers. Caring for such a coating is much easier than for ordinary.

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How to wash the laminate?

Materials based on wood processing industry waste do not like excess moisture, and natural wood does not particularly favor it. Most people buy particleboard based laminate. With prolonged exposure to moisture on the coating, the lamellae swell and become completely unusable.

However, washing such a floor is not only possible, but also necessary. To do this, use mild detergents to care for the laminate, not chemically aggressive. The rag should not be too wet. A great option is a mop equipped with a squeezing device.

Wet cleaning methods:

• Classic (using water and a rag). Pour water into a bucket, moisten a rag, squeeze it well and wipe the cover. Now manually wipe the floor with a dry cloth.
• Heavily contaminated surface will be washed off by hot water (in no case, boiling water!). The algorithm is the same as with cold water. Naturally, long-term contact of the coating with hot water cannot be allowed.
• Water with vinegar. This method is relevant if the coating is very dirty and has lost its luster. Dissolve 250 ml of table vinegar in a liter of water, pour the resulting solution into a spray bottle. Spray liquid in small areas and wipe immediately. When the surface starts to shine again, wash the floor with cool water and then wipe dry.
• A good laminate care product at home is baby shampoo. Dissolve a little shampoo for children in hot water (it has a neutral pH reaction, therefore it is completely safe), then wash the floor in the usual way.

Important! Before you buy a tool for cleaning the laminate, pay attention to its chemical composition. It should not have sodium hypochloride. If you wash the floor with such a solution once, there will be no harm to the coating. But from frequent washing, the laminate will lose its luster and original color.

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“Ambulance” for laminate flooring

Caring for a laminate of class 32 or any other is not just cleaning (dry or wet), but also restoring the laminated surface from scratches, chips or children's drawings.

Scratch repair

Scratches are the result of improper use of the laminate (furniture relocation, children's toys).

Important! It is impossible to leave such damage unattended. Gradually, the scratch will increase, dirt will accumulate in it and, in the end, the lamella will have to be replaced.

The procedure for removing a small scratch is as follows:

1. Using a vacuum cleaner, clean the scratch, remove all dust from it.
2. Swipe the defect with a special pencil (if necessary, several times).
3. Polish the defect with a dry cloth.

To eliminate deep defects, when the pencil does not help, you can use mastic or paste. The application of these funds is extremely simple:

1. Apply mastic with plastic glass, remove excess.
2. Polish the surface with a soft, dry cloth.
3. The paste, in comparison with mastic, has a more fluid consistency. Apply it to the scratch, smooth it, then wipe it off (first with a damp sponge and then with a soft cloth).
4. After 2 hours, you can walk around the repaired place.

Important! Choosing a pencil to repair a damaged laminate is a snap. Almost any shade is on sale. It’s more difficult to choose mastic or paste: the tint palette is quite limited. You have to mix different colors until you get the right shade.

Chipping elimination

Chips on a laminated surface appear when heavy objects fall, usually in the kitchen. It is necessary to eliminate chips as quickly as possible, since dust and dirt accumulate in them. So let's get started:

1. Strip the defect.
2. Using a burner, melt the putty for the laminate.
3. Put it on the damaged place, straighten with a spatula and remove the excess located near the chip.
4. Wait for the putty to cool.
5. Sand the defect and polish carefully.

How to eliminate the swelling of the laminate?

It can occur if liquid is spilled on the floor and is not wiped on time. If the floorboard is swollen, then the defect can be eliminated only by replacing it:

1. Disassemble the floor a little further from the damaged area.
2. Spread the swollen floorboards on a flat surface to dry.
3. Take your time to lay the floorboards again. Create a draft in the room to destroy moisture under the cover.
4. Reassemble the floor.

Important! Do not forget to grease the joints with sealant. Ideal if this will be done during the initial installation of the laminate.

How to remove drawings from the laminate?

The effectiveness of removing “art” from the floor depends on the basis on which ink pens are made. Consider several ways to delete pictures:

• If alcohol-based felt-tip pens, try erasing the drawing with a regular school eraser, and then wipe the striated area with a piece of cotton wool soaked in vodka or alcohol. Now it remains to wash the floor in the usual way and wipe it dry.
• Take a toothpaste (no whitening effect) and apply to the drawing. Use a microfiber cloth to remove traces of felt-tip pen. Then wash the floor. Laminate as good as new!
• If the marker is water-based, then its traces are washed off well with plain water.
• Moisten cotton wool in acetone, nail polish remover or white spirit. First, try cleaning efficiency in a small area. If traces of children's creativity are easily removed, and the surface has not changed its color, continue to delete the remaining drawings.

Stain removal rules

In addition to children's drawings, the flooring can be spoiled by accidentally spilled alcohol, resin from the Christmas tree. Traces of shoes may remain on the floor surface. And in each of these cases, you need to know how to care for the floor from the laminate. The following tips will help to cope with such pollution:

• Dried bloody stains can be removed with a cotton swab moistened with window cleaner.
• Spruce or pine resin must first be frozen. For these purposes, ice from the freezer or a bag of frozen vegetables is suitable. After the resin hardens, it remains to remove it from the surface with a scraper. The contaminated area is washed with a cotton swab or a piece of cloth dampened with a window cleaner.
• Wine stains can be easily removed with water and a mild detergent (Misters: Proper and Muscle are equally suitable). If traces of spots still remain, you can try to remove them with denatured alcohol.
• Strips from street shoes are conveniently removed with a soft eraser.

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Laminate Care Products at Home: Basic Rules

The service life of the laminate largely depends on how correctly you choose the flooring:

• In rooms with normal humidity, an ordinary laminate is appropriate.
• Moisture-resistant coating is mounted in the kitchen and in the bathroom, but use it with extreme caution.
• The best option for the bathroom is a plastic laminate.

A few basic rules will allow you to extend the life of the laminate:

1. Pay particular attention to the entry area. Dust, dirt and sand gather here especially intensively. To prevent dirt from spreading around the room, use a dust mat. Make it a rule to carry out daily cleaning of this area. Shake the mat every day.
2. Try to avoid damaging the laminate with sharp objects. In order not to damage the cover when moving furniture, glue special covers that are commercially available to the furniture legs.
3. Replace conventional rollers with rubberized ones. If you roll a computer chair with plastic wheels on the floor, it will certainly leave traces. With rubber wheels there are no such problems.
4. Dry clean the laminate with a vacuum cleaner with a soft brush head.
5. The effectiveness of caring for a class 32 laminate largely depends on how much you save the floor from liquid. Even moisture-resistant varieties withstand water on the floor for no more than 2 hours. The frequency of wet cleaning - no more than 2 times a week. Do not forget to wipe the washed floor dry.
6. Treat the surface of the floor with special mastic (once a year).

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How to care for a class 33 laminate in the living room of the house, or what should not be

Now about what is when caring for a laminate flooring an absolute taboo. So, in order to avoid damage to the coating, you can not:

• Use products containing caustic alkalis and acids, as well as cleaning products with abrasive particles.
• Use sharp objects when cleaning.
• Use too much water when cleaning the floor.
• To process a floor surface with the means for a parquet containing wax and oil. This forms a film, which, like a magnet, attracts debris, dirt and dust.
• Use for processing products with glycerin. This can cause swelling of the edges of the lamellas.

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We hope that the tips on how to care for your laminate flooring will be useful to you, and your new decor in any of the rooms will last even longer than you expected.