Laminate Floors

Teresa · December 12, 2008, 04:49:03 PM

Does anyone here have laminate floors? If you do, what do you use to clean them? We have them all through the house, and using the microfiber mop and spray takes forever. I thought it did a great job on them, until I went right back over them and got the same amount of dirt off again. You're not supposed to wet mop them, but we have once or twice and then immediately dried them with a towel (one of us following the other). That was when we were really surprised at how dirty they were. Any suggestions?

One great thing I love about my Dyson vacuum. It works wonders on hard surface floors, especially when you always have dog fur and dust bunnies. I'm amazed at how well it works. I was so afraid I wouldn't get as much use out of it once we didn't have carpet, but I was wrong. We still use it just as much.

PattyInAK · December 12, 2008, 05:42:36 PM

Teresa, we have laminate floors except for on the stairs, for safety reasons. We have tried every mop and cleaner out there and have not come up with anything that works that great. The thing that worked the best was Mop n Glow with a wet sponge mop. One good thing, all that dirt and dust bunnies are not being embedded in a carpet and that sure makes for a healthier home. I have to keep the doggie toenails way short, otherwise they don't have traction. I am still working on getting the toenails back to where they should be.

Teresa · December 13, 2008, 06:10:44 AM

You are right about the traction. It doesn't bother Schatzi as much as Molly. She will be standing still eating, and her back legs are constantly moving away from her. Apparently she uses them to eat??? With her being older and a heavier dog, I really worry about her hips bothering her at some point, but I don't want to have carpet runners all over the house. Schatzi would think they were huge puppy pads!
Everything I have read says to use a vinegar and water solution, but I just didn't clean that well for us. The Bruce laminate floor cleaner made them look great, but just takes too long. Some swear by the Sharp steam mop, but I'm afraid of what it will do to them. The reviews are mixed. Mostly good, but then you get that one or two bad one in there.
I may have to try the Mop N Glow.

PattyInAK · December 15, 2008, 09:53:22 AM

Maybe you could let Molly have a throw rug for feeding times only.
I will let you know if I come across a cleaner that is easy to use and makes the floors look great.

Dee Dee and Hallie · December 22, 2008, 01:01:10 AM

Yikes you aren't supposed to wet mop laminate? That's how I clean my kitchen floor. I did have a thingie that you plug in and has swirly brushes and spits out water and then sucks it back up (sort of) but it didn't do too well either so I got rid of it. If you find something that works well I'd like to know too (why aren't you supposed to wet mop them?). I hate having hard floors of any kind anywhere in the house, too easy for a doxie to slip and hurt themselves but not much I can do about the kitchen, unfortunately my kitchen takes up a big portion of my house (wasted space in my case LOL). Oh I also don't use cleaners because I'm afraid the fumes will be bad for Hallie (and me) so I just use plain water and sometimes get down on my hands and knees to scrub if need be. Come to think of it I've either mopped or scrubbed a lot on this in the last 10 years or so and I don't notice the floor looking worn at all? It still looks pretty much new... :thinik:

Roberta · December 22, 2008, 03:15:10 AM

we put in tiles up at the bush house not ceramic like we have in some of the Willow glen house, they tend to have a texture therefore ms moo does not slip. On the slidie surface we use stips of non skid matting used for under carpets etc both of them stay on it to run from place to place, it also traps dirt etc and is washable, Madam has only used it once as a piddle pad and now knows thats a no no.
I have never like wood as you have to be careful with shoes grit etc taking the surface off.

Roberta

DP · December 30, 2008, 01:20:41 PM

Anybody try the swiffer wet jet? I think you can use a damp mop on the floors just not a wet mop. You do not want water sitting on the laminate but if you use a damp mop you should not have enough water to soak into the base material. When there is too much water the base is like a particle board and will expand like a sponge. Not a good look with the curled up boards. I have a microfiber mop that works great on the wood floors. It does not hold much water when it is wrung out but it will absorb plenty when something is spilled. We bought the mop a couple of years ago and i have not seen it since.

Brekkesmom · December 30, 2008, 05:22:04 PM

I've had my Pergo for about 10 years, and I damp mop. I did use the Swiffer. A small refinement now is my Shark steam mop - I totally love it! There is no fragrance, but the steam cleaning just smells fresh in a way that's hard to describe if you haven't experienced it.

Teresa · December 30, 2008, 06:29:27 PM

I've been wanting to try the Steam mop. We have the people who installed our floors coming out in the next week or so to look at a couple of areas that are wanting to lift up at the seams. It's like the top color layer wants to peel off. You would think we would have gotten water on them and let it sit, but that hasn't happened. It could be the quality of floor installed (and since Randy traded our computer work for floors, it could be the case, but we do see these people on a regular people, so I hope not), or it could just be a few pieces that are bad. We have about 5 extra boxes that they left with us and they will replace the bad pieces if they need to. This has been one reason I'm so curious as to how to clean them and not have a problem. If I have a chance in the next day or so, I'll take a picture of the areas to show you.