How to maintain a laminate floor?
This floor covering is easy to maintain, robust, long lasting and its surface is hygienic.
There are steps you can easily take to ensure your new laminate floor covering remains in good condition and maintains its appearance over the long term. Basically, when you maintain room temperature at between 18 and 25 °C and relative humidity between 40 and 70 %, you create a healthy, pleasant environment, beneficial to your personal well-being.
These conditions also ensure that your laminate floor is maintained in the best possible condition: when air humidity levels are too high, the laminate layers derived from wood, as with all wood-based materials, tend to swell.
Conversely, low humidity (as occurs with air conditioning or underfloor heating) com-bined with high temperatures leads to shrinkage.
The use of humidifiers is recommended during periods when heating is switched on.
First time cleaning:
Before using the floor, first clear up the sawdust, dust and dirt with a broom or vacuum cleaner. For first-time cleaning purposes, water alone is not always sufficient, in which case the addition of a small quantity of cleaning product designed specifically for lami-nate flooring should be all that is necessary.
The cloth used should be slightly damp: in other words, well wrung out and not drip-ping water. If stubborn traces of glue remain after laying the floor, the use of a minimal amount of special solvent is recommended.
Routine cleaning in a domestic setting:
All floor coverings are subject to natural wear and tear to a lesser or greater extent, depending on the quality of the floor covering and the kind of use it is subject to. By cleaning regularly, you are helping to ensure your floor covering is maintained in good condition.
Your new laminate floor covering provides a tough, impermeable surface that dirt does not easily stick to, which makes it easy to remove. A vacuum cleaner suitable for hard floor surfaces, a dry mop, or any similar cleaning method can all be used to remove loose dirt from the floor.
Helpful tips:
Most of us know from experience that most of the dirt can be eliminated using a cloth specially impregnated with a substance to trap the dust, or through the use of a stati-cally charged cloth. However, daily use of an impregnated cloth can lead to a build up of the product on the floor’s surface, causing dust to stick.
Initial treatment with the kinds of cleaning and maintenance products that form a pro-tective film is not necessary.
Under no circumstances must wax or polish be used!
These substances do not adhere to nor penetrate the impermeable laminate floor cov-ering, but instead cause unsightly stains, streaks and footprints.
Hard-to-remove marks such as those caused by daily wear and tear, by soles on foot-wear, by crayons, or resulting from other causes, can be removed by following a few simple rules:
• Rubber marks, marks left by soles, dirt from outdoors, crayons, pastels: Dry brush manually, with a synthetic, non-scratch pad, for example.
• Fruits, berries, milk, beer, wine, tea, lemonade: Wipe immediately with an absor-bent cloth or, if the stain is already dry, with a cloth designed for use on laminated sur-faces. Use a dry cloth to finish.
• Urine, blood: Clean immediately with a damp cloth. If the stain is dry, dry brush with a synthetic, non-scratch pad. Clean whatever urine or blood remains with a cloth de-signed for use on laminated surfaces. Use a dry cloth to finish.
• Nail varnish, shoe polish, varnish, oil, tar, fat, felt-tip pen, ink, Indian ink, lipstick, carbon paper, typewriter ribbon: Clean using a cloth dampened with solvent, e.g. ace-tone, distilled white vinegar, nail polish remover, or any thinning agent – in all cases use with precaution and only on the stained area of the floor. Always follow the advice given regarding safe use!
• Chocolate, grease stains, cooking oil: Use a cleaning product suitable for use on lam-inate floor coverings.
Note: steam cleaning must be avoided at all costs as the hot steam affects the glued joints.
Above all, do not sand, varnish, polish or wax your laminate floor covering. These pro-cesses will compromise its performance. The surface is particularly durable and re-sistant, additional treatments are not necessary, therefore.
This advice is based on the best technical knowledge currently available. It is recom-mended that you test products on a small area before use.
