How Often Should You Mop Laminate Floors?

Laminate flooring is an excellent and durable alternative to having hardwood flooring in your home. It can be more scratch resistant, it looks as good as real wood, and often costs less.

But how often should you mop laminate floors to keep them clean?

Interestingly, the act of mopping a laminate floor, typically with a microfibre head mop and some laminate safe cleaning product, should be done as part of deep cleaning the floor.

It should, therefore, be done on a fortnightly basis in most homes. But it can be done more frequently in busiest homes where there’s a lot of foot traffic, general mess and pets.

That being said, the best way to keep any type of floor clean in a home is to maintain it regularly, and to make good use of the ‘dirt prevention’ methods outlined below. So, keep on reading for more advice on this!

 

How Frequently Should You Clean Laminate Flooring?

When it comes to cleaning laminate flooring you can split this type of task into three chunks: daily cleaning, deep cleaning and immediate cleaning. Each of these will be discussed in more detail below.

Do keep in mind that you can adjust the frequency of the actions below to suit your home. For example, if you have a few dogs, a cat and kids in your home, you’ll likely need to perform a deep clean of your floor much sooner than a single person who has very little traffic running over their laminate floor.

Daily cleaning

Daily cleaning, as the name suggests, is when you run a hoover or sweep your laminate floor on a daily basis.

This keeps major dirt off your floor, so when it comes to the deep cleaning phase, you shouldn’t find large patches of debris to clear away.

In general, you should sweep your floor with a soft bristled brush and use your vacuum cleaner, with the hard floor head on, to gather up any loose dirt, like clumps of hair and fur, food and mud off the floor.

This kind of cleaning shouldn’t take you very long, and it can be transformative for your floor because by the end your laminate floor should be free from clusters of scattered grime.

Not only will it look far nicer but it will make the floor a safer space, particularly if you’ve got babies playing on the surface. You wouldn’t want a baby to put whatever dirt they find along the laminate floor into their mouth.

 

Deep cleaning

A deep clean, on the other hand, is when you gather your microfibre mop, specialised laminate floor cleaning products, and start to clean the floor (including between the grooves, if applicable).

It’s also when you spot treat any obvious marks on the floor that you might’ve missed or forgotten about (more on this below).

By the end of this session, your floor should be completely clean and free from horrid stains that might’ve gathered, unnoticed in between cleaning sessions.

This should be done on a fortnightly basis, and if you’ve stayed on top of the daily cleaning, you shouldn’t take too long to complete this job.

If you also use some of the ‘dirt prevention’ techniques mentioned below, the floor should be free from a lot of general debris too.

So, you won’t have to fight to dislodge the muck that’s been tracked into your home and is stuck between the grooves in your floor.

Also, if you perform such a task on a two-week basis, and keep up with the daily cleaning, you’ll notice that each time you go to clean your laminate floor that the job will get a little easier.

 

Immediate cleaning

Immediate cleaning is different from daily cleaning and deep cleaning because this is when you remove spills and stains from the laminate floor immediately.

For example, if someone knocks over a glass of squash, you clear it away straight away, or if a candle starts to drip onto the floor, you remove it at once.

Unlike the other kinds of cleaning you can do, immediate cleaning is more of an ‘as and when’ type of thing. So, there isn’t a strict schedule per se.

As a side note, it’s imperative that you do treat and remove harmful debris from your laminate floor because liquid can question the integrity of the floor, and in some cases, colour enhanced food and drink can stain laminate flooring.

Plus, stains are often harder to remove if they’ve been left to fester, so it’s always better to remove them as fast as you can.

 

Laminate Floor Care Tips

Here are a handful of tips to help keep your laminate floors in good condition, and there are also some ‘dirt prevention tips’ to take note of too:

• Use a doormat – Place a mat by your front door and encourage people to wipe their feet before they enter the room. This’ll stop too much dirt from going onto the laminate floor.
• Don’t wear shoes in the house – Ask people to take their shoes off before coming into the room to limit the transfer of dirt.
• Wipe your dog’s paws before they come in – Wipe the paws of your furry pals before they enter the room. Dogs often bring in mud and other dirt into the house.
• Use furniture pads – If you’re concerned about scuff marks on the floor, pop some furniture pads on the feet of your furniture to avoid such trouble.
• Put mats on the floor – Pop some mats down to cover the floor. This, however, does not mean that you can skip the task of cleaning the floor, you still have to wash the floor.
• Avoid abrasive cleaners – Avoid using abrasive cleaners when washing these floors as they can discolour and damage laminate floors. If you’re not sure what you should be using to clean the floor, ask the manufacturer.
• Follow the laminate floor manufacturer’s advice – Only stick to the cleaning advice you were given by the manufacturer.
• Use water sparingly – Cleaning the laminate floor with gallons of water is a big no-no!
• Only use laminate safe products – Make sure cleaning products are labelled as ‘laminate safe’ before you use them.