How to Clean LVT Flooring

Luxury vinyl tiles, or LVT for short, is a durable, easy to maintain and practical type of flooring that is found in a number of homes in the UK. But how do you clean an LVT floor?

It’s a lot easier than you might think to clean LVT flooring. Keep on reading to find out what you need to do.

 

Things to Know When Cleaning LVT Flooring

• There’s no need to use harsh cleaning chemicals like ammonia and bleach, to clean LVT flooring. If you were to use said cleaners, you might damage the floor rather than clean it.
• Remember that less is best – There’s no need to use lashings of water or a huge amount of cleaning fluid to clean an LVT floor. Saturating the floor isn’t good for it, but also the LVT surface will become very slippery and will take an age to dry.
• You don’t need to wax LVT flooring. Waxing this kind of surface makes it quite slippery and can dull its appearance.
• Stick to using soft cleaning tools, like soft bristled brushes and cloths. Don’t use scouring pads, steel wool balls, and hard brushes because they’ll scratch the surface!
• Don’t steam clean it – The hot steam can permanently damage the luxury vinyl tile surface.

 

How to Clean LVT Flooring Step by Step

1. Remove any large pieces of furniture and mats from the room or pop them to one side, if possible.
2. Start brushing the entire floor with a very soft brush (hoovering the surface also works but make sure you’ve set the vacuum up to clean hard floors).
3. Continue to sweep/hoover the surface until you’ve gathered up all the loose debris, hair, and general grime.
4. Fill a bucket with warm water.
5. Dip a mop into the water and wring it out so the mop head is damp.
6. Start to mop the floor – try working from the furthest corner of the room towards the door (stops you from walking over the patches you’ve cleaned).
7. Repeatedly soak and wring out the mop throughout this entire mopping process.
8. Make sure you don’t oversaturate the floor! And if you do, mop up the excess water.
9. If you’ve got a really dirty floor, you can add two to three drops of washing up liquid to the warm water to create a ‘cleaning detergent’.
10. Remember to mop up any suds or excess water.
11. When you’re done mopping, leave the floor alone, and wait for it to dry (keep kids and pets out of the room as the floor will be slippery).
12. Replace your furniture.

Tip: You can also purchase an LVT floor cleaner. But always test the product out before you use it, make sure it can be used around pets, and stick to the dose stated on the packaging.

 

How to Remove Stains from LVT Flooring

Follow these steps to remove stains from LVT flooring:

1. Grab some kitchen roll and wipe up the spillage/mess immediately.
2. Continue to soak up the mess until it’s mostly been removed from the floor.
3. Fill a bucket/bowl with warm water.
4. Soak a sponge/cloth in the water and wring it out.
5. Wipe the stained area with the damp cloth.
6. Repeatedly rub the stain to remove it.
7. If you’re having issues, add a drop or two of washing-up liquid to the warm water and rub the stain again.
8. Remove excess suds from the area with a fresh damp cloth.
9. If you’re still having trouble taking out the stain, grab a very soft-bristled brush and start to brush the stained area in a circular motion with the soapy water mixture (do not use a hard bristled brush as this will scratch the surface!)
10. Continue to brush the stained patch until the mess has gone.
11. Wipe the area down with a damp cloth.
12. Leave the area to dry naturally.

Note: For tougher stains, you can invest in an LVT floor cleaner, but do make sure that the product is suitable for your floor before you use it – do a patch test!

 

How Often Should You Clean LVT Flooring?

You should try and clean your LVT flooring at least once a week with a mop and some water. A weekly clean will stop clumps of grime from resting on the surface!

However, you can increase this frequency if you live in a busy home, if lots of dirt gets into the house, or if you have pets.

You should also consider brushing your luxury vinyl tiles on a daily basis if you have pets as this’ll remove a lot of surface debris.

It’s also worth cleaning up any spillages as soon as they happen. By doing this you can prevent stains from blemishing the LVT’s surface.

 

How to Maintain LVT Floors

Here are a handful of tips that’ll help keep your luxury vinyl tiles looking like new:

• Place doormats near the doors in your home, so people can wipe their feet before they start walking through your house. The mats will collect a lot of dirt, but remember that you will need to clean them frequently, so they can continue to collect the grime.
• Ask people to take their shoes off before entering your property.
• Mop up spillages as soon as they happen!
• Stay on top of the brushing and weekly cleaning.
• Put foot protectors on furniture or pop furniture on mats to stop the items from scratching the luxury vinyl tile floors.
• Don’t scrape your furniture along the floor when moving it. Instead, lift the items up and move them.
• Don’t use a steam mop to clean LVT floors because the heat and steam can damage the surfaces.
• Shut the blinds, so the LVT surface isn’t left in direct sunlight for prolonged periods. The sun’s rays can discolour the flooring.
• Don’t clean LVT flooring with harsh chemicals.
• Don’t wax the floor because the LVT will go really slippery!
• Keep your pets’ nails short so they don’t scratch the luxury vinyl tile surface.

 

Is LVT Low Maintenance?

Yes, luxury vinyl tile flooring would be considered low maintenance because you don’t need to spend hours cleaning the floor every week, and the cleaning process is straightforward.

All you need to do is brush the LVT a few times throughout the week to remove chunks of debris and mop it once a week with some water. If you carry out these tasks your floor will look fresh and will last a long time.

You should, of course, mop up any spillages as they happen, so you prevent potential stains from plaguing the surface. In general, if you act fast, a lot of blemishes can be removed from an LVT surface with ease.

In addition to this, you don’t need to use heavy-duty and hard-to-come-by cleaning products and tools to wash the surface down, which makes the cleaning process a lot easier!