Protect Your Laminate Flooring: Products To Avoid

Laminate flooring products are cleaners and solutions that can be used to clean your laminate flooring. While laminate flooring is easier to clean than most, there are some cleaning products that should not be used on the laminate floor.

Why It's Important to Protect the Flooring

Taking care of the outer-most layer of your laminate flooring will ensure that it lasts for many years. This is so because the top of the laminate floor is covered with melamine wear-layer, a resin-filled membrane that rests on the top of the floor. This layer protects the print layer, which gives the floor its appearance. If the wear layer is damaged, the print layer becomes vulnerable.

Damage to the wear layer and to the print layer is virtually impossible to repair. The layers underneath the print layers will also be more vulnerable, although to a lesser extent. The following article will show you how to avoid using the wrong types or combination of the following list of cleaners and scouring products so as to ensure the durability of your laminate flooring:

Harsh and Abrasive Cleaners

The term refers to cleaners that contain ingredients that can entirely remove the melamine layer from the floor. You can tell which cleaners are abrasive by checking the ingredients on the product. Abrasive cleaners contain a significant amount of grit, acids, and alkalis.

Soap-Based Detergents

While they are not quite as strong as the above-mentioned cleaners, they can be dangerous for similar reasons if applied in large quantities.

Scouring Pads

These pads contain steel wool, which can leave scratches on the floor.

Water

While it’s okay to use a dampened mop, water should not be applied directly to the floor. You should not use mops that make large puddles either. While laminate flooring can be resistant to most spills, large quantities of water can seep under the flooring, causing damage to the underlayment, and over time it can seep down to the underlying floor structure and cause water damage in the form of mold and wood rot.

Not only that, but It can also warp the flooring’s core, that is to say, the heart of the underlayment and the structure and with it, time will bow up the rest of the floor’s layers and the joist can begin to sag. In an extreme case of water intrusion beneath any flooring material, the floor can conceivably collapse if the joists were to rot out unnoticed or were left unattended. This is a common problem in bathrooms and wet areas in general where laminate flooring materials are used.

Broken wax seals beneath a toilet can go unchecked for a long time if the edges around the base of the toilet are sealed all the way around and leaking water has nowhere else to go it will find a way out. By the time water damage does become noticeable, the damage is done and should be repaired immediately.