Laminate floors are known for being much more resistant than real hardwood flooring when it comes to scratching, denting and general wear. Even with these ultra-durable properties, you still want to keep up maintenance with your laminate floor. Once a laminate floor gets scratched and worn, there is no other choice than to replace the floor.

Maintaining laminate flooring is not much different than maintaining real hardwood. You want to vacuum or sweep up dirt and grit weekly using the recommended cleaner and a soft bristly brush attachment to prevent scratching. Using the wrong cleaner can damage the finish and cause premature fading. Avoid the impulse to purchase the floor cleaner you see on grocery store shelves, as they are generic products that may harm your particular floor's appearance. Make sure to place mats at the entrances of you home to protect your floors from dirt and stones. Chair Glides are a good investment to protect your laminate flooring from heavy furniture. We recommend SafeGlide Flooring Protectors, which you can see here.

Make sure to clean up liquid spills as soon as possible. Even with the super tight seams of todays laminate flooring, standing liquid can still seep down to the subfloor and cause problems with delaminating from underneath.

Never Use: Water and/or Vinegar, Furniture Polish, Wax-Based products, Detergents, Bleach, Polishes, Oil Soaps, Abrasive products or Acidic materials to clean laminate flooring. These will leave a dull film on the surface of your floor, which will be difficult to remove in the future. Never use any abrasive cleaners, steel wool or scouring powders when cleaning your laminate flooring. Water can seep into the seams of the panels causing delamination, cupping of the edges of the boards and discoloration of the flooring itself. Spills should be wiped up right away.

At Hosking Hardwood Flooring, we have all the manufacturers' recommended cleaners and mop kits available to make the maintenance chore of cleaning your flooring easy.