BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Cleaning cleaning laminate flooring

The hosue we just moved into has wood laminate flooring in a dark cherry color. When we toured the house it looked spotless, but now that we live in it I know why the previous owners wore house shoes!

You can see so many smudgy footprints on the floor and it drives me batty. There are some huge windows with lots of light near the floor and it shows every single footprint.

I've used wood floor cleaner and murphy's oil soap laminate floor cleaner with a mop. It seems that no matter what I do the footprints just smear some more. If I scrub on my hands and knees I can get them off but it takes forever and I don't have that kind of time every day.

So, do I learn to live with the smudges or is there something I can do?

TIA!
meg

Meg - we exclusively use Swiffer wet dusters on their mop for our laminate flooring. these are like big "Wet-Ones" and don't leave any moisture on the floor but pick up the dirt etc

Try these out..

Danielle

As professional cleaners we are often called in when clients give up on their darker hardwoods/ laminates. While they do take a little bit more work to get right, it is not impossible, it just takes practice.

First get a good floor care product made exclusively for laminates such as Bona X http://www.florstor.com/BonaLaminate.html

1) pre-vacuum the floor to remove larger dust/ debris

2) lightly spray the floor, remember a little goes a long way. Work in small sections to avoid the spray from drying.

3) work backwards, do not walk back over the damp floors until throughly dry

3) Use the microfiber mop in the same direction all the time rather than in a more common back and forth mopping motion as this action will cause some of the dust, ect to be redeposited back onto the floors

it may take a time or two to get used to this routine, however once perfected you will love your darker floors, I promise

Thanks <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> We have a swiffer wet jet and it just seems to smear the smudges. I also have a standard sponge mop and even a regualr mop. If the wood was lighter I wouldn't notice, but the combination of a dark wood with the large windows just makes all the smears and smudges visible.

Thanks!
Meg

Hello. I'm new to the community and am just bouncing around different forums reading this and that. Your question actually aroused a response in me as I just moved into an apartment with laminate floors and while they look lovely I can completely relate to your dilemma. I bought a Scooba. They're the robot mops from iRobot - the same people who make the Roomba. It is, quite possibly, the best money I've ever spent. You don't have to break your back trying to clean the smudges up. You can simply turn the Scooba on and let it loose. I run mine about every three days. While I do try to take my shoes off when I'm inside (I live in NYC - it's dirty out there on the streets) my floors still get smudged up. Given the amount of attention these floors require to stay looking good the Scooba has been a Godsend.

Oil soap was designed for unsealed wood that needed to be moisturized from time to time to refresh its appearance and sheen... Laminates and todays sealed woods do not allow the oil soap to soak in therefore it just sits on top of the flooring if not rinsed completely off. This thin film is what causes the smears that you are seeing.