10 Tips For Vinyl Flooring Maintenance

Vinyl flooring is known for its durability and ease of cleaning, but there are a few things that you should do to help prolong the life of your flooring. Here are our top ten tips for maintaining your new vinyl floor!

Use A Doormat

One of the easiest ways to keep your floor clean is to ensure no unnecessary dirt enters the room. You can avoid chemicals, grit and other types of dirt from entering your home by making sure you have a doormat at all your exterior doors and operating a ‘no shoes’ policy in the home.

Without using a doormat, grit, dirt and chemicals can enter the home all too easily. When you enter your home with grit stuck to your shoes, the grit actually acts like sandpaper, stripping the finish from your floor. Chemicals from tarmac can also stick to your feet and cause your flooring to become discoloured over time.

Apply Floor Protectors To Furniture

Large items of furniture such as cabinets, wardrobes and sofas can be very heavy and dent your flooring. This can be undesirable if you later want to rearrange your room, or are looking to let or sell your property. The best way to prevent these dents is by fitting your furniture with protective ‘feet’ or floor protectors, which help to better distribute the weight of heavy items of furniture.

Avoid Rolling Casters

Most office chairs feature little wheels on the bottom (known as castors) to allow movement, however, these can damage your vinyl flooring. Often, these tiny wheels have a very small floor print and the movement caused by daily movement may eventually cut into your flooring, or dent it. Protect your vinyl flooring in a home office or study by either fitting chairs with felt tips, buying chairs without wheels, or placing a rug or other protective layer under the seating area at your desk.

Lift Furniture Or Appliances When Moving Them

Moving furniture or appliances may not be a regular occurrence, however it can cause damage to your vinyl flooring if not done correctly. It is all too tempting to drag heavy furniture, however this will most likely scuff, scratch or tear your floor. The safest thing to do would be to lift your furniture clear off the floor when moving (remember to lift with your legs!) but if that’s not possible, try laying a protective layer over your floor such as plywood boards, carpet or sheets, then dragging the furniture over it to move it across the room. The protective layer will help spread the weight and avoid sharp edges scuffing the floor.

Clean Your Floor Regularly

Just like car maintenance, the longer you leave cleaning your floor, the worse it will get, and overall could cost you more time spent cleaning, or worse, make your vinyl floor so dirty it takes longer to clean. Cleaning your floor regularly can actually save you time and money by preventing the floor getting so dirty that special cleaning products are needed.

Our advice is to get into the habit of sweeping regularly with a soft broom and collecting any surface dirt with a dustpan. This will avoid the risk of dirt becoming ground in over time. Try keeping a soft broom in the corner of the room as a way to make regular sweeping that little bit more convenient.

Use Mild Cleaning Techniques

It can be very tempting to buy into marketing gimmicks and use a heavy-duty floor cleaner on a regular basis. You can actually save money by avoiding these expensive products, and instead become more proactive with your cleaning by wiping up any spills as soon as they happen, then vacuuming or sweeping the floor regularly. For any dirt that the vacuum or broom misses, use a mop dampened with warm water. If all else fails, try a mild cleaning product, or why not try vinegar which acts as a disinfectant and can clean as well as almost any all purpose cleaner.

Don’t Let Your Vinyl Flooring Get Too Wet

While vinyl is waterproof, the same cannot be said for the edges around your room which may not be. If your floor gets too wet from cleaning, the water can seep through cracks in the floor’s edges and weaken the glue holding the floor down. This can cause curled edges on your floor, or may damage your floorboards at worst.

Rinse Well After Cleaning

While using soap can clean your floor, if you don’t rinse it off completely, the soap scum left behind can actually collect dirt. It’s best to keep soap to a minimum, but if you need to use it, wash your floor with one mop and reserve another for rinsing.

Don’t Use Wax

Some floors cannot be waxed, which are known as no-wax vinyl floors. These floors use a polyurethane coating to create a shine. Wax does not stick to this coating and will leave a residue. If your no-wax vinyl has lost it’s shine, you can use a polish specially made for no-wax flooring. Fortunately, a coating of this can keep your floor shining for up to a year, so you won’t have to do this regularly.

Remove Hair Spray Using Shampoo

If you’re a regular user of hair spray, you may find a buildup of residue on your bathroom or bedroom floor. One easy way to remove this is by mopping the floor with a small amount of hair shampoo mixed with warm water, then rinsing it with a damp mop. Don’t forget to dry it off after!

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