How to Make Your Own Laminate Floor Cleaner and Properly Maintain This Type of Floor
When it comes to wood and laminate cleaners, you can spend a fortune on commercial products or you can make your own for pennies. The key to making your own wood and laminate floor cleaner is to do no harm, first and foremost. This is how to make your own laminate floor cleaner, a product that will clean well without harming the finish of your floors, even when used repeatedly over many years.
How to make your own laminate floor cleaner. Ingredients
Most online recipes for a homemade laminate floor cleaner include white vinegar. However, this substance is highly acidic and used repeatedly will over time attack the finish on your wood or laminate floors, making them look dull. Vinegar can also soften the finish, making it feel gummy or sticky.
Alcohol however works great even on laminate or wood floors with finish, because it has a nearly neutral ph – neither acidic or alkaline. So you can safely use rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol, which also work as disinfectants.
Regular tap water, while safe to drink, may leave water marks and hard water build up on your floors over time. The best way to avoid this is to use distilled water in your floor cleaner (available in any supermarket).
Add a very small amount of liquid dishwasher, which will break the surface tension of the water making the cleaner much more effective, but not so much that it requires rinsing.
How to make your own laminate floor cleaner. The recipe
- 1 part alcohol (rubbing alcohol is cheap and available in any supermarket or drug store)
- 4 parts distilled water
- a few drops of dishwashing liquid
Mix this up in a spray bottle each time you clean the floors. Or if you make it up ahead, be sure to label it well and keep it out of the reach of children.
How to make your own laminate floor cleaner. Use
Sweep or vacuum the floor. Spray the cleaner in a small area, scrub well with a cloth and immediately wipe the area dry with a microfiber cloth. The secret is to spray, scrub and wipe dry immediately.
At least twice a week vacuum (or sweep) your wood or laminate floors to remove the real enemies here: dirt, sand, grit, pebbles and grime. It comes in on your shoes and gets ground into the finish and surface of your beautiful floors every time you and the kids walk on them.
But unless the vacuum you use has a hard floor attachment (not just a setting for hard floors), you’d be better off using a broom to dislodge, sweep up and remove debris and dust.
Then every two weeks, clean and scrub the floors with your homemade cleaner and a good mop that cleans and wipes the floor nearly dry in a single effort.
Further protection of laminate floors
Protect your wood and laminate floor from scrapes and scratches with felt furniture pads. The kind of felt pads that are self-stick are inexpensive, easy to apply and will last for many years. Felt reduces friction which makes it easy to slide chairs in and out and also cut the noise.
Credits: everydaycheapskate.com
Photo credits: homeimprovementgot.com
