How to care for laminate

There is an opinion that the laminate is quite a capricious coating. In fact, this is not quite the case; laminate flooring is an excellent alternative to parquet or board. It has rather high performance characteristics, the material is warm and easy to maintain. He does not need additional painting or varnishing. In order for the floor to serve for many years it is necessary to know how to care for the laminate.

Minimum water, maximum accuracy

In order to serve the laminate for many years, from the very beginning of its operation, you need to properly care for it. Most coatings are afraid of moisture, which has a detrimental effect on the quality of the joints, leads to swelling of the panels and the deterioration of the overall performance properties. Recently, a waterproof laminate has appeared, which has a special coating that effectively repels water and protects the floor from damage.

Note! When choosing a laminate with a waterproof coating, it is very important that the protection be present on the locking joints.

In addition to eliminating excess moisture, there are several rules to preserve the appearance of the coating:

1. Exclude walking in shoes, especially in heels. For office space, you must choose a coating of high strength.
2. Under the furniture legs put lining of soft material. They will also be useful when moving objects. Most often, damage occurs during transposition. On the chairs and small tables can be glued fabric pads.
3. Broom and dustpan should always be at hand. Regular sweeping of street debris and sand will avoid micro-scratches that spoil the appearance and integrity of the floor.
4. In order to avoid the formation of traces on the glossy surface, and it looked well-groomed, you need to walk on it in room slippers.
5. In children's rooms or rooms with animals it is necessary to lay rugs or mats that protect the floor from moisture and possible scratches.

As you can see, maintenance of the laminate is quite simple, the main thing is to avoid excess moisture, mechanical damage and use suitable for maintenance coating tools.

Care products 

The main care for laminate is to remove dust and dirt. An ordinary vacuum cleaner with a gentle brush is perfect for this. Wet cleaning is desirable to carry out no more than 3 times a week. For her, a soft cloth, mop with a pile or foam rubber nozzle is suitable. They are moistened in water and thoroughly squeezed. For cleaning, you can use special tools for the care of the laminate, and you can wash with plain clean water.

Note! Rub the floor in the direction of the slats.

The use of powders, aggressive alkaline agents is unacceptable. When cleaning with concentrated soap solutions, white bloom may appear. Remove it simply with glass cleaner that contains alcohol. You can simply use an alcohol solution. Moisten a cloth in it, wring out and wipe the coating. Now there is a large selection of tools, especially for laminate.

How to remove stains on the coating:

• Wine, beer, juice immediately need to wipe with a soft cloth.
• Marker, nail polish, paint can be removed with acetone solution. It is important to apply only on the stain itself and not to go beyond it, so as not to dissolve the protective film of the coating.
• Various stains can be removed by special means, for this they are applied according to the instructions. You can try to wash the concentrate for washing the coating.

When removing stains, it is important not to use sharp and hard objects. If the stain is not removed and badly spoils the look of the coating, only partial replacement of the laminate will help.

Elimination of defects

The most common defects on laminate are chips, scratches and bumps.

Chips on the laminate are formed when heavy or sharp objects fall, if there is a possibility, they change the damaged lamellae. If replacement is not possible, then paste over with pastes and coat with the composition for the laminate. In specialized stores you can buy tools for the repair of laminate.

For repair use:

• Putty. Most often go in a set with the pallet and several dyes.
• Soldering iron sets. In addition to a special soldering iron, the set includes wax plates for filling chips. Repair is made according to the instructions that must be present in the kit.
• Wax briquettes or pencils. Allow you to quickly repair a scratch, in stores there is a choice of colors. The only negative - they quickly erased. Therefore, for the durability of the repair, the filled recess should be coated with a fixer or varnish.

Regardless of which repair tool is used, the damage is thoroughly cleaned of dirt, degreased and only then filled. Varnishing is done only after complete drying. For greater strength, you can cover 2-3 times.

At swelling of a covering from moisture with face lifting not to do, and replacement of sites of a floor will be required. Also, local repair of the site will be required if irregularities appear, if there are gaps at the joints, or the laminate protrudes above the surface.

Video

You will learn tips on caring for laminate by watching the following videos: