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Vinyl Plank flooring is durable, easy to install, and comes in countless trendy designs for your home decor wishes.
Your first defense to cleaning vinyl plank flooring is a large microfiber mop. These are quick to grab for everyday dust and light messes. Once that’s done, take a look at the baseboards – they might need cleaning, too. I can tell you how to clean baseboards without having to kneel.
If you have already have a microfiber mop, you can get reusable mop pads instead. You may find that the smell of the disposable wet pads are too strong. You might also be concerned about what’s in the disposable wet pads for your kids, pets, and yourself.
You can skip the hand wringing and keep your hands clean (and soft) by having extra reusable pads. Just toss them in the washing machine.
Read on for more do’s and don’t’s on how to clean vinyl plank flooring in your house and keep the shine on it.
There are several ways that you can keep your vinyl plank floorings clean.
How to Clean Vinyl Plank Flooring – 5 Methods to Clean Vinyl Plank Flooring:
Learn the techniques to keep your vinyl plank floorings safe from scratches and dents and keep them shining like new flooring.
Dry Sweeping
Start with dry cleaning to remove debris before wet cleaning.
These can be vacuuming, sweeping, or dusting the vinyl plank flooring or vinyl tile flooring.
You can automate this step and use a vacuum robot, like this one on Amazon. It empties itself, and you can replace the bag in the clean base once every 3-4 months.
Use a vacuum with a soft roller head for hard floors. You would have to buy one if your vacuum did not come with a soft roller cleaner attachment.
For frequent cleaners and homes without kids or pets, a Swiffer static sheet will be sufficient to do the job.
Mopping
Mopping your vinyl plank floor is an effective way to clean them.
For small areas like 1-2 rooms, you can use a microfiber mop. The commercial size one, at least 18″ wide, will get the room clean super-fast.
If you have an entire house, you would want to switch over to a robust mop and bucket that can get you done fast, like this Vileda mop and bucket with wringer.
They are easier to wring than a spin mop, I find. The bucket is also lighter than the spin mop version that makes carrying it around the rooms faster.
Add a teaspoon of baking soda per gallon of water for an effective clean. This deodorizes and is safe for kids and pets.
You can also add a bit of pure castile soap, which is also safe for kids and pets.
If you have hard water, you will want to avoid castile soap and instead use Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds.
Do not use steam to clean the floor. Vinyl can not resist the steam and may end up swelling.
You can automate this step, as well. This mopping robot can start mopping vinyl plank floors after a compatible iRobot is done vacuuming.
Caring for Vinyl Plank Flooring
Using felt floor protectors under moveable chairs and furniture can help you clean the vinyl floor easily.
If you do not use felt floor protectors under furniture, there will be scratches around the floor making it look dull.
You can use area rugs and mats that will also help you to keep the floors clean and dust-free.
Takeaway
Use these simple techniques will let you keep your vinyl floors looking like new.
You can use a microfiber mop for dry and then wet cleaning especially if you clean daily.
Having a mop with a wring bucket will help you tackle large spaces and heavy surprise messes on your vinyl plank floors!
You can also choose to automate with cleaner robots. Although they require much less maintenance than doing it all yourself, they will take up a couple of feet of space in your room.
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