To clean laminate floors, your choices are:
- Dry-mop using an electrostatic mop especially for laminates. You can choose from several brands that attract the dust that so easily sticks to laminate.
- Vacuum with the brush bar setting off.
- Sweep with a soft broom.
For bedrooms and living rooms, any of these methods should be enough. But for laminates in the kitchen, follow up with a just-damp mop. If the floor is especially dirty, use a specialist cleaner. Alcohol-based mop cloths help get rid of tough dirt yet evaporate quickly.
Avoid using polishes, general floor cleaners, or multi-surface cleaners. Anything containing detergent dulls the floor. A steam mop can be a good investment if you have several laminate floors. It's safe to wet your floor with steam because within 30 seconds it's dry again. You may be able to use your steam mop to clean windows and sofas as well as clean and kill germs on all your hard floors.
Ground-in dirt may mean you get desperate for a liquid wash. If your room has low humidity, you may well get away with using a gentle soapy wood cleaner. But you must mop-dry afterwards. I've done this for years in my kitchen, where an AGA cooker provides constant dry heat, with no board lift-up.
