3 Top Tips for Keeping Your Flooring Clean

There are many advantages in keeping your office premises clean and tidy. The first and most obvious is that clean and inviting offices and shop fronts will encourage customers and visitors to come in and feel welcomed, boosting their confidence that you will be able to suit their needs.

The floor is often an overlooked part of the cleaning process, but a dirty or stained floor can make the whole room look unkempt, no matter how much effort you have put into polishing the furniture and tidying and wiping down the desks and other surfaces. Of course, the best way to look after your floor is by using floorcare cleaning products, and these may depend on what material the floor covering is made from.

1. Laminate or vinyl flooring are easiest to clean

Floors made from laminate or vinyl get a bad press, being denigrated as a cheap alternative to ‘real’ stone or wood floors. This is very unfair as both laminate floors and vinyl flooring are designed to offer an attractive appear while remaining tough and durable—and yes, for a very reasonable price!

These floors tend to be quite easy to clean, needing little more than a quick sweep and perhaps a mop using a suitable detergent when it gets heavily soiled. They can easily be scratched though, so it is best to use a piece of felt or some similar protective agent underneath the legs of any furniture, especially if it will be moved on a regular basis.

If they have been allowed to get particularly grubby—or simply to refresh the look of the whole room—these floors are easily restored with specialist cleaning products that retain the original coloring while removing every trace of grime and residue.

2. Carpeting usually needs shampoo

There are two types of carpeting used in workplaces. There is the tough and sturdy carpeting that is widely used in commercial enterprises, schools and anywhere that carpeting might be subjected to high footfall and moderate to heavy soiling. This type of carpeting can come in a very long, wide roll, being fitted and cut to the shape of the room it is designed for, or it can come as carpet tiles.

Properly fitted carpet tiles lie flush on the floor, seamlessly adjoining the next tile, to the point that it can be hard to spot that you have tiles rather than a single piece of carpeting.

The other type of carpeting is usually found in offices and meeting rooms—places where footfall is relatively low and there is little chance of dirt being trampled in from the outside—and tends to have a thicker pile and be better quality. It often takes the form of rugs, laid over the above-mentioned heavy duty carpeting to create a luxurious and inviting appearance.

Carpeting of all types can usually be shampooed using carpet cleaning detergents which contain conditioning agents to soften and brighten the fabric. This can be done by hand, but will take a very long time, both to wash and then to allow to dry afterwards.

A much better option is to use a carpet shampooer which applies the detergent, scrubs the dirt out and then rinses it with clean water before sucking out as much of the water as possible. These machines are very effective and will ensure that your work place suffers as little disruption as possible.

3. Real hardwood floors need cleaning crème

Real wood floors look fantastic and have great cachet with interior designers. They are expensive to put in, and tend to retain their value as long as they are properly looked after. This is where the downside of real wood floors comes into play.

Wood can easily be scratched, and some places with valuable wooden floors have banned the wearing of shoes with hard soles or high heels as these can damage the wood. Wooden floors should not be cleaned with water either, as this soaks into the wood fibers, causing them to swell and distort the lie of the floor.

Instead, the floor should be swept clear of any dust and detritus that could cause scratches, before a cleaning crème is applied. These crèmes are engineered to absorb any dirt particles, allowing them to be wiped off without causing any harm. Then, every trace of the crème should be removed with a buffer or similar device, before the floor is polished to leave it gleaming with the mellow richness unique to properly treated woodgrain. There are also special considerations to take into account when looking at ways to clean your bamboo floor.

No matter what material your floor is made from, there are appropriate floorcare cleaning products to leave it clean, inviting and looking its best.