How do I properly maintain my new vinyl flooring, laminate flooring or hardwood flooring?

Here is a transcription, if you prefer to read instead:

“Another frequently asked question that we receive from our clients is, “How do I maintain my new vinyl floor, my new laminate floor, and my new hardwood floor, after installation? Well, you definitely don’t want to get any kind of moisture on the laminate, or any kind of moisture on the hardwood floor. Water and wood don’t mix. Oftentimes, people think just because it’s laminate, that it’s not any kind of wood component, but that could not be further from the truth. The interior portion of that is usually some sort of a particle board core, or even some sort of a fiber core, a high density fiber core, that is susceptible to moisture. You definitely don’t want to mop it in any way, shape, or form. Those new steamers that you see on all the commercials and the infomercials all the time, those are really bad for your laminate hardwood floors.

So what you’re going to want to do, is you’re going to want to see us, and receive a brochure from us for that specific floor and how to maintain it. Generally speaking though, you want to dust mop it, and you want to just use a hard surface spritz/sprayer type cleaner. Nothing more than that. You want to keep it as moisture free as possible and as dust free as possible for a long lasting beauty of that floor. Vinyl, on the other hand, and sometimes laminate hardwood, people would like to apply a shiny finish. That is really not a good idea, because if you apply a shiny finish, that means that you’re probably putting some sort of a polish or some sort of wax on the floor. Eventually, that floor is going to build up and it’s going to get scratched. Then, now you have a big scratch in the wax portion layer on the top of the floor. So that’s not really a good idea. Besides that, many of these wax type products that you put on the floor, many of these mop-and-glow type things, they will turn yellow with exposure to the sunlight, so you definitely don’t want to do that sort of thing.

Make sure to talk to your sales representative, and we will get you the appropriate instructions on how to maintain your specific floor. Most manufacturers, generally speaking, will follow the guidelines that I just gave you, but they also have more specifics. Some of them require or recommend that you use their particular brand name cleaner for their particular flooring after the installation for proper maintenance.”