If you haven’t checked out last year’s “LVT and the Holiday Season” yet, grab your coffee and enjoy it here – https://novafloor.us/lvt-and-the-holiday-season/.
Happy Holidays everyone! It’s that time of year when many of us transform our houses into festively decorated “museums” (it’s what the kids think every time they are told “don’t touch that!”) and time to get ready for an onslaught of food and family. So as you are getting ready for the aunts and uncles, in-laws and those pesky cousins by moving furniture around and cleaning, some questions may come up about your flooring like these …
“I moved my couch to put our soon-to-be beautifully decorated tree in the window and see that the family pet has left some ‘presents’ under the couch! Now what?”
Well, solid objects should be no problem and won’t really leave a lingering stain. After sweeping them up, a quick wipe-down with a neutral pH cleaning solution should do the trick. Wet, or already dried / previously wet spots can be trickier and that’s due to the acidic nature of pet urine. A baking soda solution as a paste will dissolve the urine in few minutes and can be easily wiped up with a damp sponge. I’d rinse with a neutral pH solution to clean any residuals and remove the rest of the paste from the floor.
“I love the look of my floor that I had installed this year, but I need shift the furniture around in the room to decorate and I’m afraid of scratching it. Help!”
While luxury vinyl floors do have enhanced polyurethane coatings applied to the surface, they are not completely scratch proof. Luckily there are many products on the market to help keep your floor nice and new. From sticky-backed felt and nylon protectors to chair leg socks (yes, socks!) there seems to be a solution for every piece of furniture in the home. Felt protectors come in standard sizes and even sheets so you can custom fit to large, irregularly shaped couch feet. Most large home centers and large online retailers have a vast variety of these in stock. I did an online search of “furniture leg floor protectors” and got tons to choose from.
Quick tip: Sweep the floor first to keep from trapping debris along the edges of the legs when sliding the furniture; it helps reduce scratching and keeps the protectors from getting embedded with dirt.
“I decided to give the walls a quick coat of paint to refresh the room and saw some paint on the floor where my dropcloth didn’t cover. What’s the best way to get the paint off?”
Warm, soapy water on a clean rag should do the trick where you can’t scrap with a fingernail. If that doesn’t work, I like to use Goof-Off® on a clean rag as it won’t harm our coatings, and then clean the area with a damp cloth or mild neutral pH solution to remove any residues.
You’ll notice mention of ‘neutral pH’ solutions quite a bit when vinyl guys talk about cleaning. These are great cleaners that get the job done and will not harm polyurethane finishes. Solutions can be made stronger or weaker depending on what you are attempting to clean from the floor without lasting damage to the surface of the products. There are many on the market and you can find them at large retail outlets and home centers in the cleaning aisles.
Jim Kups, Technical Manager, North America, Novalis Innovative Flooring
