How to Care for Carpet, Laminate and Vinyl Flooring

The short version: vacuum carpet regularly and deal with spills immediately rather than scrubbing them, keep standing water off laminate, and never use a steam cleaner on a laminate floor. Put mats at external doors, use felt pads under furniture legs, and avoid harsh or abrasive cleaners on any of the three.

Most flooring that fails early has not worn out. It has been cleaned wrongly or left standing in water.

The First Few Weeks With New Carpet

New carpet sheds. Loose fibres work their way out of the pile for the first few weeks, and it can look alarming if you are not expecting it. Vacuum more often than usual during this period and it settles down. The carpet is not falling apart.

You may also notice a faint smell for a few days, which disperses with normal ventilation. Open the windows.

Leave furniture off the carpet for a few hours after fitting if you can, so the adhesive and the stretch can settle.

Looking After Carpet

Vacuum regularly, and more often on stairs and hallways where dirt is concentrated. Grit walked into a pile acts as an abrasive and cuts the fibres from underneath, which is the main cause of carpet wearing out in traffic routes.

For spills, blot rather than rub. Work from the outside of the mark inwards, using a clean cloth and lifting the liquid out. Rubbing a spill drives it into the backing and distorts the pile, turning a small stain into a permanent patch of damaged carpet.

Deal with it immediately. Almost anything comes out of carpet while it is still wet, and very little comes out once it has dried and set.

Use felt pads under furniture legs to stop indentations, and move heavy furniture slightly from time to time so the pile is not permanently crushed in one spot. If you have a pulled thread, cut it level with scissors rather than pulling it, which can run.

Looking After Laminate

Sweep or vacuum to remove grit, then clean with a barely damp mop and nothing more. Laminate has a wood based core beneath the decorative surface, and water is what destroys it. Moisture that reaches the joints causes the core to swell, and swelling at the edges cannot be reversed.

Never use a steam cleaner on laminate. This is the most common and most expensive mistake people make. Steam forces hot moisture into the joints, and the damage is permanent. It will also void most laminate guarantees.

Avoid abrasive pads, scouring powders and anything described as a polish. Wipe spills up as they happen rather than leaving them to stand.

Looking After Vinyl

Vinyl is the most forgiving of the three. Sweep or vacuum, then mop with a mild cleaner.

Avoid abrasive scourers, which dull the surface, and strong solvents. Take care with rubber backed mats on vinyl, because some rubber compounds can stain it permanently. Use felt pads under furniture and lift rather than drag anything heavy, since vinyl can be gouged.

Protecting Your Guarantee

Every carpet we supply and fit carries a 10 year guarantee, and our laminate is backed for up to 25 years depending on the range. Those guarantees cover the product and our workmanship. They do not cover damage caused by how a floor has been treated.

The things that cause problems are consistent: steam cleaning laminate, flooding a floor during cleaning, using the wrong cleaning products, and leaving spills to dry. Avoid those four and a well fitted floor will see out its guarantee comfortably.

Keep your paperwork. If you do ever need to raise something, knowing which range was fitted and when makes it far simpler to resolve.

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