The Best And Worst Mops To Consider For Your Laminate Floors

When you're on a budget but still want to achieve the look of wood or stone, laminate flooring can be a solid option. If you like to bake flaky croissants, or if you know someone with a mouthful of veneers, you're probably already familiar with the process of lamination. Two or more layers are glued together (whether that's with butter or U.V.-hardened dental adhesive) to improve the material's overall strength and appearance. Laminate floors are made the same way, typically with four to six layers: a melamine or paper backing, a fiberboard core, a decorative image, resins, and a protective coating. If you clean and maintain it properly, laminate flooring is a durable choice that provides a high-end look without a high-end price tag. But because they're composed of wood-derived materials, laminate floors are prone to swelling and irreversible damage when exposed to excess moisture. To avoid ruining them, it's important to consider the best and worst mops for these floors, including microfiber and sponge mops.

Laminate flooring has steadily grown in popularity since the 1990s, but it's still frequently confused with vinyl. Vinyl is made from 100% synthetic materials, including waterproof polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Whether installed as a sheet or tiles, vinyl is extremely durable and water-resistant. Thanks to advances in 3D-printing technology, it can be hard to distinguish laminate and vinyl flooring from the natural materials they mimic, let alone each other. Especially when it comes to cleaning, however, it's important to know which kind of flooring you have and (if you're installing a new floor) to understand the differences.

When the time comes to clean your laminate flooring, there are several factors to keep in mind. Along with frequently removing crumbs and debris that can scratch the finish, there are some cleaning products you'll want to avoid at all costs. Even if your laminate floors are filthy, you must avoid the temptation to cover them with hot, sudsy water. Instead, get your hands on the bestselling O-Cedar EasyWring Microfiber Spin Mop and Bucket Floor Cleaning System. The streak-free microfiber mop head can be used wet or dry to pick up dirt, dust, pet hair, or sticky messes. It attaches to a telescoping handle that can easily reach under furniture or along baseboards.

But what shoots this product straight to the top of our list is the mop bucket. Designed with a splash guard and hands-free wringer that's easily powered by a built-in foot pedal, you can control the amount of water in your mop to make sure you don't oversaturate your laminate flooring.

More than 150,000 customers have given this microfiber mop a five-star rating on Amazon, calling it a total game changer, even for households with muddy paws or messy kids. The microfiber mop head is machine-washable, and users describe it as thick and absorbent. In fact, several suggest that when you're done mopping your laminate floors, you should wring out the microfiber and run it back over the laminate to pick up any leftover moisture instead of waiting 30 to 40 minutes for your floors to air dry.

The Yocada Commercial Use Sponge Mop has thousands of five-star Amazon ratings thanks to its sturdy design, adjustable grip, and extendable telescoping handle that's perfect for cleaning walls and high ceilings. Although it's Amazon's bestselling household sponge mop, it's one of the worst mops for laminate floors. The honeycomb sponge is designed to be extra absorbent, which means it will hold entirely too much water to safely clean your laminate floors.

A typical foam sponge mop can hold up to 20 ounces of water. Those intended for commercial use, like the Yocada, can be capable of holding up to 15 times their weight in water. This mop is equipped with a handle that lets you squeeze some of the moisture out into a bucket or sink, but there's no visual way to tell how much water is left in the sponge, and if it's still saturated when you start mopping, it's too late.

This mop has two other features that are perfect for heavy-duty applications, but they'll similarly wreak havoc on the protective layer of your laminate. The attachable bristle brush gets high marks for its scrubbing power on dirty cement floors in garages, and the squeegee can help in certain situations, but both will leave permanent scratches and streaks on laminate flooring.

Spot-cleaning is one of the ways you can keep your laminate floors looking like new. It's a good idea to have an all-in-one solution available for those days you want to quickly refresh your floors without lugging around a big bucket. The Swiffer PowerMop Multi-Surface Mop Kit is Amazon's bestselling household dust mop thanks to a lightly scented cleaning solution and multi-layered mopping pads that quickly absorb grime. Easy to assemble, it's powered by two small batteries that allow users to spray a fine mist of cleaning solution where needed. Safe for all finished floors, this mop works well for laminate because you can limit both the amount of cleaner applied and the length of time it sits on the surface. The cleaner doesn't need to be rinsed, and it dries quickly, which Swiffer claims can cut cleaning time in half compared to a traditional mop and bucket.

Over 15,000 Amazon customers give this mop a five-star rating, agreeing that it makes short work out of cleaning laminate floors while leaving no streaks or residue. Compared to other Swiffer products, users say this design feels sturdier while gliding easily across floors and swiveling around table legs and other furniture.

While the two included mopping pads are soft enough for laminate flooring, and while replacement packs are available, some reviewers preferred to purchase reusable microfiber pads that are compatible with the Swiffer PowerMop. Because they're machine-washable, they're less expensive and more eco-friendly than disposable pads.

While the practice of cleaning floors may date back to the dawn of civilization, the steam mop is a relative newcomer that has grown in popularity in recent years, as cleaning experts praise the handy tool's ability to sanitize floors and kill bacteria. By heating water in a small reservoir to extremely high temperatures in a matter of seconds, the Shark S1000 Steam Mop has become an Amazon bestseller with over 40,000 five-star reviews thanks to its performance on dirty tile and stone. But if you have laminate installed in your home, there's an important reason why you should stop using a steam mop on your floors immediately.

Although Shark's S1000 and other steam mops may be advertised as safe for laminate, the combination of water and heat can quickly damage laminate flooring beyond repair. Not only are the layers extremely sensitive to changes in temperature, which can cause your flooring to warp or buckle, but the steam may also cause the protective and decorative layers to start peeling. The fiberboard layers are likely to absorb the steam, ruining your floor in the process. Unlike replacing a cracked tile, rotten hardwood plank, or even a small patch of vinyl, laminate floors can't be mended once they're damaged.

It's important to choose the best mop for laminate floors to keep them looking good for the long haul. Leave the sponges and steam cleaner in your supply closet and instead reach for a low-moisture microfiber option.