Can You Bleach Laminate Flooring? [With Effects And Usability]

Bleach is a prevalent household mixture that is used for disinfecting. To clean any hard floor grease or lime, it is the ingredient that one needs most. Then you may ask what about the laminate floor. 

Bleaching laminate floors require a few essential items. When mixed with water, it’s beneficial to minimize damaging laminate flooring. It can’t be bleached but requires intensive sanitation. Proper proportions mitigate its adverse effects. Try making a solution of 3:1 water and bleach together. 

It can also be diminished by adding a sprinkle of dishwashing soap or pine salt. Unlike this, below, I detailed how you can bleach laminate flooring and the effect and application process. So keep continuing to read.

5 Precautions Before Using Bleach On Laminate Flooring

Due to its high profile, bleach is very usable. Bleach is often combined with harsh ingredients. Chauncey Crail, an advisor of Forbes ⁽¹⁾, agreed that Laminate floors usually come with heavy construction and wear layers. So they cannot be re-finished once it gets damaged or worn out.

1. Take Proper Safety Aid 

Before starting any cleaning task, it is necessary to take proper safety aid. Especially when using chemical products like bleach, do not grab or hold the bleaching powder with the bare hand. Use a safety dust mask on your face, wear goggles, and try to cover your feet with a rubber-made pair of shoes if possible.

2. Keep The Window Wide Open

Keep the window wide open. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do the work comfortably. But make sure not to expose the floor to direct sunlight. The bleach could damage them because of the sun’s reactions. Hence, a well-ventilated area will prevent your suffocation during the cleaning period. 

3. Adapt More Water

Prepare a good amount of water in your collection. The more you sweep the floor with water, the fewer chances it will be ruined by the bleach. Cleaning the laminate floor with lots of water prevents unnecessary damage. It also saves the floor from ruin. 

4. Choosing The Right Cleaning Mop 

It is time to avoid using the fanciest mopping pad. Though mopping pads look stylish and fabulous, it doesn’t mean they help sweep the floor properly. Despite using an excellent and high-profile mop, try to use a sponge mop that soaks water adequately because a pinch of water may wreck the floor.

However, it is worth mentioning that water is the greatest enemy of laminate floors. Yet it can damage the floor cores since laminate floors are susceptible to moisture. But their water-absorbent power isn’t too weak. Most of the laminate floor is famous for saturating with melamine base resin⁽²⁾.

Resin is used in the core before manufacturing any laminate floor. Their durability against moisture exposure will increase more than other plywood.

5. Vacuum The Floor 

Try to vacuum the floor before using the bleach. It will be the best bet to manage the work to give it a final finish rapidly. Use a mop to sweep the floor if possible.

Sweeping the floor improperly may damage the laminate floor or get stuck into the bleaching solutions.

How To Clean Laminate Flooring With Bleach: Experts’ Process

Cleaning the laminate floor with bleach is sometimes horrible or sometimes brings an excellent output. Random use of bleach onto the floor may ruin it. According to an advisor of Forbes, these floors are more eco-friendly and breathable than other hardwood floors, but acid-base abrasives may ruin the surfaces.

That is why there are some remedies to reduce its destructive impact on the floor. The following method can be used:

Step-1: Use A Bucket Of Water 

Begin the work by grabbing a bucket of water. Water is the way that can eliminate the effects of bleach. Ensure to pick a good amount of liquor or cleanser to mix on it. Prepare a mop bucket and leave them aside. 

Keep Notes: Most people admitted that a good amount of water could neutralize the bleach. Experts support these hacks a lot. 

Step-2: Sweep The Floor Before Bleach 

It is a mandatory task before applying the bleach. Sweep the floor properly with any mopping pad. Try to use any regular brush to scrub the floor. If the floor becomes greasy or added with some food stains or chewing gum, use a quarter amount of vegetable oil to eradicate it.

Vegetable oil will reduce the grease from its core. Make an effort to sand the floor with any oscillating machine or putty knife in case the floor withstands glue adhesive. 

Step-3: Make Disinfecting Solutions 

Use a disinfecting solution before adding bleach. Select any mild dishwashing soap to sweep the floor. After that, mix 1 part of bleach with 3-parts of water. Stir them in an enormous container, and pour them into the spray bottle. Spray onto the floor and use a mop pad to scrub. A Bona mop pad is also essential instead of any regular rag. 

Step-4: Neutralize The Bleach Effects 

Some people are unconscious of neutralizing the floor after cleaning them with bleach. Yet, it is crucial to neutralize the floor after bleach, especially the laminating floor.

To neutralize the floor, use ascorbic acid and vitamin-C solution powder instead of water. Mopping the floor with clean water also works to neutralize the floor. But it can be steadfast through the procedure through ascorbic acid or the below ingredients.

• Hydrogen peroxide with a gallon of warm water,

• Sodium sulfide with 2.5 gallons of warm water,

• ¼ gallon of ascorbic acid with a gallon of warm water,

• Sodium meta-bi-sulfite with warm water.

All of them are suitable for home base bleach neutralizers. To collect any of them and make your own. 

Step-5: Don’t Let The Bleach Air Dry & Rinse With Clean Water 

Do not let the bleach air dry. It may damage the floor rapidly. At last, rinse the entire floor with water. It had been advised by the expert to give a good sweep after bleaching the floor.

Bleaching powder can strongly react if it remains longer on the laminate floor. So be aware of cleaning each area properly after bleach. Then wash them with water. 

3 Downsides Of Using Bleach On Laminate Flooring

Bleaching is the most reactive clearance agent, but sometimes it can react very severely when used over the laminate floor. Every chemical has specific reactions which may bring disaster to anyone. Let us check some downsides of using bleach on a laminate floor. 

1. Produce Foul Smell

It produces a foul smell while operating on the laminated floor. Remarkably, some strong chemicals have a terrible odor, which sometimes becomes horrible to tolerate. Those smells are very limited, and most of them disappear on their own. To eliminate such foul smells, keep the windows open for good ventilation. 

2. Leave Scratch Onto The Floor 

The strong chemicals of bleach can be a curse for anyone by leaving scratches on the floor. Those scratch marks couldn’t be removed earlier. As time produces, those scars make the floor darker and more damaged.

Although bleach contains toxic substances, the reactions and effects on the floor are pretty uncertain. The scars made by bleach often look so nasty, and day by day it’s getting yellowish like urine. 

Related Questions:

What Is The Best Way To Clean Laminate Flooring Instead Of Bleach?

There are numerous ways to clean laminate flooring with bleach. One of the common ways to clean the laminate flooring is by adding vinegar and baking soda. Both of these natural ingredients work too well to clean the laminate floors.

Laminated floors come with plastic and wood. For wooden floors, use lemon juice and baking soda to reduce the scars. To eradicate the stubborn stains from plastic, use any high-profile stain remover to omit them from the core of the floor.

Bleach Or Baking Soda Or Traditional Cleaner: Which Is The Best For Laminate Flooring?

For safe uses, baking soda is worth considering on the wooden floor. It’s because baking soda has fewer harmful chemicals which don’t cause any harm to the floor. On the contrary, bleaching the laminated floor is only recommended when you need it polished and fairer than before. 

The prolonged exposure of bleach to the laminating floor will damage the floor’s natural finish. Yield to the traditional cleaner if it is necessary to clean the floor regularly. Typical floor cleaners are made with the safety of the floor in mind, which may not be the case with other cleaning agents.

Is It Ok To Use a Little Bleach On The Laminate Floor?

You can use a little bleach on the laminate floor occasionally. Bleach contains sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen peroxide, and calcium hypochlorite. For this reason, it can reduce the old stains on the floor. Moreover, using bleach on the laminate floor occasionally helps bring its previous color.  

Perhaps this, bleaching the laminate floor two to three months later, can’t destroy them. But make sure that you add more water. Don’t avoid rinsing the floor properly at the end of the task.

Why Shouldn’t You Use Bleach On Laminate Flooring?

For its hazardous and acerbic oxidized nature, it’s not permissible to use bleach on laminate flooring. It can damage the floor if you use it excessively. Continued application of bleaching chemicals is another reason for loosening the floor’s natural finish.

Moreover, bleach is a caustic agent. For this, your hardwood floor is made with plywood. Thankfully, some bleaching cleansers come with clear instructions to think about safety. Read them properly before use. Apart from these, worn-out and sudden stains are another crisis of adding bleach to the laminating floor.

Final Touch:

Neutralizing and rinsing the floor with lots of water after disinfecting is crucial. Also, bleach is a very active agent that reacts very swiftly. Be aware of adding this to your regular cleaning list, especially when it is a matter of laminate flooring. I hope now the confusion is clear. And get the answer to the question, can you bleach laminate flooring?

References

(1)Allen, S. (2022, February 10). Laminate Flooring: Pros And Cons – Forbes Advisor. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/home-improvement/laminate-flooring-pros-cons/

(2)Hiziroglu, S. (2008, November 10-12). Internal Bond Strength of Laminated Flooring as Function of Water Exposure. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.611.9103&rep=rep1&type=pdf