How To Clean Vinyl Floors With Ground In Dirt

Need for Maintenance

The problem with vinyl flooring is once it is damaged, there is nothing you can do to revive or renew it. The only solution is to replace the flooring. The adhesive used to adhere the vinyl planks to cover the floor slowly starts dissolving or losing its stickiness when you continuously sweep the floor with water and leave the surface dampened. So, no matter how durable you consider it to be without any thorough maintenance, it needs a bit of attention.

Daily Dusting and Mopping

Vinyl flooring, as we stated, is very easy to clean and less time-consuming. So, none would be surprised if someone sweeps it every day. Actually, that is the best when it comes to maintaining a hygienic ambiance. Most of the time, floors cannot undertake daily wet mopping. Thus, people get compelled not to sweep the floor every day. The vinyl floor, in that case, is pretty tolerant. It can endure daily sweeping pretty well, but there is one condition. You will have to dry the vinyl surface at once. Seeping water affects the surface, not necessarily the very next day, but yes, it affects the adhesive in the long run. And you want your vinyl floor to last for 10-20 years.

Ground in Dirt

However, as vinyl floors are easy to clean even with layers of dirt on it, and you need less expensive products to clean, many tend to pass some lazy time. Either they are too busy, or they do not like dusting and sweeping. So day after day, the no dusting and not at all sweeping end up the vinyl floors with the ground in dirt. That is when you have increased your workload. But compared to other floors, even the ground in stubborn stuck-on dirt on the vinyl floors is pretty easy to clean. Now we know why we all love vinyl flooring.

Homemade Cleaning Solutions

Even here, you need less expensive products, and the best of them all is homemade cleaning solutions. So, the query arises how to clean vinyl floors with ground in dirt, and we ask, do you have vinegar in your kitchen cabinet because that thing is the very thing that works despite it being a less expensive food product.

If you are not comfortable using a product with acetic acid, just use the dishwashing soap you have. As we left a hint, you do not have to go too far from the kitchen to clean the ground in dirt from the vinyl floors.

The First and Prime Rule of Cleaning

The very first rule of cleaning is dry dusting. Irrespective of the floor, dusting is the norm. You clean the dust from the surface so that you get a comparatively clean floor to mop with water or liquid solution. Otherwise, the water will turn the dust and dirt into stuck-on stubborn grime and stain. Imagine walking with a dry shoe in the house that you wore outside and then imagine walking wearing the same when it rained. The footprints from the wet shoes will be way stickier than the dry one. The reason, the dirt had moisture in it. So, never wet mop a surface full of dust. You are not doing any good. On top, you are wasting some extra hours of yours in cleaning a rather easy-to-clean surface for no valid reason.

Best Mop and Cleaning Solutions Available

Now, what if you want a cleaning solution that is not homemade. Not everyone enjoys homemade cleaning solutions or products. Lack of time, not getting the desired cleaning outcome, the reasons can be any. The best mop for vinyl floors, in our opinion, is a stick mop with a microfiber pad, something like the Turbo Microfiber stick mop. Pretty simple and affordable, nothing fancy. Cleaning your vinyl flooring using a homemade cleaning solution will be the easiest with it. When it comes to cleaning solutions, Bissell and Bona both make mild but great cleaning solutions, perfect for cleaning the stubborn ground-in dirt. Or you can use the Swiffer WetJet kit. You have the stick mop, pads, scrubby pads, cleaning solution all in the same package.

Making A Cleaning Solution for the Ground in Dirt

The rule of thumb for making a cleaning solution with vinegar and dishwashing soap is always the same. A gallon of warm water will need a cup of apple cider vinegar or white vinegar. The same quantity of water will need a full cap of dishwashing soap. In both cases, you can clean the entire surface with the water and vinegar/dishwashing soap.

But here we are talking about ground-in dirt. For that, you will have to work some extra. We suggest using a spray bottle and pouring two cups of warm water and a tablespoon of vinegar. If you are using dishwashing soap, then the spray bottle's water quantity will need a few drops of it to turn into an effective cleaning solution.

How to Clean Vinyl Floors with Ground in Dirt?

You assume you have properly dusted the surface. So the ground in dirt is easy to find. Use a brush with soft nylon bristles and brush the ground in dirt to make it as less dirty as possible. Then spray a sparing amount of homemade cleaning solution or any cleaning solution you bought from the store in the spots with ground-in dirt.

Scrubbing The Ground in Dirt

Give the cleaner 10 minutes to settle and work to break the dirt into finer particles. You can continue sweeping the rest of the floor, leaving only those spots for scrubbing and thorough cleaning. Now you will need a scrubby pad. Swiffer makes the best microfiber and scrubby pads, in our opinion. Get one, and start scrubbing the dirt. The cleaning solution has already loosened up the dirt; the scrubby pad is doing the rest of the work. Finally, you have the ground in dirt removed. The only thing left to clean is the dirty residue.

Dry The Vinyl Floor

Make sure to have a bucket of clean, warm water and a microfiber pad or stick mop. Clean the residue with the pad or mop, then damp it in the clean, warm water to clean it and again sweep the spot. Now, you have a clean vinyl floor, but wet. Use a clean, dry terry cloth or microfiber pad to dry-sweep the wet vinyl floor.

Leave the window open for proper air passing or switch on the fan. It will help to dry the surface further. You have finally ensured a thorough but safe cleaning of the vinyl plank flooring.