Care guide
Cleaning and maintenance
How to clean and look after LVT and click SPC flooring: the routine, what to use, what destroys a floor, stain removal, and what voids a warranty.
Most floors are not worn out, they are worn down
A modern LVT floor with a urethane surface coating does not need polishing, sealing or stripping. It needs grit kept off it and the right things used on it. Do that and the wear layer does its job for decades.
The two things that actually kill floors are grit, which acts as sandpaper under every footstep, and the wrong cleaning products, which attack the surface coating faster than any amount of traffic. Everything below follows from those two.
The first week
- Do not wet-wash or scrub for at least seven days after fitting. The adhesive is still curing, and water at the joints is exactly what it does not need.
- Keep off it for 24 to 48 hours on a glue-down floor, and give it three days before heavy traffic or furniture.
- Do not slide anything across it. Move appliances on hardboard or plywood with a hand dolly.
- Bring underfloor heating back up gradually, in 3°C to 5°C steps a day, to a maximum of 27°C.
- Dry sweep or vacuum only for that first week.
The routine
| Daily, or as needed | Soft brush or vacuum. Wipe spills as they happen. |
|---|---|
| Weekly | Damp mop with a pH-neutral vinyl floor cleaner. Damp, not wet. |
| Monthly | Check and clean walk-off mats. They only work if the grit is in them and not on the floor. |
| Twice a year | Check furniture glides and castors for embedded grit and replace worn felts. |
| As required | Spot-treat marks with a cleaner made for resilient flooring. |
Use a vacuum with the beater bar off, or a hard floor head. A rotating brush bar drives grit into the surface rather than lifting it out.
Wring the mop out properly. A wet mop leaves water sitting at the joints, and joints are the only vulnerable part of a floor that is otherwise waterproof.
What not to use
This list matters more than the routine, because these mistakes are not reversible.
Never use a steam cleaner
Heat and moisture forced into the joints can delaminate the layers of the tile, and it is excluded from the warranty on every product we sell. This is the single most common way a good floor gets ruined by someone trying to look after it.
No abrasive pads, scouring cream or wire wool
They cut through the surface coating, and once the coating is gone that patch dirties faster than everything around it and never fully cleans again.
No bleach, solvents, acetone or white spirit
They will lift colour and attack the coating. Nail varnish remover on an LVT floor is a permanent mark.
No wax, polish or “restorer” products
On urethane-coated LVT the coating is the finish. Wax sits on top of it, goes patchy, traps dirt and eventually has to be stripped. Polyurethane coatings exist precisely so you never polish a floor again.
No washing-up liquid
It leaves a film that holds dirt and looks worse each time you mop.
No excessive water
Damp mop, and dry any standing water.
Prevention does more than cleaning
Most of the protection happens before anything reaches the floor.
Walk-off matting at every external door
Grit, grease and sand come in on shoes, and matting is the only thing that stops them. Long enough for several steps, not a doormat-sized token.
Felt glides under every chair and table
Check them twice a year, because a glide with a piece of grit embedded in it is a cutting tool.
Type W castors on office chairs
Undamaged, and designed for resilient flooring. Hard castors from a chair meant for carpet will mark an LVT floor within weeks. Adhesives such as UZIN KE 49 HT are rated for castor use to DIN EN 12529, but that assumes the right castors.
Wide protectors under heavy items
Point loads cause residual indentation. Good LVT is rated at 0.1mm or less, but that is measured under a defined load, not under a piano leg.
Manage direct sunlight
Prolonged strong sun causes discolouration and big daily temperature swings in the floor. Blinds, curtains or UV film through peak hours. This is also why heavily glazed rooms need a high-temperature adhesive.
Keep the room between 12°C and 27°C
Through the floor's whole service life. That includes empty holiday lets in winter and closed-up conservatories in summer.
Spills and stains
Deal with spills straight away. Almost everything comes off a urethane-coated floor if it has not been left to dry and bake on.
| Mark | What to do |
|---|---|
| Food, drink, grease | Warm water and pH-neutral floor cleaner, soft cloth |
| Scuff marks from shoes | Rub with a clean dry cloth first, then a soft nylon pad with cleaner |
| Rubber marks from castors or trolleys | Resilient floor cleaner, gentle pressure, never a scourer |
| Ink, marker, lipstick | Isopropyl alcohol on a cloth, dab rather than scrub, rinse after |
| Candle wax, chewing gum | Chill with an ice pack, lift the solid off with a plastic scraper |
| Nail varnish | Blot immediately. Do not use remover, it will damage the coating |
| Builders dust film after a job | Two passes with cleaner, rinsing between, then a dry buff |
Always test anything stronger than a floor cleaner on an offcut or a hidden corner first.
Water: waterproof does not mean flooded
LVT and SPC are waterproof products. They will take a washing machine leak or a burst pipe if you deal with it promptly.
What they will not take is long-term immersion. The tile is built from bonded layers, and water sitting on or under it for days can delaminate them. A floating floor is more exposed here than a bonded one, because water runs through the joints and sits underneath where it cannot dry.
Practical version: mop it up, lift what you can, get air moving, and do not leave it.
Commercial and high-traffic floors
The domestic routine will not hold up in a shop, a salon or an office.
- Daily dust control across the whole floor, not just the visible parts.
- Wet cleaning is fine on a bonded floor if the adhesive supports it. UZIN KE 49 HT is RAL 991 A2 certified for wet shampooing and spray extraction, which is exactly why glue-down is the commercial default.
- Scrubber driers are fine with the right pad. Red or white pads, never green or black.
- Entrance matting is a maintenance system, not decoration. Most of the cleaning budget in a retail unit is spent on dirt that matting should have caught.
- Machine wash no sooner than seven days after fitting.
Products
Invictus Floor Care Starter Pack, £39.99 covers routine cleaning for luxury vinyl floors and is the one we would put in the basket with a new floor.
For most floors, that plus a good vacuum and proper matting is the entire maintenance programme. If a product promises to restore, seal or shine a modern LVT floor, it is solving a problem you do not have.
Shop floor careWhat voids a warranty
Worth knowing before something goes wrong, because these are the usual reasons a claim gets refused:
- steam cleaning
- abrasive or solvent-based cleaners
- wet washing within seven days of installation
- flooding or long-term water exposure
- exceeding the maximum surface temperature, normally 27°C
- fitting over an inadequately prepared or damp subfloor
- unsuitable castors, or furniture with no protection
Check the specific warranty for the range you have bought. Terms vary, and some are far better than others.
Common questions
Can I use a steam mop on LVT?
No. It is the fastest way to delaminate a floor and it voids the warranty.
Do I need to polish or seal LVT?
No. Modern LVT has a factory-applied urethane coating and never needs polishing.
What is the best mop?
A flat microfibre or spray mop, wrung out well. Avoid string mops, they put down too much water.
How do I get rid of a scratch?
Light surface scratches in the coating can often be improved with a resilient floor cleaner and gentle buffing. A scratch through into the print layer is permanent, which is why a glue-down tile is replaceable one tile at a time.
How often should I clean a floor with a dog?
Vacuum more, not wet clean more. Claw scratches come from grit as much as claws, and dogs bring in most of the grit.
My floor looks dull in the traffic lanes.
That is usually a build-up of cleaner residue rather than wear. Clean twice with fresh water and no product, and see how it looks before assuming the worst.