How to Discolored Vinyl Flooring 2024

Cleaning the discolored vinyl floor is a problem that brings a lot of trouble for housewives. Children often playing with or rolling on the floor can harm their airways if the floor is dusty.

Not only that, the more and more stains appear, the discoloration of vinyl flooring becomes worse; you will even have to change the floor sooner than expected.

Don’t worry too much; there will always be the best solution for any problem, and I’m here to give you helpful advice.

Still hesitate? Just follow me!

What Is Vinyl Flooring Made Of?

Vinyl flooring is a flooring type made from synthetic materials such as fiberglass, PVC, and other additives. They are called with many different names, such as wood-imitate flooring, wood grain plastic flooring, etc.

Flexible Vinyl flooring material has high elasticity and is manufactured with high technology printing, so the floor possesses wood or natural stone texture. The thickness of the floor can be up to 5mm and is composed of 5 solid layers:

• The top surface layer: hardens and increases surface tension to help protect the product from dirt and ensure durability during use.
• Coating: anti-wear, slippery, and mildew properties.
• Coloring layer: Printing creates delicate, true wood grain up to 95%.
• PVC lining: resistant to warping when temperature changes, good elasticity, fire spread, and excellent bearing capacity.
• Base layer: keeps water from evaporating from the ground, ensuring glue is always attached to the substrate to the floor.

Why Does Your Vinyl Floor Discolor?

Here’s the deal: You will be wondering if you need to know the causes of discoloration?

Evaluating and speculating the fading agents will always help to figure out how to clean discolored Vinyl floors, avoiding the use of strong detergents that cause more severe color fading.

1. The High Humidity Level

This really adversely affects the color fastness of vinyl flooring. In case the humidity under the floor is too high, it will penetrate through the subfloor and attack your vinyl flooring.

Long periods of rain or snowfall are often the main cause of wet floors and walls. You will easily see how the color of the floor gradually changes as it starts to absorb water.

2. Mold Growth

This second cause is also a consequence stem mainly from the first cause. After a long period of being wet with water, the mold will take this opportunity to damage your floor.

Vinyl floors that have been used for too long are also a cause of mold, especially crevices, joints, key buckles, etc., and difficult to clean. Mold symptoms often appear as white, orange, or green spots on the floor.

3. Excessive Exposure to Sunlight

On hot summer days, sunlight with harmful UV rays is also recommended to be extremely harmful to humans, which is no exception for building materials like vinyl flooring.

Strong sunlight will gradually fade the color of the floor; areas exposed to direct sunlight will be lighter in color than areas with curtains. For that reason, you will often receive careful shielding advice to ensure the interior will not be damaged.

4. Using Improper Adhesives

This case is not often encountered, but you still need to remind the children when they play on the floor. The glue streaks after peeling off will leave traces that are difficult to clean, dirt can also from there stay on the floor, creating unsightly stains.

5. Floor Discoloration Due to Carpet/Rug

If you have a rug in your home, there is a high chance that you will see a noticeable difference after a long period of inactivity after you lift the carpet off the floor.

Every day, housewives face a lot of unnamed work, so trivial notes like changing carpet positions can sometimes make it difficult for us to remember.

You can jot down this little tip and do it every 2 weeks, and changing the position of the carpet significantly contributes to maintaining the color fastness of the floor.

6. Due to the Scratches

Certain objects with sharp edges will likely scratch your floor. In case you want to rearrange the room but carelessly cause a scratch on the floor, small scratches may be insignificant because it is difficult to see, but in exchange, large scratches will make your floor not retain the color as beautiful as the original.

Negative Effects of Dirty Discolored Vinyl Floor

Vinyl floor is an important item indispensable in modern living spaces. In addition to maintaining the beautiful color in the long-term, you should know how to clean discolored vinyl flooring is also especially important to ensure safety when used.

So, what harm is the use of dirty vinyl floors?

1. Dirty Floor Affect Health

The first negative effect of the dirty floor is the negative impact on the health of family members. Floor that is not cleaned regularly will contain a lot of dirt that affects muscles through family members’ respiration, especially for the elderly and young children.

Researchers have also shown that in young children ‘s immature respiratory systems, frequent inhalation of dirt from the floor causes airway illnesses as they get older.

2. Make a Bad Impression on Home Visitors

You definitely want your guests to have a good impression of a clean floor with no dirt rather than a stained floor, right?

The aesthetics of your home will improve if you can clean it regularly. Maintaining regular hygiene will also help you feel more confident when you invite friends or loved ones over.

Cleanliness is next to godliness, right?

3. Dirty Floor Cause Unpleasant Odors

One harm to using the dirty vinyl floor is the frequent smell of unpleasant it. This directly affects family members’ activities.

The smell of the floor can be caused by not being cleaned for a long time or spilling food or drinks that have not been cleaned.

How to Clean Discolored Vinyl Flooring?

I often habitually classify products/chemicals for cleaning Vinyl flooring into two main categories: Homemade recipes and cleaning chemicals.

Each type will have its pros and cons as well as compatible with each problem type of discolored vinyl flooring.

Read carefully and write down if needed!

1. Homemade Recipes:

The ingredients available in all kitchens, such as baking soda, lemon juice, or alcohol, will be your powerful assistant in solving the problem of flooring discoloration caused by sunlight or mold.

Its cleaning effect is not too strong, so it will not lead to more serious fading problems. For one thing, you have to accept to give in to stubborn plaque – in case you need to use a specialized floor cleaner.

• Baking Soda

Step 1: Mix baking soda with water to make a thick paste.

Step 2: You should use a clean and dedicated towel for cleaning the floor, which will be less annoying for you during the cleaning process.

Step 3: Dip a towel in the mixture above, then rub the stain on the floor.

Step 4: The stain will quickly come off; you just need to rinse the towel with clean water and dry outside to kill bacteria.

If you don’t know what baking soda to use for vinyl flooring, consider Arm & Hammer 64 oz baking soda.

• Alcohol

Step 1: Dip a clean cloth or wet paper towel in alcohol.

Step 2: Wipe until you see the stain fade away.

Repeat this step with other stains until the floor is cleaned.

Step 3: Wipe back and forth with a mop soaked in clean water.

• Lemon/Lime

Step 1: Wipe through the floor once with clean water.

Step 2: Cut the lemon in half and rub it directly into the nasty stain.

Step 3: Use a towel to wipe away the lemon residue left on the floor.

Check out how vinegar and lemon essential oil show off their cleaning power in the video right here.

2. Cleaning Chemicals

Industrial cleaning products often come with strong cleaning abilities – perfect for stubborn stains.

If your floor shows large amounts of stains, whether from splattering eating or from residual stains, you should use powerful cleaning agents. To be more specific, I strongly recommend the Rejuvenate neutral pH cleaner for vinyl floor.

These products are manufactured with a wide cleaning capacity so it will save you a lot of time when cleaning your floors.

• Dish Cleaner ( a Bit of Apple Vinegar Added)

Step 1: Mix apple cider vinegar with warm water.

Step 2: Add dishwashing liquid to the mixture above.

Step 3: Use a versatile-and portable mop soaked in apple cider vinegar and dishwashing liquid, and wipe the floor.

Step 4: You should dry the floor again to avoid falling when moving due to the dishwashing liquid’s slippery effect.

• Cleaner for Vinyl Floor

You only need seconds to complete a floor cleaning with vinyl floor cleaner:

Step 1: Spray floor cleaning water on special areas that need cleaning.

Step 2: Wipe with a dry or slightly damp cloth; avoid using a wet towel with lots of water to reduce cleaning efficiency.

FAQs – Answer Extra Wonders

I am sure there will be some side issues and situational problems that need further resolution. Based on my own experience, I will ask some small questions that I often ask myself (and get asked).

Hope they help with your task!

Extra Notes to Take Care You Discolored Vinyl Floor Properly

This is the truth:

Don’t let the stains start to visit your vinyl flooring with dense frequencies to clean the floor. Please maintain a routine of taking care of vinyl floors every day so that your home will always feel comfortable when you come back from work.

1. Clean Daily

No matter how deeply you clean vinyl flooring, if you don’t keep it clean every day, you’re wasting your time. This saves you time and saves you money on some of the products you use.

You should watch this video to get an overall look at how to deal with your cleaning-vinyl-floor task every day.

2. Use a Doormat

Any home doesn’t need a doormat, but vinyl flooring, it’s essential. Whenever you go home, dirt will come in and cause dirt and damage to the floor. Dirt, gravel, and chemicals from the asphalt can cause plastic flooring to scratch and discolor over a period of time.

So when it comes to floor cleaning, a doormat is a good start and will keep your plank fresh.

3. Sweep the Floor Every Day

After reading the article, you may get quite tired, headache. Who will do it every day? When the work is too busy, it is difficult to have time to separate.

Yes, that’s pretty tiring, but for your vinyl flooring to stay beautiful, like when you first bought it, it’s a worthwhile sacrifice. You don’t need to be too focused on this, just take the best floor sweeper or a soft bristle brush and sweep gently every day.

“Sweeping floor everyday gives you a lot of benefits”.

This way, the floor will always be clean, less dust, and minimized by bacteria growing in the house. In addition, regular cleaning and maintenance will limit stains that have remained too long, making it difficult to clean the floor.

4. Do Not Use Harsh Cleaning Agents

The maintenance of the flooring is always beautiful; we emphasize always. If you use a variety of detergents that are not the right type, not suitable for imitation wood plastic flooring, over time, it will cause the surface of the floorboard to be worn out, causing unwanted scratches.

Some abrasive cleaners you should pay attention to, such as quick polishing products, acidic products found in supermarkets, products not suitable for wood imitation plastic flooring, are not recommended for vinyl flooring.

Rapid cleaning causes abrasion also causes another major harm to the flooring. After a while, the flooring is often tarnished; due to the surface layer’s loss, the detergents leave a chemical film that is harder to remove, causing discoloration.

Take Time and Shiny Your Discolored Vinyl Flooring

Each change of floor will bring many other problems in the quality of living space as well as family finances. So I hope you will be able to take care of every corner of your home as carefully as possible.

Discolored vinyl flooring is a bit more difficult to clean because you need to take care so that its discoloration does not get worse. I hope this article is really helpful to you.

Do not hesitate to comment to let me know how you feel even if you find as much information as expected, because I would be pleased to hear more useful tips from you!