We just bought a new house and have linoleum floor in the kitchen, dining room and by the front door. Although the floor is nice, due to the natural etchings in the linoleum dirt gets in there and it so hard to clean. I used a abrasive product but was told that will take off the coating on the floor. Any suggestions (other than buying a fancy cleaning machine) for cleaning products that would work well. We are probably talking about 600 sq feet of floor. By the way, I live in Canada.
No, don't use an abrasive, it will take the coating off and then the dirt can get stuck in the tiny scratches made by the abrasive. Those little indentations are a pain. If the floor has wax over them, which often happens when people wax a floor that still has dirt on it, the best thing to do is use a wax stripper to get the floor back to really clean. Then use a really good acrylic wax, 2 coats. Go to Home Depot or a janitorial supply place and buy the professional grade stuff, it's way better than what you buy in the supermarket and not more expensive. It will be much easier to keep clean if it has a good coat of wax on it. Use a good mop such as a Bee mop, a string mop(my favourite), or a microfibre one, any kind of mop that will scrub a little, and when you clean it be sure to scrub to get the dirt out of the indentations. Even use a scrub brush on a handle if you must on tough spots. Keep up with the waxing, too, but make sure the floor is really clean before you wax, otherwise you'll be back where you started.
my kitchen floor is linoleum, but its small. i just spray windex and go across it with a cloth. you should try a swiffer with the built in spray. they're great. they work on hardwood floors, too. you just press a button and cleaning fluid comes out right in front of the mop-type part.
