How do you clean and restore a linoleum floor? Restoring a linoleum floor is not that hard and is definitely worth the effort.

Let’s get down to the details. Your old linoleum floor is in rough shape. It has a bunch of fine scratches, a few gouges and has lost its lustre and pizazz.

Although built to take heavy traffic, linoleum will eventually build up with a layer of dirt and grime, making them look dull, flat and, well…dirty. How do you clean and, if necessary, restore a linoleum floor?

First things first should — always verify is that the floor is actually linoleum and that it is not vinyl or laminate flooring. How would you know? A simple test would be to take some sandpaper, the finer the better, find a spot that would be hidden by furniture or appliances and begin a fine spot-sanding of the area. If the color layer on the flooring is not wearing through and has color at least halfway through its thickness, it is likely to be linoleum.

Ideally, if there is a spare or loose piece of the flooring somewhere it would be linoleum if it has a grid of jute as the backing. The flooring is very pliable and has a pleasant natural odor rather than a chemical or plastic petroleum smell. One of the last clues that might help tell what the material is would be to see if it was installed in a width of greater than 79″ — linoleum is so heavy that the rolls can only be two meters wide.

Now that you’re sure it’s linoleum, start with a proper cleaning. Sweep any dry dirt up as thoroughly as you can before moving on to the first mopping. Using the typical linoleum cleaners at full strength rather than the typical one ounce per gallon will do an amazing job of cleaning a floor of all its accumulated dirt and grime. Another method is to mix one cup of white vinegar and several drops of dish liquid per one gallon of hot water. Mop well, scrubbing any stubborn spots with a scrub brush and baking soda. Once you’re done, go over it all again with fresh, clean water.

But what if this isn’t enough? You may need to do a deeper restoration of your linoleum floor.

Once the linoleum floor has been mopped well, we can go about lightly sanding the floor by hand, ideally with a scrub pad or very fine sandpaper, the whole time paying careful attention not to spot-sand too aggressively in any one place. An area that may have been worn under a desk chair may take a bit of elbow grease to get the scratches leveled out, but true linoleum, if carefully and uniformly abraded, will prepare beautifully for refinishing.

The process is actually a form of screening and polishing. Industrial floor machines can also be used on linoleum to remove existing finishes, remove scratches and nicely prepare a floor for refinishing, but extreme care must be used not to burn through the color on the flooring.

One last item that may need attention would be to fix any small gouges. If they are bad enough, the only way to do that well would be to scrape some of the color layer from the flooring and to make a repair paste by mixing that dust with white carpenters glue. Once pasted in, leveled off and left to dry, the patch can be gently sanded prior to refinishing.

Once the floor is leveled out with all the scratches gone and presenting all as the same uniform color, the gloss needs to be restored. The finishing is usually best done with a sponge mop or a spreader bar and spreading and applying thin uniform coats is always the best bet.

Be sure to check our other post on applying TopShield and Top Shield 2 to finish your floors off and protect them for years to come!