Hi All

As you all know robbie has had skin problems in the past but at the moment is doing well, we have been using zofora and ecover floor cleaner on our laminate but are finding these are leaving a funny dampy smell on the laminate, we used to use flash and this made the floors smell lovely but i was advised flash and dogs with skin probs don't go well so stopped using it, just wondering if anybody else knows of a good floor cleaner that would make the laminate smell nice and fresh as getting fed up with this dampy smell around the house, we did have a steam cleaner but again it didn't add a fresh smell to the laminate as if it hadn't really been cleaned?

Any ideas????

I would have thought that the safest thing would be to stick to just the steam cleaner as anything that leaves a smell may well leave a substance that could irritate Robbie.

Steam!  I think that chemicals are no use to man nor beast!
Then burn joss sticks or try fresh flowers if you want a nice smell and see if they affect Robbie. :)

Steam cleaners are best and your home smells lovely afterwards.....

Ecover make a very good natural 'lemon' 'all purpose cleaner'.  It has a yellow lid.  It always brings up a nice shine on surfaces - better even than the usual chemical-heavy cleaners. 

As you know I too have an allergic dog so I'm careful about chemicals.

I like Mistral Odourfresh for all sorts of cleaning applications.  I use it to wipe work surfaces, clean floors doors and crates and I also stick a capful in the washing machine with doggy items.  Great stuff

I prefer spearmint and eucalytptus for most cleaning but I also use vanilla in the laundry :)

Yep steam cleaner I love it. Occasionally I get down on my hands and knees and use fairy or persil ,

We found with our steam cleaner that it made the laminate floors very wet afterwards we have a vax steam cleaner, and where this only uses steamed water there didn't seem the clean smell afterwards??
It just seems our laminate smells like a damp smell after using the zoflora cannot understand why, have any of you got laminate floors and what steam cleaners have you got???

I have Karndean and ceramic tiled floors and use a Polti steam cleaner which is great.

I've just bought my Father their small one that John Lewis have on offer and that's brilliant.  It does floors and has attachments to do around taps, toilets, cookers, de-ice freezers, drains etc.  http://www.johnlewis.com/230843351/Product.aspx

I have the 25 pounda asda one its brilliant bought a few extra pads so o can pop in washing machine after each use. The floors are amtico

I understood that you can't use a steam cleaner on Karndean or the like. That's what the manufacturers of Karndean say. I would like to use my steam cleaner on mine. How many of you have been steam cleaning Karndean and have not wrecked it? I was also told that it would ruin laminate.

Hope that's not the case ! I thought that was what they were good at

Mine's the Vax one and I just use a dry mop to remove any excess.  Definitely smells nice here and I have a few dogs

I've been steam cleaning my Karndean for over 5 years and it's as good as new. 
They also told me not to use my rubber backed dirt trapper mat by the front door and the floor is fine under that too! :)

I couldn't be doing with mopping up after a wet steamer......... it sounds as though it's not hot enough to make dry steam.? :(

Try adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil to the water in your steam mop. It'll smell really fresh and doesn't affect the steaming ability of the mop.

Try adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil to the water in your steam mop. It'll smell really fresh and doesn't affect the steaming ability of the mop.

Try adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil to the water in your steam mop. It'll smell really fresh and doesn't affect the steaming ability of the mop.

Try adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil to the water in your steam mop. It'll smell really fresh and doesn't affect the steaming ability of the mop.

Try adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil to the water in your steam mop. It'll smell really fresh and doesn't affect the steaming ability of the mop.

Add two drops of tea tree oil to a bucket of really hot water. This smells antispetic because it is and will kill most germs. In small doses like this it is also safe for your dog. The other option is white vinegar. It may smell a bit like a chippie at first but also leaves a fresh smell and kills most germs whilst being totally safe.

I think you should try adding a few drops of eucalyptus oil...

Sorry, couldn't resist :)

I use Flash most of the time. however I always rinse with clean water so no chance of any reaction on my dogs. tea tree oil is also v good and great smell.

Rabid, naughty (so good you had to say it four times?).

Sorry - was posting during a thunderstorm and my connection kept dropping so didn't realise it had posted more than once!

No need to apologise. Hope you haven't had too many storms. Snow and thunder and lightening must be quite a thing.

I'm in NSW so sadly no snow but really high temps and some bushfires :(

Can both of these steam cleaners Karndean and Polti both be used on laminate floors as the problem i have been told is if the steam cleaner leaves too much excess water behind which is what i find with the vax that this can then rot the laminate flooring???

Karndean is a type of flooring not steamer.

Polti leaves the floor dry. 

Ok, I have never tried a steam cleaner. Just wondering how they work? As I understand it the steam cleans the floor. But exactly how? When I mop the floor the mud (from the dogs paws which is unfortunately liberally coating my floors in winter) is transferred to the mop and then rinsed off into the bucket of water. Will  a steam cleaner get rid of the mud more efficiently some how by vapourising it? or does  it steam but still need to be rinsed out? Sorry to be so dense but when I have seen them on TV etc it seems to direct a jet of steam at the surface to be cleaned but I haven't worked  out where the dirt goes?

They come with cloth pads which attach to the head of steamer.The steam then feeds through the pad and the pad lifts the dirt.

I've never found the floors wet after using a Vax steam cleaner. I wonder if people are leaving the pad/head in one place for too long and not moving it enough when pressing it to steam. If you use it for a long time then you'd probably need to wring out the pad but that's all.

I have a steam mop from Lakeland, love it on ceramic tiled floors, solid wood floor and slate. Doesn't make the floor sopping wet (heard lots of complaints about this about other makes). Don't have laminate so can't comment on cleaning that but when researching them before I bought mine I read quite a lot of times not to be used on laminate.

My asda cheapy leaves the floor lovely and dry and clean. So much so that I could put chairs etc staright back if I wanted. I use one or two pads each time I clean the floors and then pop in washing machine. As my laminate ois quite old and has scratches o have found that the dirt does get pushed into the scrathes a bit so occasionally I get on hands and knees togive extra scrub. Don't know how things like grout stay white though.

I use stardrops never had any problems with this and alot cheaper.

Sheila

> They come with cloth pads which attach to the head of steamer.The steam then feeds through the pad and the pad lifts the dirt.

So I presume they are suitable for cleaning lightly soiled floors but won't be able to cope with the utility room after 6 dogs have come in from a muddy garden?

You can buy extra cloths so could do the utility room and then just shove the cloths in the washing machine together to clean them.