Tips to Properly Maintain Your Laminate Floor

It's hard to damage and easy to care for laminate floors. Here are some tips on how to properly maintain them:

1. Carefully read the warranty and care instructions provided for your flooring. Follow them as much as you can and refer to them if a problem develops.
2. Ask for post-installation care instructions.You may not be able to mop the floor for 48 hours or you may be given other care instructions,depending on the flooring brand.
3. Don't wet-mop laminate floors, because puddles could seep behind basebords and under your floor, damaging them.Only vacuum and then damp-mop them.
4. Don't ever apply wax or acrylic floor finishes.
5. Use only the stain-removal products recommended by the flooring manufacturer.Typical suggestions in product literature are: acetone, for cigarette burns and nail-polish spills, and mineral spirits for grease and tar.
6. Buy doormats for doorways that lead to the garage or outdoors.These doormats will trap grit that can gradually cause light scratching on the laminate floor's surface.
7. Put easy-glide protective buttons on the feet of the furniture.
8. Use dollies when moving a large piece of furniture or a heavy appliance across a laminate floor or else you could leave a scratch by getting tiny peebles caught under a furniture foot or a wheel.

Take common-sense precautions to protect your floor when working with sharp or heavy objects.For example, put down a thick tarp or a carpet scrap to protect the laminate floor when installing a ceiling fan and using a drill; you can damage the floor by accidentally dropping it.

Source:www.laminateflooring.oncloud8.com

NALFA and CFI Partner to Promote Installation Professionalism: Lowe’s Laminate Installers to be certified by NALFA

The North American Laminate Flooring Association (NALFA) and the International Certified Floorcovering Installers Association (CFI) will provide expanded laminate installation training to the Lowe’s Wood and Laminate Installer program. Upon completion of the course, installers are eligible to take the NALFA and CFI test for certification.

“NALFA is very excited for the opportunity to partner with CFI and Lowe’s for installer training,” says Bill Dearing, president of NALFA. “The partnership helps to promote installation professionalism and reinforces NALFA’s presence as an expert in the laminate flooring industry.”

The 8-hour laminate curriculum was developed by NALFA. CFI will conduct 26 sessions throughout the year, with a potential to certify about 416 installers. Topics to be covered in the sessions include: moisture, subfloors, floor prep, manufacturer specific laminate product knowledge, problems, causes, skills sessions on proper installation techniques, homework, a written test and a skills test. Sales representatives will also attend the sessions and are required to pass the written test.

Professional installers who successfully complete the requirements of two-years of experience and the written and skills tests of the laminate training course will be certified through NALFA.

“The association with NALFA adds another opportunity for flooring installers to achieve a higher level of professionalism through knowledge and skill,” says Jim Walker, CEO of CFI. “We continually strive to build an environment in which the customers receive what is expected at the time of the sale; quality work provided by professional, certified Installers with the ultimate in customer service skills.”

In addition to the certification through the CFI Laminate training with Lowe’s, installers can be independently certified through NALFA by attending the NALFA Installer Certification School. This curriculum covers every aspect of quality laminate installations and gives the attendees the skills necessary to perform installations to high standards and craftsmanship in the field. For more information, visit www.nalfa.com.

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NALFA has been setting the standard in the laminate flooring industry for the past 13 years. For more information visit www.nalfa.com.

CFI was founded in 1993. In 2009, the organization represents over 42,550 installers worldwide who regard customer satisfaction as the ultimate goal. For more information visit www.cfiinstallers.com

Eco-Friendly Materials Being Used More in Homes

Eco-Friendly Materials Being Used More in Homes
With Al Gore's documentary, The Inconvenient Truth, and the growing global awareness, more Americans are choosing to "go green." According to McGraw Hill NAHB report, America’s builders have adopted green home building permanently, with more than 50 percent of homebuilders participating in green building.