How to Care for a Linoleum Tabletop

Linoleum is the most misunderstood surface in a flat. Half the people who have it think it is plastic, and treat it like plastic, which is how it gets dulled. It is a cured oil surface, closer in behaviour to an oiled wooden top than to a laminate, and it wants the same kind of attention: very little, but the right kind.

What it is made of

Linseed oil, pine rosin, wood flour and ground limestone, pressed onto jute. The oil oxidises and hardens, which is the same chemistry that makes an oiled ash surface go from wet to solid. That process never completely stops, which gives linoleum two properties no plastic has. It keeps curing, so it gets harder with age. And it is slightly self-healing, so fine scratches close up rather than staying as white lines.

On the Round Table the top is linoleum over a folded steel column. The material was chosen because it takes daily use without looking new and without looking wrecked, which is the hard middle ground for a dining surface.

The routine

• Dry microfibre for dust.
• Damp cloth, wrung out properly, for anything else. A drop of pH-neutral washing-up liquid in warm water is enough.
• Dry the surface after. Not because one wipe will hurt it, but because the habit is what keeps water out of the edges.

Once or twice a year you can apply a thin coat of a linoleum care emulsion or a hard wax made for it. This is optional on a domestic table. Commercial floors get it because they take thousands of footsteps. A table in a flat mostly needs leaving alone.

Water is the only real enemy

Linoleum is not waterproof. It is water-resistant in the way an oiled board is water-resistant: fine with a spill, wiped up, and unhappy with a puddle left overnight.

Two things happen when water stands. The surface oil film softens and can bloom into a pale matte mark. And at an edge, water gets into the jute backing, which swells. A swollen backing lifts the edge of the sheet and that is not repairable at home.

So the rules are short. Wipe spills. Do not leave a wet cloth lying on the table. Put something under a vase that sweats. Take the dish rack somewhere else.

What dulls it

Three categories, and none of them are food.

• Alkaline cleaners. Linseed oil saponifies in alkali. That is a chemical reaction turning the surface into soap, and it is irreversible. Oven cleaner, bleach, strong all-purpose sprays and anything marked for heavy degreasing will take the sheen off in one wipe and leave a lighter patch.
• Abrasives. Cream cleaners and scouring pads cut the surface. The material will partly recover because it keeps curing, but a scrubbed area stays visibly different for a long time.
• Solvents. Acetone, white spirit and nail polish remover soften the oil binder.

If you only remember one thing: nothing from the cupboard under the sink except washing-up liquid. The same rule applies to the finishes in cleaning products that wreck furniture finishes.

Marks and how to deal with them

Most marks on linoleum are on top of it, not in it. Try the gentlest thing first and stop as soon as it works.

• Grease and food. Warm water, washing-up liquid, light pressure.
• Ink and marker. A white eraser, used gently, often lifts it. Then a damp wipe.
• Scuffs from a plate rim or a chair back. These are deposits of the other material, not damage. An eraser or a melamine sponge used very lightly removes them, but a melamine sponge is an abrasive, so treat it as a last resort and never use it over a whole surface.
• A dull patch from a cleaner. Not removable. A linoleum care emulsion applied to the whole top will even out the appearance. Applying it only to the patch makes the patch more obvious.

Heat, sun and cutting

Linoleum tolerates a warm plate and not a hot pan. The cure point is well below the temperature of a pan off the hob, and the mark it leaves is a permanent depression with a colour change.

Direct sunlight is less of a problem than it is for dyed fabric but it is not nothing. A table that sits half in sun will cure unevenly and the covered half may hold the amber cast longer. If a top is partly shaded by a window frame all summer, turn the table twice a year. There is more on this in sunlight, fading and where not to put a piece.

Do not cut on it. The surface is soft enough to score and a knife line does not close up the way a fingernail scratch does.

Reality check

• It is not plastic and it does not want plastic cleaners.
• Small scratches disappear. Knife cuts do not.
• Standing water at an edge is the one failure that cannot be fixed at home.
• A pale matte patch almost always means a cleaner, not wear.
• It gets harder and better with age, which is more than most surfaces manage.