For some people, it can be difficult to think of lino as a difficult material to take care of, but it has existed for long enough that it has become a flooring material of historic importance and making sure it is cleaned correctly is vital to ensure its preservation.
Also known as linoleum, lino can be significantly more difficult to clean than other, similar materials such as vinyl.
To this day, lino is still very popular, but it is far more vulnerable to scratching and scraping, so it needs a significantly more careful and gentler touch than vinyl would require.
The best way to keep lino clean is to stop any issues from building, so wipe away any stains and give it a gentle clean with a dustpan, brush and vacuum cleaner.
The main issue that can make it difficult to clean is that it is not as resistant to water as vinyl, and this can lead to a large number of other issues when attempting to clean it.
You need to be careful not to scratch it; you cannot mop it in the same way you would vinyl flooring, and it is prone to fading in a way that vinyl is not.
A lot of modern linoleum formulations manage to get around this issue whilst remaining entirely natural, but older lino can be as difficult to preserve as other historic flooring materials.
Generally, outside of prevention, the professional solution to deep cleaning lino is to ensure that any cleaning solution is gentle and does not leave any moisture in the material itself.
This means using pH-neutral linoleum cleaner, rinsing it away and then wiping the moisture away rather than letting it air dry.
As well as this, reapplying polish every few years can help lino last for years longer than its already long lifespan.