I researched this pretty thoroughly when I got my new laminate flooring a year ago and using a steam mop on a laminate floor is asking for trouble. Experts will warn you away from that. And, for mopping, you should never mop it like you would a tile or vinyl floor where it doesn't matter the amount of water you use. I use a laminate cleaner made strictly for laminate (not real wood) and a microfiber or terry cloth pad. There is only enough liquid to remove the marks, never more. And, of course, it is vacuumed first to remove dust and dirt because the biggest enemy of laminate is to capture the dirt and then scrape it across your floor while cleaning. Wet Swiffer products are probably not a good idea either because they introduce solvents that will haze and detract from the nice finish of the flooring. And, no Murphy's oil products...they are great for real wood but will cause a smeary mess on laminate. The Bruce products are great and so are the Abbey floor cleaner products. I would love to hear if someone has tried the BonaKemi products because the refillable floor mop system seems interesting.

I think you might like the Shark Steam Mop. It works great on any kind of floor mess that I've run across, and I imagine it would do fine with dog drool. I clean up all kinds of sticky, gloppy kitchen messes off my maple hardwood floor....it is amazing how dried up stuff dissolves with the application of the steam. If you like the effect of the vinegar on your floors, spritz some on the floor before you use the mop, as you can't put anything but water in the mop chamber. The Shark has a microfiber pad that you can toss to the floor and then put the mop right on it, as the velcro will grab the pad. You really don't have to bend over at all while using it.

Thank you for your message. I may be way over thinking this and may be a little paranoid about ruining the floors too. A friend is having her kitchen tiled right now because her laminate was a mess. The installer told her that he could tell she was using excess moisture when cleaning her laminate because it had moisture damage to it (not from being on a cement slab). She has used a steam mop and some sort of mop that sprays the liquid out. I just don't want to end up in her position. If you only use solution every third cleaning, what do you use the other times?

Water + wood = swelling so what you're doing long term is popping the finish off. Short term you MAY see a cleaner floor but once that finish is compromised, keeping it clean will be more difficult. A damp microfiber cloth (use water or cleaning agent of your choice, diluted and wrung out) is a great wood floor cleaner. I use the Bona mop but not the Bona cleaners. I prefer a VERY diluted Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena general purpose cleaner.