Water and steam are NOT good on hardwood. Common Hardwood Myths 3. Damp mopping is the best way to clean a wood floor. To the contrary, water and wood do not mix. Throw away that bucket and mop! Water causes deterioration of the wood itself, as well as the finish. Use maintenance products and procedures that will not harm your urethane finish. Kitchen floor cleaner with vinegar, ammonia, or abrasive cleaners are the best products to use when cleaning my floor. Never use these kinds of cleaners, as they can dull and damage your hardwood floors and void warranties. Use products safe for urethane finishes. It is always best to use my vacuum with a rotating brush to remove grit and debris from my wood floor. While weekly vacuuming is important for removing dirt and grit, a special hard surface brush tool should be used. A beater bar with a hard bristle brush can scratch your hardwood. Wood floors require a lot of time and effort to maintain them. Unlike other types of floor coverings, hardwood floors can be kept looking like new with a minimum amount of effort. Never damp mop your floor. Use only products designed for wood floors. Just spray and dry mop across the floor. I have heard the oil-soaps are the best way to clean my wood floor. Soaps will leave a harmful yellow film causing the finish to alligator and crack. Here is a link that might be useful: Read more HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I believe water based costs more due to demand/supply. Flooring contractors prefer to use water based due to constant exposure to vapor fumes from oil based. Thus there is more demand for water based and less supply of it so the cost is more. When/if they do your floor with the oil based, you will notice what im talking about. Oil leaves an amber hue changing the final color of the stain. That is another reason why flooring contractors like to use water based. The quality water based poly's are usually just as durable. The only difference between oil and water is the substrate that evaporates as the poly dries. Water based also cures faster than poly, allowing more coats per day. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/14998567/thumbs/water-based-vs-oil-based-polyurethane-floor-finish

@Brianna I do have this on another thread but thought it would be helpful here as well. Brianna, I'd love to hear how things went for you. Hopefully I can offer some additional insight as I am currently in this situation :( A quick side note, I am shocked that polyurethane brands, specifically Minwax, does not offer more of a warning about the longevity of "off-gassing." It is understandable to deal with a toxic smell during application and sometime after, but the lack of education/honesty about their product, to me is complete negligence. Especially when these brands are carried at DIY home improvement stores and are bought by "everyday homeowners" and not restricted to just professionals. To sum up my situation... I bought my house in June 2021. I immediately sanded and refinished my floors in the Minwax stain and Minwax fast drying polyurethane for INTERIOR use. I did one coat stain, 2 coats poly. I aired out my house for an entire month before moving in July. As everyone can assume, the smell as intense, a 10/10! When we moved in a month later, I would rate it an 8/10. I cannot stress this enough for people thinking about using poly....DONT USE POLY! The off-gassing is very real! All of your area rugs, your couch and soft fabrics will most definitely absorb the smell. And if you're like me, you will be washing/ cleaning constantly to get rid of it. I have always had a very fresh smelling home, and this "adventure" has consumed me for the past 6 months and has continued today. Today, I would rate the smell a 2/10. I ask everyone that comes into my house to rate the poly smell...yes, I'm that person. For those dealing with this, here are the methods I used: 1) AIR OUT YOUR HOUSE EVERYDAY! This is the most important. Create airflow by pulling air in and pushing air out using window box fans. I did this for 4 months straight. No Joke! Every room with 2 windows has an in and out fan. 2) I CLEANED MY FLOORS AT LEAST 4X A WEEK! I used my Shark floor steamer. I would fill a bottle with vinegar water and pour it on the floor, then go over with my steamer. I would repeat this with bleach water. This definitely helped neutralize the smell. I started this 1 week after the last poly coat. 3) AIR PURIFIERS! I used multiple methods, so not sure what has had the most effect. I have 2 CARBON FIBER air purifiers, which I leave on every day and turn the setting up on high at night. Carbon fiber absorbs VOCs. I also bought Activated charcoal fiber pellets and put them in mesh bags in closets and under furniture. Be sure you activate the charcoal by laying them in the sun for a few hours. Not sure if it actually works, but that's what I read. I have 2 Filtrete Smart Furnace filters which i taped to 2 box fans and let them run in the house as well. Air filters are expensive, and this does the same thing. This specific filter absorbs VOCs. These became very very black from absorbing the fine particles and worked awesome. I use a Berger Lamp ever so often and also would put baking soda and water in a small crockpot to neutralize the air. Please change your furnace filter often during this process. I went through 3 in 6 months. 4) WASH SOFT FABRICS AND FRESHEN AREA RUGS! It's important to wash any fabrics taht have been exposed to the poly smell. I have consistently washed curtains, couch pillows/blankets, clothes and bedding during the "off-gassing" process. I have most of my clothes and off-season items in totes to avoid the exposure. I spray fabrics that i cannot wash with a backing soda/ vinegar/ eucalyptus mixture. The area rugs that I do have down, I have been freshening up every month or 2 with a similar backing soda/ vinegar mixture in my carpet cleaner. Even sprinkling backing soda on your rugs and let it sit before vacuuming can be helpful. 5) USE CANDLES, WALL SCENTS, ETC... These can be helpful but the last thing you want to do is mask/mix these smells with poly. Your goal is to really purify and clean the air. Poly has a sort of "warm" smell so i stayed away from "warmer" smelling scents like vanilla or sugar. I found that fresh, minty smells did better. Eucalyptus, Spearmint, Solar Musk, Citrus, Herb and Floral smells worked best for me. 6) OZONE MACHINE If you use one of these, definitely do your research on how to properly run one. Not sure if it helped much with neutralizing the floor smell, but it did help neutralize fabric smells. These machines work amazing and can make a dent in the "off-gassing" smell. I used it weekly the first couple months. FYI: don't put them directly on the floor, I set it on a stool. It can leave a mark, so I'm told. Again, these can be harmful so do your researched! There may be other things I'm forgetting. I tried to simplify this while giving as much info as possible. I am glad to see the off gassing is coming to an end...hopefully and I can actually feel comfortable having people over. I will never use poly again on a project of this scale. Hope this helped someone! :)

OK...oil based poly STINKS for WEEKS afterwards. And it turns the 'orange yellow' you are describing. And it will turn ANY COLOUR you choose to an orange tone. If you like the idea of the finish off-gassing for 30+ days while you try to find a place for yourself and kids and dog to live, you are welcome to go with it. I'm not a fan of oil based. The VOC contents are ASTRONOMICAL (880 g/L in one of them...compare that to the CARB requirement of LESS THAN 175 g/L in California). Many of these finishes are illegal in California and the 11 states that have adopted the CARB II indoor air quality requirements. It is a myth that oil based finishes are TOUGHER than water based. Polyurethane is polyurethane is polyurethane. The issue is when you go for the same PRICE TAG as the oil based finishes. A low-priced oil based finish (that has been on the market since the 60s without so much as a PRINTING up date on the can let alone a recipe change) is DIRT CHEAP. Why? Because those companies made their money DECADES AGO. Now they are just enjoying the HORDES of money from the investment they made in the 1950s (nope...not kidding). If you get a 'dirt cheap' (aka DIY level product from Home Depot!!!) water borne poly you will get what you paid for = a DIY level finish that is not as tough as the toxic stuff from the 60's. The TRICK is to work with HIGH PRICED water based finishes. The stuff that comes in 2 part products (call the finish and the hardener/catalyst). They carry big names like Bona or Loba. They carry high price tags (like double or triple the cost of the toxic stuff). They also carry VERY IMPRESSIVE wearability. The big boys from the big boys (Bona Traffic HD or Loba 2K Supra AT) are the toughest finishes outside of a factory. They are MAGNIFICENT. The PROFESSIONALS that work these finishes are the best of the best as well (or should be...some hammer swinging 'guys' give it a go once in a while and it shows...). And those people are not CHEAP. Why? Because they took the time out of the schedules and money out of their own pockets to attend the 3-5 day training courses for these finishes. Only the DEDICATED do that. Everyone else just looks it up on Youtube. My quest to you is: How happy would you be to find the house unlivable for as many as 30 days because of the stench? Are you a migraine sufferer? Do you get nose bleeds? How about your kids? Does anyone in your family have 'sensitivities', allergies, asthma, COPD, etc? If anyone has any of these things I've listed, then oil based is out. I've seen people get nose bleeds from sleeping in a home with freshly finished floors with oil based poly. Some vomit. Most have BLINDING headaches. Migraine sufferers can't go further than the front steps...the smell stopping them from entering the house. Just because it says 'can be walked on' in 1 day and furniture back in 5 days...doesn't mean the SMELL is gone.