We just had our oak hardwood floors refinished this week. Turned out beautiful! The company that did the floors won't do water based products, even if the customer asks. They have tried the water products in the past and said they don't measure up for looks and durability. They got tired of refinishing floors that they did a year ago with the water based products, at their cost.

BTW, this outfit runs 10 trucks....not exactly fly by night by any means.

I was also looking into hiring someone to refinish our 2 1/4 red oak. (and stain it as well)
With dogs and having hardwood in the kitchen, what would someone recommend? How many coats to protect it?
Thanks!
(also, does anyone know how much on average one would change per sq ft for this...if not, that's okay)

Chuckg,

Too bad your contractor had problems with waterborne materials. He/she is now stuck in the past. There will come the day, and not too far off, when your contractor will be forced into using these great waterborne finishing materials.

The contractor of the other poster is absolutely correct in claiming that durability of "quality" waterborne wood floor finishes has surpassed oilbased.

How do you know which is a "quality" warterborne wood floor finish if you hire someone to do the project?
What are quality products (I see so many names floating around)?

Glenn- I am not a coatings/stain/paint expert by any means. They told me the water based products are better than what they used to be, but they are "not there yet."

The way it was explained to me is that if we did your living room with half oil and the other half water, you'd call me in a year and tell me to get the water based product out of here.

I not saying that water based is a bad product. I am saying though why take a chance on being unhappy. Oil is proven, water based is still coming along. And how do you know which water based product is good?

All I know is that I'm happy we did oil.

I wanted to mention a couple of other things about the floor refinishing company. On their card it says "dustless sanding." I thought sure, seeing is believing. They starting bringing in all this fancy equipment and went to it. There was virtually no dust. They didn't even tape the room off.

For the final sand, they brought in a machine called a polisher. Man did that smooth things out. I asked him about it and the guy says you can't rent these things. They're 6 thousand dollars and the only equipment that the company spends more on is their vehicles.

Very impressive.

penaddict- We paid $3.17/sq ft. It took three days. I removed all the carpet, padding, tack strips, and staples myself. They wanted an additional $.50/sq ft to do this. They applied two coats of poly.

I have a dog as well. They told me you'll never get away from scratches. They can come out every couple of years and do a recoat at $.50/sq ft. They also gave me instructions on how to repair a scratch that drives you crazy.

That will give you a ballpark anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor Company

I side more with Glen. Waterbased finsihes can be more durable than oil. Traffic, and other premeir waterbased finishes are the way of the future. I myself like the look of oil or better yet acid cure if you don't mind being out of the house a night or two.Synteko, Glitza.

The good waterbase finishs are the two part, catalyzed, products. Traffic by Bona Kemi and Streetshoe by Basic Coatings are probabably the best known. A good two part waterbase is as tough as any floor finish. The one part waterbase sold at the big box stores to the DIY won't hold up at all.

"The one part waterbase sold at the big box stores to the DIY won't hold up at all."

Please. This is just BS. If done right, these finishes can be great and last a long time. I've got one floor in my home that I did with 'big box' product that is going on 10 years and still looks great. It sees daily traffic from a toddler and two dogs... I've finished additional areas in my house(s) and friend's houses with fantastic results every time. The tireless bagging on the 'big box' on this forum is just lame.

I'm in the same boat here as far as having to choose between the two (oil/acid or water based). As part of a gut to the walls remodel, I'm having about 650 sq ft. of CVG fir floors installed. I've talked to my flooring installer at length about the relative pros/cons of the various finishes. The conclusion I've come to is that yes, durability can be equal or better with a water based finish, but depending on the wood, the look may or may not be what you want. The guy doing my floors is a one man operation, hard to get because he is so much in demand for the quality of work that he does. He told me that, at least for the fir that I'm doing, although the durability would probably be the same, I most likely would not be happy with the water based finish, even Bona Traffic. He said that for some woods it's great, but does not bring out the color like Glitza does, at least for the fir. We are going to do the first 2 coats with Glitza acid cure, then the top coat with Glitza's new water based finish. According to him, the new water based finish from Glitza is truly state of the art, the best there is at the moment. So, I'm going to sacrifice & find a place to stay for couple of days (with my two cats) while the initial two coates of Glitza acid cure is applied. We are then going to cover the floor with a felt cloth and masonite, finish the rest of the work on the house, then at the end, do the final finish coat with the new Glitza water based finish. I really want to bring out the best in this flooring. It is old growth, 200+ probably year old Doug fir, sold in a hazardous tree sale by the forest service. It was rough milled and stored for about the last 6 years. The material for my floor was hand picked, then sent the the mill and milled into flooring for my project. My interior doors, entrance door, and all of my base, case and window trim has all been custom milled from the same batch of wood, so I'm really excited to see it come together.

The felt cloth and masonite is a good idea. Be careful that stuff does not find its way under the masonite or you could end up denting that new floor...and you won't notice the damage until the masonite and felt is removed. But, you sound like you know what you're doing, so good luck.

Oilbased polyurethanes will be gone in ten years or less. In many states you cannot purchase or possess more than quart quantities of the stuff. They're going the way of the old oil and alkyd paints...which have been replaced with superior acrylic formulations.

Thanks for the tip about things getting under the masonite, Glenn. I know that the fir is pretty soft compared to a lot of flooring, but love the look. I guess you have to be prepared for it to gain "character" as it wears.

I agree that water based finishes are going to be the only game in town in the future. I was all set to insist on Bona Traffic or similar, and my flooring guy agrees that it's a great product, but said that nothing will bring out the color of the fir like the Glitsa acid cure finish. On the plus side, I live in the mtn. west, very low humidity. He said it will dry in about 1/2 hour, put the second coat down, open the windows and doors & vent for a couple of days and the smell will be gone. I've tried to be as "green" as possible in the remodel, using salvaged and reclaimed lumber like the fir, etc, but I guess I'll capitulate on this one. Do you know anything about the latest water based finish from Glitsa?

Sorry, I don't...however, Glitsa has been around for a long time, so you can rest assured that you will be getting a good finish. My colleagues who are familiar with Glitsa have no problem with the products. Some won't use the acid cure for occupational health reasons, but that's about the extent of any issues they have with the finish system.