We have unstained, wide plank, rustic, white oak floors. If you choose a light wood like white oak and stain it dark every scratch will show. Being unstained-scratches are hardly noticeable. I'm sure people are getting tired of my comparison but it's like scratching red nail polish vs clear. For general cleaning we just use water with a tsp of vinegar (helps dry it faster). We use a special twist mop that really takes every possible drop of water off the mop. About once ever 3 months we use a "natural wood" cleaner called Woca. I'm not trying to sell that brand, it's just what we were told to use by the manufacturer. Whatever you do, make sure you use only what is recommended for your individual floor by your floor manufacturer. Our distributor used another cleaner brand on the exact floor we have which they've displayed in their showroom. I saw it 2 weeks ago and the new cleaner turned their floor a hideous GRAY!!! And I mean really...really GRAY!!! They're keeping it that way to show people what can happen. Our Floor.....

hi there, on the Waterlox side, I just refinished two rooms using both Waterlox and low-VOC Waterlox. Unfortunately I can report that I and my fellow workers in my house found the Waterlox to be to pungent to be around comfortably. (Ironically, and the company confirmed this, the low-VOC formulation smells even worse than the regular.) I wound up finishing with a polyurethane product just to avoid the odor. That said, the Waterlox makes a really gorgeous finish, it deepens your wood color and its re-touchability is what attracted me in the first place. The original finish/sealer is quite high-gloss, just fyi if you go that route. As always, your results may vary. Good luck, and hopefully someone can report in on the OSMO, which interests me too for future floors.

Osmo really needs to be applied to untreated wood. Osmo is a hardwax oil which works by penetrating into the wood, then building on the surface, then hardening as the volatile compounds evaporate. If you've already applied Waterlox, its oils will have penetrated the wood, and ordinary sanding is not going to remove this. I think you'll be much more satisfied with the effect of using just one or the other. We did a 50/50 prep on our 6-ft long maple island top. My carpenter told me that a locally famous chef for whom he'd done a kitchen had specified Osmo for the cutting surfaces, so we put that on the range end, which I use as a prep area (like a cutting board). The other end got Waterlox, as did the rest of the countertops (sapele). We did all this in late spring, when the temps were over 50, though a few nights dipped down. If it will consistently be below 50, I'd suggest using a heater (we can rent those contractor-type propane heaters around here, and used them in our construction before the heating system was ready.) I suspect you'll get a smoother, more even coat if you can keep the temps in the recommended range. The last coat of Waterlox went on nice and smooth; no problems with bubbles or touch up needed. It's beautiful, and so easy to care for, just wipe it down and it gleams. I also finished all my drawers (birch plywood, came sanded/unfinished) with Osmo, because after the first couple of days of outgassing, the rest of the curing time is pretty much non-toxic. I figured since the drawers would spend so much time closed, any outgassing would be concentrated, so for these I did want the least toxic product. Osmo is super easy to work with -- I applied it with rags. I spent day after day in the room with lots of Osmo. I kept the windows partly open -- need some air circulation and fresh air while it's wet. After the first couple of hours the smell was not a problem at all. They dried overnight sufficiently to lightly sand and apply a second coat. Now, several months later, they're so silky -- easy to clean -- no residual smell. A local guy finished my cabinet doors with Osmo -- that's all he uses, because he believes it's safer sooner than other products, as well as easy to work with. I picked them up the day after he'd finished, at which point they were smooth/dry to the touch, but still had the Osmo smell -- like cooking oil left out. The smell was gone in a day or two. Really, I love both of these products. I do like the way water just beads up on the Waterlox countertops, and for that reason, I also used Waterlox on all my fir window sills.

You might try posting in the flooring forums... We've had polyurethane over oak for the last 14 years. This has held up well with minimal maintenance required. We refinished the kitchen area once in that time. In our remodel we are putting in some new floors and going with reclaimed oak flooring milled in downtown L.A. from beams salvaged from a railroad depot in Alabama. We will refinish all our floors at this time and going with either an oil finish or hard wax oil. Our flooring installer recommended Waca oil but the place that made the flooring recommends a hard wax oil. We ordered a bunch of sample colors of Waca oil to check out. Here is one source of samples: http://www.1877floorguy.com/wocooilsafte.html Osmo Hard Wax oil is pretty popular. We'll probably order some samples from them as well: http://worldclasssupply.com/store/OSMO-Wood-Wax-Finish-Transparent-Starting-as-low-as......html My sense is that hard wax oil gives a bit more protection than just oil. I've only seen small samples of wood with these finishes and they look different. Sounds like your finisher will be doing a waca-like treatment. You might want to check into a hardwax oil finish as well, so you know what your options are.