There's a lot of great information on floor coatings in the flooring forum. I learned about Bona products there ( a water based polyurethane). For me, there were two things to consider when trying to decide between oil and water based top coats. First, the oil gives the wood a yellower or amber tone. It also takes longer to cure and has a strong odor. On the other hand, the Bona finish we used requires more experience to handle since it sets up quickly but the finish is crystal clear and has low VOC's. We thought we wanted very matte, non-golden floors so we chose a water based product. If I could do it over, I'd probably do oil with a satin finish because I really miss the look of the very old floor we replaced, which had an oil based top coat.

If you go to Home Depot, there's a display there that shows the difference in color of a few minwax stains when they're coated with oil and water based polyurethane. I found that really helpful.

If you're living in the house now, go for water based finish. The fumes from the oil-based finishes are nothing to fool with, especially for kids. The oil based finishes do add a golden tone, but you can adjust the stain, too, to get the same effect. I've used regular water based poly (Varathane) and that's been just as tough against dog nails as most of the oil-based polys I've tried.

We refinished the ground floor of our home when we did our kitchen. We used one coat of oil-based stain and three coats of oil-based poly. I had had water-based poly before, and I thought it did not hold up well, nor did it give the wood any depth of color without stain. The kids and I stayed in the house during the refinishing, but it was fall, and all the windows were open, and I stayed in the basement in-law apartment.

Oil-based finishes take longer to dry-- typically 9 hours vs. just an hour or two for water. However, the curing time is the same for water or oil-based poly-- about 3 weeks. While you can walk on the floors in stocking feet once they are dry, and move furniture back to the room a couple of days later, you must wait until the floor is cured until you put down rugs.

You should also look into Waterlox finishes. If I had known about Waterlox I may have gone that route. The advantage is that you can repair scratches simply by applying more Waterlox.

Check whether you can put an oil based finish over a water based stain.

I'm so glad to learn here about Waterlox and it's easy repair feature. Wow!

Our maple floor was installed in 1987 and it's totally trashed. Dings, chair push backs, you name it.

Oil based paint is way more durable so I'd guess that oil based floor finishes are also more durable. Oils may darken more.

The quality of the finish material is critical -- there are great water-based and great oil-based products, as well as the terrible ones in both types. Past that, quality of application is important. I don't think that, in residential applications, there is a day-and-night durability difference between the two.

I seem to remember that you can put water-based finishes over oil-based, but not vice versa. Check that with a more knowledgeable source if that is a concern for you.

The stain is supposed to be oil in both bids. I don't care too much about the VOC issue. We had floors refinished upstairs and the guy used the oil based top coats and I didn't find it that bad. My kitchen is pretty sealed off from the rest of the house due to dust and such now. I can live through the gas/odor issue. The most important factor to me would be long term durability.

How is Waterlox different than all the othe water based top coats?

I definitely like the idea to be able to repair sections as needed.

I did my own floors, using waterlox and oil-based poly upstairs on pine and a waterbased poly on fir, downstairs.

I'd go with the oil hands-down after this experience, despite the smell. It's richer and warmer and smoother on the feet - but most of all, the waterbased poly (Pro-Coat Millenium, marketed to me as superior to Bona-Kemi) blistered terribly the first time I used my beloved steam mop. Gah! I can't wait to get the time/space/$$ to re-re-finish the downstairs with a combination of Waterlox (for rich depth) and/or oil-based poly (for durability).

eks -- Waterlox is not water-based. It reeks as badly of spirits as any of the regular oil-based finishes, even though most folks think it's worth it. Just fyi. :-)

This is an old post so I imagine this has long since been resolved for the OP, but since I just saw it, figured I'd throw our experience in anyway for future searchers on this topic:

We have an interesting case study in that the floors in our house and our neighbors' identical house were both redone about five years ago (before we were on the scene, so don't know specific products used). The floors are identical hundred-year-old white oak installed at the same time (same family built both). Both were sanded down, neither was stained, and ours was finished with a water-based finish, theirs with oil-based. Both still look fine five years out (if you ignore the scratches from our dog!) but the looks are different.

As someone noted above, the oil finish is a bit warmer and much shinier. I think it's fair to say it looks newer as a result, though how much of that is the wear-and-tear we put on our house (significantly more than our neighbors!) is hard to say. Our water-based finish is more matte-looking and pulls out more browns and beiges than yellows and reds (if that makes sense). There are apparently some differences in how you can clean and touch up the two finishes as well. (We use Bona hardwood cleaner on ours, which seems to work fine.)

Anyway, just food for thought on this!

Funny this thread should surface now. I am actually just having my floors done this week and the contractor asked me for my final choice on finishes today. I decided to go with the oil stain and 3 coats of oil poly. That's what I have in the upstairs of my house so I know how it ambers. I mixed the stain myself to match the upstairs. Contractor put in all new red oak and blended it into my existing dining room flooring then sanded everything. I am really hoping old and new flooring will take stain evenly.

I'll let you know how it goes.