@hollycbs....the oil based finishes are the originals from 100 years ago. They developed to take over from the labor intensive lacquers (a real lacquer finish is HORRENDOUSLY difficult/expensive to put down). The oil based are the original 'solvent based' finishes. But Mr. and Mrs. Joe Public got scared of the word "solvent" (it sounded dangerous and unhealthy...which they can be) so the finishing industry simply changed the word to "oil based". No change in formula. Just a name change. Reprinting labels for thousands of gallons of material is SUPER cheap....like $0.15 per label. Changing a FORMULA is expensive (imagine 100's of chemists working hundreds of hours and hundreds of tests run to discover they don't work). So...why do they use them? Because they are industry norm. You have to specify SOMETHING ELSE. The 'basic' package comes with the cost of the cheap oil based finishes with their cheap oil based stains (Minwax stains are oil based). Materials are cheap. They are easy to work with and have been around (which means everyone trained on them) for 100 years. Cheap materials = more money in the pockets of the refinishers. Unless you specifically ask for "water based" finishes or a "clear coat" (which means you have to know that the oil based finishes turn orange in the first place), the installer will simply use what s/he always uses....oil based finishes. And many people LOVE the depth of colour the oil based finishes create. You are someone who does not. It is a sad lesson to learn this late in the game. I'm sorry this has happened. If you can learn to like the colour, you would do well to leave it be.

Well, first, thanks to all for not abusing me for failing to realize there is a GW Flooring forum. Duh. I have hung out for years on the kitchen and appliance forums and just assumed this would be the place to post. Appreciate all of you helping despite the mistake. At any rate, I did search Bona Traffic and clearly it's the only water-based poly that gets props. Otherwise, oil based is regarded as more durable than other water based polys. Not sure if we'll like the yellowing with the oil, but the floor guy is willing to do some samples so we can see. Would you reject water based if they can't do Bona Traffic (which I gather requires some expertise, and not all vendors will use it) and go with oil based? The location is second floor hallways and master bedroom, not super high traffic areas, but also the stairways, which do get a lot of traffic. Finally, can Bona Traffic be used over existing water based poly? It's time to rescreen our kitchen floors, which were done with generic water based (before I got smart and posted on GW).

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!

The floors will look different with water based finish, since that rich warmth you like is the result of using oil based finishes. Water based finishes do not add the amber/rich tint. That results in a look that often looks washed out or bleached. It is actually the natural color of the finished wood with no added color, but people are so used to the added tint of oil based finishes, seeing an application without the amber tint looks different. You are correct in the fact water based finishes dry more quickly and do not smell as bad. The science of creating finishes have made water based finishes better and almost as serviceable as oil based finishes. Once oil based finishes completely cure(up to 30 days for area rugs) and 2-3 days to walk on, there should be no odor. I applied oil based floor poly on our floors and the smell was gone in three days. It was(is) nasty when applied/curing, but no odor after curing. Getting the rich color you like will be problematic when using water based finishes, since that tone would need to be created with a stain or dye. Not impossible, just difficult to find the exact recipe of colorants.