I definitely root for natural. You're going to have one orange house in time. And definitely one through-out. Now, since you lost on the finish, can you win on the stain? Let him know you acquiesced to a top coat that will yellow over time.

Products (and particularly any oil-based products) with -uranthane yellow. Period. Red oak + yellowing floor coating? PLUS your reddish cabinets? For me that would be totally overwhelming at some point. I'd be eyeing paint and I'm willing to bet your DH would faint at the thought of painting those cabinets.

I would have chosen a stain without red, such as Special Walnut (one coat isn't dark and looks GREAT on oak) or even Jacobean if you prefer a darker stain. But that's just me.

I'm fussing with my pine kitchen floor that will yellow naturally. I'm probably going to use a Bona HD High Traffic sealer because it's not supposed to yellow. I'm trying to get a stain color that doesn't turn "honey" as the wood oxidizes.

agree with CEFreeman.... go with natural w/o the uranthane that yellows. we did that in our bathroom and i hate it!!! hate the yellowness. get the uranthane that doesn't yellow.

i would do a darker stain like she suggested or just natural. i wouldn't want all that red/orange, JMO...

good luck!!

If it has -urathane in the name, it's gonna yellow.

Anything that's oil based is going to yellow. That's a problem with using linseed, mineral, or tung oil on things, too. Oil is oil. Shellac yellows. Varnish yellows. That's my point.

The water based stuff is poly ACRYLIC and doesn't yellow. There's really no such thing as a water based polyurathane.

I hear what you're saying about the polyurethane but the floor guy convinced DH that water based is not going to last in the kitchen. And in my current house we did water based after having polyurethane finish floors for many years without an issue and in just 2 years it looks really bad. DH prefer tile in the kitchen and it was hard to convince him that wood will give a better look. He doesn't want water based. So it's either polyurethane finish or tile. And we didn't find a tile we loved.

So back to...

He got the finish, you get the color.

Works for me!

Yes, that seems to be the solution. He's willing to go with Natural floor in the entire ground floor and Colonial maple on the second floor.

My experience is same. Water-based does not hold up as well over time as polyurethane.

Hm, I disagree, but it is what it is if that's your floor contractor. I've had water based throughout the first floor (at the time, it was called Pacific Strong) for 20+ years with kids and dogs that slobber (the dogs). Except where the Christmas tree leaked, it's held up beautifully. About 3 years, we installed HW upstairs and went with commercial high-traffic water-based.

It's expensive, though, requires sealer and less forgiving to use..

http://www.uptownfloors.com/finishes/water.htm