any color change will require the floor to be resanded. the good news is they dont have to take much off and will be able to sand it faster then the first time they did it, unfortunately 3800 ft will still take some time to do. the darker your floor guy was talking about was probably a tint coating, and that wont make your floors white.

did you have a sample of just a waterbourne urethane sealer? or do you want a white look? have your floor guy put samples down in front of you and talk to him directly.

I usually dont like to take the contractors word as far as color goes, because of exactly what happened to you. Not to say the contractors i work with dont know what their talking about, its just you can get a better picture and can make no doubts about "he said/she said" type of stuff.

i don't have a sample of water based poly but we just want white wash, in fact ideal color is natural white oak in its unfinished form (post sanding). I was looking at pictures of few minwax "pickled oak" stain and I wonder if we can do that without re-sanding even though builder is offering that since it was properly communicated to him, I hate to push our completion date out. I was arguing with the flooring guy that on top of not doing the water based white wash stain which we asked, he used oil based clear coat/poly instead of water based, if he had used water based floors would have not been glossy yellow. Now there is a whole debate on oil vs water based poly and the flooring guy was trying really hard to convince me that even if he had used water based clear coat, floor would have still looked yellow which I am not sure if it's true but either way my logic was that we like the unfinished white oak floors, water based clear coat would be like water on the unfinished floor and when it dries out it will go back to the unfinished look we are after, not sure if this logic really applies here.

Depends on the type of water based finish he uses, its possible for it to amber to a yellow, never quite like the oil yellow, but he's back tracking i think.

A waterbased poly will keep the unfinished look better than i think a whitewash.

but this is why im telling you to have the floor guy do samples directly on your floor in front of you so you can see what everything looks like. do not just take his word.

you also mention the glossy look. regardless if you stick with the oil to save time, or you have it resanded, the glossy sheen of the floor makes no difference until the last coat of finish is applied. but its important to make that clear to the floor guy that you dont want shiny.

Does resanding cut into the life of the floor or can he do buffing/screening to remove the one coat of oil based polyurethane?

no, he would have to sand the entire floor to make sure all of the finish he did already applied is removed. It does shorten the life but not by much,

the first time he sanded he had to sand it at least twice, or at least he should have. this next time he does it, it should only be once, one coat of finish comes off easy, and he doesnt have to flatten the floor since it should already be flat, so one more cut on your floor does remove some life, but not as much as the next time you would have a resand in 10+ years.

Gregmills_gw:

I've spent pretty much the entire day researching this and came across another thread on Gardenweb with your responses and you said something exactly what I was looking for. I have bookmarked the thread will post the link but I saw you mentioned using Bona product specifically Bona Clear HD for what my wife and I really want, which is unfinished look of natural white oak - WITHOUT ANY YELLOWING. I spoke directly with the flooring guy and he said, builder authorized re-sanding and then he was going to apply water based poly, when I asked the brand he said Absco, with some quick search I knew it is a really cheap product so I asked if he can use Bona Mega and his response was that it is too expensive. At this point I want to pay for anything extra flooring contractor or builder might not cover but get the look of natural unfinished white oak we want. With that said, I spent some time researching Bona Mega, Traffic/Traffic HD, Naturale then saw your responses about Bona Mega Clear HD. Can you tell me more about your experience with Bona Mega Clear HD? Other than regular Bona Mega all other Bona products are double the cost so Mega Clear HD seems like a winner. Any other advise i can pass it on to the flooring sub for Mega Clear HD as far as application?

Thank you.

Bona products are more expensive, and with your 3800 sq ft of floor its going to cost a small forturne. a gal and will cover around 500 ft. you would need 8 gals for coat, so your floor guy is right its expensive, and with that upcharge its going to be on you i would assume, maybe the contractor will split it since he was partially at fault for the miscomunication with your floor guy.

to go with a Bona system, it would be a coat of BonaSeal, which is the cheapest because its a sealer, and then 2 coats of Bona finish either Bona mega or traffic or whatever else you decide.

Bona Mega Clear is their version of a truely clear coat. Traffic has a bit of color, Not much, but compared to mega theres a difference.

I like using it, but it is costly, i've had great results, just remember its better at protecting against wear n tear better, not scratches or dings to the floor.

Minwax does NOT like to play nice with water based ANYTHING!!! So be CLEAR with your flooring-person: you want STAIN and FINISH matched to the SAME manufacturer. All of the big boys in finishes have stains that WORK with their own brand.

Do NOT mix and match the chemicals. Some of the biggest failures have been "Minwax" stains underneath water based finishes. Horrible mess.

And just for fun, make sure the flooring professional has WORKED with Bona - or any of the other water based products. These finishes have a COMPLETELY different 'working time'. They look and act DIFFERENTLY from the oil based products. So differently that a professional can mess up within ONE bedroom!!!! Yah...They can completely muck up an entire floor - and they have only applied the stuff to 120sf bedroom. It is THAT DIFFERENT!

Stop what they are doing and have a chat with everyone. If the "mix up" happened in the first place, then the question becomes: Where was the miscommunication? Was it the GC to the floor guy? Did the floor guy misunderstand? Did the floor guy only HAVE the oil based stuff?

Finding out WHERE the communication went wrong is only step one of this process. Finding out the level of competence of the finisher is the second step.

Cancork:

Very good point, I just called the floor guy directly and straight up asked if he has any experience with Bona products and seemed like he has experience, he was just complaining about the cost. He actually told me the process with Bona specifically how little time he gets to apply in comparison to oil based stuff and he was saying large spaces like this he has to do each room separately - create the solution, apply and move to next room, he even said large spaces like family and master he would have to do it in small sections because Bona dries really fast and he only gets few minutes to apply so seemed like he has experience. He also mentioned that with Bona when there is a repair you can just fix one board or few boards you have to re do the whole section, is that true?

gregmills has pretty much covered all the bases. I would stress that the Mega Clear be used on top of Bona ClassicSeal (formerly known as BonaSeal). It's the lightest NATURAL color they offer. Natural, neutral, AmberSeal or DTS will not come out as light. To be clear this is NOT a whitewash. Bona does offer a new sealer called Bona NordicSeal but I'm wary of it. I question whether it could be applied uniformly, especially in a big area.

I suggest your finisher look into using the snowplow method of finish application. In a big area he could even use a T-bar. It's fast and keeps a wet edge. The finish has 8 hours to use once mixed so there's no need to mix batches for separate areas. If there's unused material crosslinked, it can be used the next day and re-crosslinked. It's good if the area is at a moderate temperature with somewhat high humidity and no cross breeze for the best chance of success.

Bona finish is a little thinner consistency so if anything it might be easier to touch up than oil based.

jfcwood:

We are considering NordicSeal. IF you look at my 2nd post above, I mentioned whitewash to get rid of yellowness of the floor and we do like natural oak - unfinished white oak and whitewashed white oak so considering the NordicSeal. there is a Youtube video on NordicSeal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9DnrLe82BY and Looks pretty cool. I hope we can get the same result as the video with one coat of NordicSeal and 2 coats of Mega Clear HD.

I did notice that, then you wrote you wanted natural White Oak that looks like the unfinished wood. That's why I brought up the Nordic Seal. I've had people look for that before and have struggled to provide it. Usually we would use a white penetrating sealer diluted with a lot of natural but it can turn a little rosy. This is rubbed on and rubbed off so the control is how much soaks into the wood. Perhaps the NordicSeal would be better. My worry is the challenge of applying a colored sealer uniformly over the entire area. On your video he says that stop and start marks, as well as turn marks, will show if they're not feathered out. It's easy to do a perfect application and feather out on a panel where you can pull the applicator from one end to another. It's not so easy to do while backing out of a hall or room or doing long runs. The application might require taping off portions, coating them, taping off the other side and coating. Tape can be applied at doorways where the wood runs parallel and coated up to, then pulled, for either the sealer coats or finish coats. If the NordicSeal can be done successfully it would probably be exactly what you want. If not, you'd be resanding again and adding more time to your project. It's a conundrum.

I want to thank you all - gregmills_gw, jfcwood and cancork - few pictures attached after resanding, then one coat of Bona Nordic Sealer and one coat of Bona Mega Clear HD. Final coat of Bona Mega Clear HD after buffing will go after painter is completely done with the entire house. This came out way beyond our expectations. My wife and I are extremely pleased with the outcome. Thank you guys.

Ahhhhhh....job well done! Way to go! Way to stick to your guns and requiring a finish that had been agreed upon.

As much as I love the guys and gals who are in the finishing trade and admire them greatly, I understand fully that sometimes a bit of "painful education" is well worth it. Because there is VERY LITTLE formal training in this industry (everything is voluntary = direct cost out of the installer/finisher's pocket to take the courses = not many do it because many feel it is 'just a job'), some of the best "teaching moments" for the finishing trade is "on the job" events like this. I'm hoping the professional who helped you achieve this look will be able to take this knowledge to the next job...and the next...and the next.

Congratulations on your floors - they are magnificent.

Thats a Fine looking floor! remember now to keep your shades shut when your not home and clean on a regular basis and those floors will look great for years to come!

That looks amazing. I've definitely got to try using NordicSeal.

The floors look gorgeous! Really nicely done.

I was just referring back to your post to show the floor guy I'm meeting tomorrow. Had to tell you how gorgeous these are! Are you still loving them?

Has anyone else tried the Bona Nordic Seal? We have 5in white oak and would like to stay with a whiter/lighter look and not yellow. This Nordic Seal looks ideal. Our builder is recommending Bona Natural or Loba Invisible but those samples bring out more of the yellow tint that we are trying to avoid. We are going for a modern look. Our flooring guy has not used the Nordic Seal but has stated "it is relatively new and he has not heard good things about it. He also advises that the white pigmentation can lead to lap lines in the floor. We are aware of several problems from this product line that comes from the manufacturer rep and distributor". Has anyone else tried and if so, can you post some comments or pictures?? Amp512 Park your pics look nice.. are you still happy?