yes you will not want to be at home for those couple days polyurethane is toxic to breath when being applied/curing.if u want your floors to last I would try and keep your dog off them as much as possible polyurethane gets harder and harder as it cures they say you can walk on it the next day but even wall paint technically takes 7 days to fully cure Also ur dark walnut will darken and red as time goes by I would recommend a slightly lighter stain for dirt and scratch's not to be as noticeable but its ur house do not go high gloss you will see every scratch from your dog. your floor will last as long as you do a fresh coat after about 4 years also depending on where you live don't just let them talk you into a full putty trowel it can crack and pop up as the floors shift especially if its a new home it will settle a lot the first few years hope this help's. I do custom home finish work so if you have any other questions ill gladly give my opinion or advise.

Thank you so much, James Woods. My dog is small - 12 lbs, so I don't think she'll ruin them as much as my 2 sons will. When you say to do a fresh coat after 4 years, do you mean to re-stain it? or Re-poly it?? I'm not in a new home - more like a money pit on Long Island. Any suggestions about the type of poly? I want whatever the strongest, most durable one there is.... Is it toxic to sleep at home? For how long? It is my upstairs level that is being done, so can I be in and out of the house downstairs and then just sleep at my family's house? How long should I sleep out? Thanks so much for all your help!!

If they were toxic I doubt the installers would be using it. Open a few windows to allow ventilation, kick on some fans. Do not leave windows open for long periods so you do not loose the current humidity level in the home. You can definitely get high if you're in a closed off room...no sneaking off. Most of my customers will rent a room in a hotel for the night(s). Some will dare to venture into the unknown and stay home knowing they can not enter the areas being worked on. In the long haul, the choice is yours.

Thank you, guys! My first floor isn't being stained - It's just the upstairs bedrooms for now. I'll sleep at my sister's, but come home to get some stuff each day.

If they were toxic I doubt the installers would be using it.

tell this to the people working in nail salons and getting respiratory diseases at an incredible rate!!

ACM -- Are they really? I've often wondered about that

Thank God I don't do nails...
None of my wood crews has respiratory issues. Yes, they cough due to the amount of cigarettes they inhale on the daily. My oldest crew is going on 26 yrs strong. They do all of our sand, stain and finish jobs and have had no issues with respiratory diseases.
I could understand having issues after spending years surrounded by such fumes but a couple days is a walk in the park.

Whew! Great to hear, Cinar. I was wondering about them also....

We had our floors refinished earlier this fall in our living room and dining room with an oil based poly and the fumes were REALLY bad downstairs and pretty strong upstairs, which we were not expecting. It took about a week to fully disappear. We ended up sleeping at my in-laws for a few days until the fumes died down.

Thank you, Cuse -- We'll get out too.

If you don't want yellow or orange, you will need to stay away from oil based finishes. The oil based finishes turn ORANGE all by themselves. We call it "ambering". The "honey oak" everyone is talking about = oil based finishes. If you like the look wood RIGHT NOW then you have to stay away from the oil based.

And just for fun, the oil based finishes USED to be called "solvent based" but the average homeowner got scared of the word "solvent". The manufactures change the LABEL on the bucket to say "oil based" and that's it. Some of the same formulas that were there in the 60's (ahem "solvent based") are still in existence simply under a new name that doesn't scare anyone = oil based.

The high-end, expensive, two part polyurethanes have been out performing the solvent/oil based finishes for the past 5-10 years. They are impressive but most homeowners don't like the price tag...they are often $100 more per gallon then the regular 'oil' based stuff.

One of the main reasons you need to be out of the house = the floors need to CURE. They are soft and vulnerable to DAMAGE in the first few weeks. Staying off of them gives them the best possible chance to harden up and become the hard finish we know and love.

We had that done 5 years ago - brand new white oak with 3 coats of poly. Ours was in the summer, so I spent two nights (or maybe three) on our screened-in porch. Just like camping! The smell was intolerable.

We did the same on our white oak floors on our 1st floor - stain and 3 coats of polyurethane. The stain order barely reached upstairs on the first night and the polyurethane had no smell or odors at all. Those of you who complain about the odors probably used unsafe or cheap products.