We have been nothing but pleased with our Rubio coated floors. I am building a bedroom suite and seriously thinking about finishing it with Rubio when I came across this thread; and was a bit surprised by all the negative comments. I am neither a contractor nor a flooring professional, but finished the floors myself and found it was relatively simple and straightforward. Our floors have been in for over 5 years and look as good as the day they were finished. The floors are Owens Plankfloor engineered white oak (select and better rift and quarter sawn), which I highly recommend. We really liked the color of the natural white oak and did many blends of samples to try and keep the color as close to natural as we could. We finally went with ½ natural and ½ 5% white. We are doing a whole house remodel and not knowing exactly what we were going to do in the kitchen but tired of walking on concrete, we laid the rest of the house and left the kitchen floor unfinished. The kitchen was finished and subsequent flooring laid approximately a year ago (4 years after the original floor). Additionally we took out a fireplace and hearth in a living room and weaved in new flooring approximately 3 years after the original floor. In both cases the new flooring was coated with Rubio and blended perfectly. Had these floors been finished traditionally, it would have been very difficult to match finishes. The attached picture shows the transition from old to new (basically from the refrigerator back into the kitchen. We mop with Rubio Soap once a month or so and realize we may have to recoat at some point, but really like the matte finish. We don’t have children in the house but do have a small dog and 2 2-year old grandkids. <>YF

I've just been on the monocoat.us site and did some more detailed reading of it. That' what I'm going with! I was impressed by the technology of it, that it causes the wood fibers to compress and bond, so it's not even that it "needs" only one coat but rather it will only take one coat because once the reaction occurs, the wood fibers can't take another coat. Impressive. It's also safer, i.e.: food/health. It's also a lot easier to repair if needed, and really impressive is that, if you do need to do a repair, because of the bonding technology, any bonded fibers around the area being repaired will not take the new Monocoat being applied! I think that's amazing. Their site does have a gallery with pic of kitchen counters, including one around a kitchen sink with a big ol' puddle of water on it. As well, kitchen counters are certainly a heck of a lot easier to re-coat every 3- 6 years, as recommended, than floors. So, Monocoat it will be for my kitchen counters. I wouldn't hesitate to use it on an island counter (is there a sink in the island?). My only concern with the Monocoat, aside from the color, was the water around the sink, thing. But that seems to be resolved for me. I'm going to order three samples: Antique Bronze, Castle Brown, and Walnut. I want a rich somewhat deep but not dark brown with gold highlights but with NO red or orange.

Louislinus's comment reminded me that I once saw a pic of a counter made from an old bowling alley. It was really beautiful. And it makes sense too, considering they put up with bowling balls banging on them. I wonder what wood is used for bowling alleys? Ash, like baseball bats? Olychick, I will put a reveal up, but I'm nervous it will be a disappointment. Same footprint and all, so nothing dramatic like many of the kitchen reveals we see here! Fortunately, I love small kitchens! I am completely jazzed, though over the wood counters and the hybrid drop-in/under-mount sink! Very nervous the thin brick I chose for the backsplash is too pink, but it is also non-returnable. Ugh. Oh well. A phrase I've learned to say often in this kitchen re-do process: "Oh, well". Lol. (for example, the blob on on of my counters where sealer seeped down and under to what was the top of the counter, so it wouldn't take stain! DIY, and all that!). Now, if only my electrician would return my two phone calls....

Weve had Rubio on our floors and stairs for years, without a single issue! We’ve got kids and hunting dogs, so we are not easy on our floors This type of finish is also the most common in the world while what we do here in the states is not Most of the stains see in photos in this thread could be fixed in seconds with the rubio tanin remover. Any saying the rubio maintenance products are expensive dont realize the large bottle of soap will last a life time, as you use a cap full or less and not with every cleaning. it is important to understand that the look will be very different then the standard shinny floor you see in the U.S., rubio is basicall dead flat finish If you want gloss dont get rubio Also its far more repairable the a standard built-up finish Get a scratch on a rubio floor and you can hand sand it and put more rubio on Scratch a built-up finish and you have to refinish the whole floor Ill take rubio every time!