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Both Loba and Rubio are "special" finishes. Special in that not everyone is A. aware of them or B. trained on them. Loba Invisible is a water based finish with a low-gloss finish (it is their "matte" finish in the AT line). It is for those people who want the LOOK of oil finished without the MAINTENANCE of oil finished. The cost of Loba (any of their options) will be the up-front material costs. They are expensive but thankfully you get MORE than you pay for. More benefits. More scratch resistance. Excellent longevity. As a water based finish, it has different working times (wet edges are very different time frame than oil based finishes). And the mixing can be confusing for a refinisher "trying it out" for the first time. Other than the learning curve and the costs, it is relatively easy to use...ONCE the refinisher understands the process. In fact many people praise how easy it is...AFTER they get used to it! The Rubio is different. It is a relatively low-cost product to PURCHASE...but the costs come in the LABOUR. Rubio requires PERFECTION when it comes to sanding. It can take an extra 2-3 passes with the sander (and much higher grit levels) than a traditional/water based polyurethane. So...your refinisher absolutely MUST be trained on the sanding technique. If not, it will look ABYSMAL! And I mean crying and a sense of hopelessness - "How did this happen?" or "What do I do now?" are the questions often asked once a Rubio floor is mucked up. So Rubio has extra costs hidden in the LABOUR costs...but the material costs are quite low. And then there is the maintenance. Loba = none. Just basic wipe with damp cloths, sweep, refinish in 20 years. Rubio = much more. The homeowner will need to have ALL the cleaning and repair products ON HAND for the very first day of possession. The homeowner should pay the contractor to give a "maintenance" lesson before the hand over of the keys to the house. This should include scrubbing technique, cleaning techniques and then application techniques with both cleaning oils, maintenance oils AND the coloured oil (if you stain) should it be required to do a full patch at some time. The Hardwax oils are lovely. But they require certain maintenance. And in a lively household that can be spot cleaning and reapplying the finish if a stain appears. Water spots will need to be dealt with by a spot cleaning and reapplication of the colour/finish. Adding in the yearly "whole home" maintenance oiling" is another requirement. This can be done in high traffic areas every year...and then every 2-3 years you can move all the furniture out of the way and apply the maintenance oil over the entire space. You then leave for 6-8 hours and when you come back it should be ready for the furniture to be put back. Happily this can be done room by room as your home allows...which means it can take a week or more to do all the floors in all the rooms if you go one-by-one. You are welcome to hire these jobs out...but the beauty of the Rubio is it is supposed to be easy enough for the homeowner to maintain. But that means the homeowner has to take the time and the effort (out of his/her busy schedule) to do all the maintenance. Loba...simply love it and leave it. I'm far too lazy to deal with hardwax oils. Regardless of how I feel about the LOOK of them, I know darned well that I'm too lazy to take on 20+ years of homeowner maintenance. Homeowner, Know Thyself.

Wow! Ok...the good news is you are getting the ENTIRE floor sanded (including the treads) and refinished. Excellent! That's what is needed at this point. Now for the treads...MOST stair treads are RED oak. That MIGHT BE why the treads take the stain a little differently than the WHITE OAK flooring (make sense now doesn't it?). The Loba HS 2K ImpactOil is comparable to Rubio = oiled finish. Here's the link to the GERMAN website (not the USA...the European website is MUCH better for product information). https://www.loba.de/us/products/natural-oils-and-waxes/natural-oils/product/hs-2k-impactoil-color/ The ImpactOil is NOT compatible with the surface finishes like Invisible AT. Do not mix the two. Now...onto the colours. Loba makes their own stains. The original floors had "white line" syndrome = the finished had BONDING FAILURE throughout the home. That was the original problem (regardless of the flooding). The stain was INCOMPATIBLE with the FINISH (whatever the finish was). This is the very reason why you should NEVER mix chemical families (Loba + Loba = success; DuraSeal + DuraSeal = success). The ImpactOil is new(er) the the N. American market. The VERY FIRST THING I would ask the refinishers is: Have you attended the Loba training classes? You are looking for a 'yes' when it comes to both the Invisible and the ImpactOil. If you need support, Loba is just a phone call away. They have their N. American headquarters in N.Carolina.

Hey Laurasreed47, I'm actually getting our floors slightly refinished. We've had them now for about a year and while they look great, they are slightly prone to absorption of liquids. So, out of an abundance of caution, I figured I'd call in a Loba specialist to have them looked at. Sure enough, he said that this was the result of the floors not having been sanded between the final coats. Thankfully we don't need to have them completely redone - they're just lightly sanding our current finish and then applying a final top coat. He said this should do the trick and that this finish is 'one of the best and most durable on the market' so I feel good about it. As I mentioned in the original post, I did everything within my power to try and guide the floor guy our contractor used to the proper application method but was ignored. I think it's been mentioned in a thread somewhere else, but I should have just trusted my gut and found a Loba specialist to begin with. I'm glad we don't have to completely refinish the floors in the end, but it's still a frustration. Also, 'stopping all work' and 'sitting down with contractors to make them make amends' isn't always a viable option. Renovating a co-op apartment in NYC is generally an exercise in constantly making peace with disappointments. Oh, and lastly - the photos I included above aren't really accurate of the final look of the floors. We were still deep in the construction phase (of course I would have liked to have the floors done as the final item but our NYC renovation has been a real nightmare so I took what I could get) so it doesn't really reflect their final look. The floor LOOKS fantastic (I don't know what SJ Mcarthy was referring to with seeing the 'cardboard indentations', to be honest). We did stop work and allow it to cure to a full week when it was first applied but, as mentioned, three coats on top of one another just wasn't enough - the intermediary sanding is crucial. So that's it. Sorry for the long response but wanted to make sure you had all the info. Hope it helps.