To say I am confused is a bit of an understatement. While I consider myself quite handy and capable of a lot, I know no knowledge of hardwood flooring.

We have a 60 year old home in Sacramento, CA. We have original Red Oak flooring, throughout the house. We recently removed the 25-30 year old wall to wall carpeting. The flooring is in fairly good shape, only one water damage area that the contractors were not concerned with, and a few traffic areas that appear to have water stains for repeated carpet shampooing and high traffic.

My main confusion lies in having had two estimates so far and two opinions on finish selection and durability. One said oil based (MinWax Dura Seal) would hold up the best and the other said water based (1coat Oil Sealer & 2 coats Bona Mega) was the way to go. To add even more confusion, we want to be environmentally conscious and we were informed of Osmo Had Wax Oil finish.

We have a 9 year old 65 pound lab who sometimes thinks she is a puppy, so you can see why we are concerned about finish durability.

I am looking for some advice on which finish will hold up best for us. Also, can water/traffic stains be removed or are they typically through the wood and won't come out? The other confusion stems for the estimates being $1400 apart, more than half of the lowest estimate. Are there any suggestions on dealing with such a big difference?

Thanks, we would apreciate some of the great professional advice that I have seen on this Message board,

I don't have a lot of experience with these finishes, but one thing you may want to consider over sheer durability is the fact that the Osmo finish is spot repairable while the others aren't. I'm told that it's more water resistant then polyurethane as well, if that's a concern.

Osmo claims that the PolyX Oil is as durable as polyurethane, but I'm pretty sure it won't compare to the water-based finishes. OTOH, any finish will scratch and I like the idea of being able to fix the scratches without having to do a full recoat.

I am probably going to use the Osmo finish on the oak floor I'm installing in my new house. I have four children, a dog, and a cat and the house is out in the country where there will be lots of dirt. I think the ability to spot repair it as it wears will end up costing me less money and time over the lifetime of the floor. Plus being able to recoat without a full sanding to remove the old finish will allow the wood itself to last longer too.

I've done a sample on a few boards to try it out and compare with other finishes and I like the way it looks too. I did test stripes of Osmo, Waterlox (both original and satin), and Minwax oil-based Poly. The Waterlox darkened the wood significantly, which I didn't really want. The Minwax poly and the Osmo had a similar color, which we liked. The Osmo is somewhat easier to apply and it doesn't have nearly as much solvent odor as the others. In fact, I couldn't really even smell it. It made a very pleasant finish on the maple dowel I used to stir the can with too, I could see using this on furniture.

Greg