Hello, I am preparing to finish 650 sq feet of a great room with adjoining kitchen. I am leaning towards kemi mega. The flooring is Am cherry which is newly installed. I talked with a local flooring finisher/installer, and he said that it wouldn't be a good idea to use a water base finish because of the potential of water getting on the finish and it would create gray spots/areas. I am wondering what the thoughts are on this and if there is any truth to this. Of course I would wipe up any spills, but that isn't to say that me and the dog may not track in water or snow, etc.
I am living in the house and to do without my kitchen for a week because of an oil base finish curing would almost be impossible.
Please help with any suggestions. Thank you, Joe

Once a water based FLOOR finish (polyurethane and/or acrylic mix) is dry and cured, it is as moisture resistant as any floor finish, including an oil-modified polyurethane. If done properly, you should not get water spots on a water based finished floor. I suggest testing different floor finishes on sample boards to get an idea of how they look. Water based finishes are crystal clear and do not amber the wood like an oil based finish will. This is a plus or a minus depending on the appearence one is hoping to achieve.

I use the Mega on virtually 95% of my residential floors and traffic on my commercial jobs. The Mega has a slight amber cast, The Traffic is crystal clear. I like the mega on older floors to go natural on newer floor's everyone wants a stain. I once had a chart of the amberness of finishes I can't remember what it was called but on a scale from 1-10 OMU's rated about a 9 and Mega was like 1.5-2 and traffic was .5. Hope that clears up something for ya about the clearness of waterbased finishes for you. Basic Emulsion is quite a bit like Mega you might look at that as well.