Regardless of staining or applying finish directly to the wood, you need to choose an oil or water based finish. Oil is what has been most common to people for the last few decades. Oil has alcohol which causes the wood to amber/glow/redden a bit. Oil finish ages and can turn yellowish or orange over time. You’ve probably seen this. It’s very durable, strong and a great product to use. A couple negatives of oil. It takes about 24hrs between coats so the job takes much longer, it’s toxic so it’s not good for kids and animals (or grown ups) to breathe the fumes and lastly it can have an aged look like I mentioned turning orangish/yellowish over time.

Water has been developing over the last 10 years and becoming the standard in the industry. It’s low VOC (non toxic) components make it safer to breathe and environmentally friendly. It doesn’t amber the way oil does and has the ability to give your floor a very light colored tone. It’s also incredibly fast drying with only about 1-3 hours between coats so it makes projects move along much quicker and you able to get back into your house and start living again. We’ve done many projects in a day where we show up sand and finish and the customer was able to walk on their floor when they came home from work! Water is different than oil in that it’s more expensive to make and generally costs anywhere from $50-$150/gal more than oil depending on how strong of a finish you’d like. You can purchase finishes that literally turn to a rock once opened and ready to use so there’s a lot of options with water. If you can afford the upgrade it’s a great decision!