Trying to decide between Waterlox and Polyurethane

[vvzz]

And here goes the first coat of waterlox:

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[Willa]

Looks good ! The wood has a really nice rich color.

[Lily left the valley]

I love the warmth of the color too.

The green (?) color on the baseboard...is that a leftover from previous carpeting that it hid behind when the white was painted over, or is that painter's tape to keep the finish off the baseboards?

[Old house lady]

Those floors are gorgeous!

[vvzz]

I was amazed on how awesome the wood started to look after getting some oil! I'm now on the fourth coat(last one before the final satin coat) and the transformation is amazing. Also very happy with waterlox - super easy to apply. The only downside is the cost - $200 for 3 gallons(and that's not even the overpriced low-voc stuff) but the ease of application and the result is defikitely worth it.

The green tape on the baseboards is just painters tape. We worked on the room from ceiling down, so the floor is the last step.

PS actually the last step is the baseboard caps in the spots where I had closed off the apartment era extra doors. I had some custom molding knives made and after beating the somewhat crappy Foley Belsaw molder I got into submission, the result is not too bad:

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[Lily left the valley]

Oh very nice!

[phil]

that's looking great ! nice rich color and it'll darken a little in time too. Nice to have a machine to cut the moldings on. they look great too. How many coats of the waterlox do you need to do? with poly if you do one coat or three it loos the same but it's important to do them together so it can chemically knit and if you only do one it can wear through. does the waterlox work like that or is it more like an oil where you need to let it dry and soak in before more coats?

Phil

[vvzz]

Waterlox behaves like oil - it both penetrates and builds up film. I did 6 coats in total. The can recommended 4 for pine floors but the wood soaked them right up. After 5th coat it started to build up film on denser boards. 6th coat produced nice satin finish.