A few months ago before we moved in, we had the floors refinished. The flooring guy, who came highly recommended from a contractor friend, said water or oil was our choice, but that the water based they used, Bona (but not the high traffic which would have cost a lot more) is much better than store brands and will be just as good as oil without the smell, and will finish quicker. The floors did come out beautifully, but it required a 4th coat since the 3rd coat was still a bit rough (which we had to pay an additional $300 for)

The wood (maybe maple?) is rather soft, rolling something heavy with casters across it actually dents the wood.

There is a lot of grain exposed when looking at a reflection of light, and the wood has a lot of knots, which they filled nicely before refinishing.

Is this normal for water based? Our previous rental (which was oil) was unaffected by small amounts of water. Could it be the type of wood - which they had to sand down quite a bit due to heavy scratches?

Was a sealer applied before the waterborne polyurethane? After the first coat of finishing material was dry, was the grain raise cut?

Fine grained wood flooring will show more denting than figured wood.