I've been reading about Glitsa and I'm impressed with the good reviews it gets for durability; however, I'm very concerned about the toxic fumes. Some sites state that it will continue to off-gas formaldehyde for as much as 6 months after installation. I have severe asthma, aggravated by many chemicals/fragrances. We're prepared to leave for a couple days, but I'm worried about how much it will continue to smell and aggravate our breathing.

I've also read that it takes quite a bit of time to cure completely, and I worry about damaging the floor the first few weeks. But mostly my concern is about the effect on my breathing.

What advice do you guys have to offer? We need a site-finished hardwood, as we already have some hardwood in the house that needs to be refinished and we want it all to match. I'd prefer a matte or satin finish, nothing too glossy. The one thing I don't like about oak is the yellow cast it will often develop, so a finish that wouldn't be as likely to cause or quicken the development of the yellow cast would be nice. And, of course, we'd like good durability. Is there a water-based, or at least less toxic, finish that you'd recomend?

We just let the floor guy know we'd like to go ahead, so we'll have to start confirming the finish soon. Right now he thinks we're going ahead with the Glitsa, but I'm worried about that now.

I've been reading a lot of posts on this forum, and it seems that many people have used this type of finish and like it. Any comments? Likes/dislikes?

I think it would be worth the extra money for the sake of our health, but I'd love to hear some personal experiences of those who have these finishes on their floors and how they're holding up.

Also, does anyone know if, using the 2-component sealer, we could let our cats stay in our finished basement while it was being applied? (It is being applied to floors on the first floor.) I'm having a hard time finding a local motel where we can bring both our cats when we leave the house. I'd also prefer not to have to pack them up, but, of course, their health is a primary concern.

The Glista sounds good to me. Since it is low VOC, do you think we could stay in the basement while it is being applied, or is it better to stay away during the actual application time?

The nice thing about the Infinity 2 is that it dries very fast. So during any of the coats your only going to be unable to access the floor for about 4-6 hours depending on air flow and temp inside your home.

I truely believe that your standard water based urethane like the Glista product i meantioned will hold up just fine given your not tracking in rocks or sand or dirt on your shoes.

If you don't mind answering one last question, I'd appreciate it. How long does it take to fully cure with the 2-component water based finish? That is, when is it okay to move back furniture, put down rugs, let the 20-30 people back in for their weekly visits? We can wait to put furniture back for a while, if it would help the floor to fully cure without incident.

Anyways. This is what i always tell my customers.
And this is what Glista recomends.

After 6 hours you can walk on it.
After the last coat has dried. Give it at least 24 hrs before moving furniture.
ALWAYS PICK UP furniture. NEVER push,pull or drag on floor.

You can have your weekly group of people over 6 hrs after the last coat has been applied. Im not sure what your policy at your house is with having shoes on but i would definitely recommend NO SHOES SOCK ONLY for at least 2 weeks if not making it a permenant policy.

It takes 14 days to fully cure under ideal enviromental conditions. (roughly 70 degrees and a relative humidity of 30-40% or whatever you prefer to keep your house at. )

You can expect the cure time to increase if those conditions are not met.

This is optional but beware there are risks to what im going to say next.
Rugs and mats should be kept off for that 2 weeks until the floor is fully cured.

Now obviously thats not always an option for some people. The risks you take by laying rugs down early is they can leave an inprint into the finish and can cause early coloration of the finish. Now if you have a rug under a table for instance that your never going to move. Then who cares. Go ahead and lay it down. But like i said its up to you if you can wait.

I love hardwood flooring. I work with it 10 hrs a day and still find it enjoyable to come online here and help folks out whenever i can. So please feel free to email or post more questions.

I can easily wait the two weeks (or more) to put any rugs down. The reason I asked about rugs was because I know that the wait time we were given for the oil-based Swedish finish was longer for rugs than walking on the floor or putting in furniture, so I wanted to know what the longer time was for returning the area to its usual condition. We can easily wait several days to return the furniture, as well, so it sounds like it won't be too difficult.

Now my only concern is that a cat will throw up on the new floors during the curing time and mess up the finish. That's not something they do regularly, but it does happen from time to time.