I didn't know they were in the Poly business until I saw this at Lowes.
It's actually cheaper than Minwax, at $65 / 2.5 gln. tub.

Any idea what Dura Seal costs for this same amount?
Is it really worth the extra money?
I have no wife, kids or dogs. I am a creature of habit so I do have my walking
patterns but is the super expensive stuff really necessary??

What's the bang for your buck in the floor-poly business?
Every industry has one!
thanks!!

That comes to $26.00 a gallon. Not a steal. In my area, Dura-Seal can be had for just a few dollars more in quart containers. I'm not a fan of Dura-Seal however. While it flows out nice, it is slower drying and thinner than some other polys. My "go to" poly is Woodline, By BONA. It is less money, dries faster, is a little thicker and has better build. I usually pay about $25.00 a gallon. I haven't used Zinsser poly before but I would expect it is merely a Parks poly packaged in a Zinsser can. They both belong to the same family. Parks poly has let me down in the past. Their 350 VOC stuff, while they said it was for pros and dried fast, it was not. It dried VERY slowly ( it took days ) and was so thick as to be nearly impossible to apply. So be very careful buying lower VOC polys. Many are terrible products for floors. Parks was making the floor poly called Parks Pro and was sold at HD. I haven't seen it in awhile so it may now be re-labeled with the Zinsser moniker.

Hmmm...very interesting. I'm suspecting you pay $25/g for the Bona because you're a professional and the pro-grade stores/suppliers hook you up? I don't know if it's a local brand only here in Chicago but Benjamin Moore makes a brand called Old Masters and an Ace by me had it for $55 a gallon! Ben Moore is nothing to write home about. What the hell is with that price??

On a GOOD note, I saw your Bona brand in an online search an what do you know!
This place is in town.

http://www.onlinefloorstore.com/olfs/about

I am a total novice when it comes to floors but have become a borderline expert with all the 20's oak trim in the house I've been restoring back to bare, Zar soupy stain, wipe and Tung Oils. So I definitely have the talent to do
artisan-grade work, problem is I'm learning on my own house!
I used a skim light at night to find the swirls and errors from my sanding job and I think it's going to turn out (stain) great when I do this in a couple days.

The drum I used 16/50/80 I think, and then used an 80 screen with the orbital clarke.
The 16 was necessary for all the awful low points I mentioned in an earlier post.

Of all the red oak and maple in the house I only have 1 pure quartersawn 8' strip in the diningroom and 1 figural maple and 1 birdseye by the bathroom hall!

Thanks much for the pointer for Bona. I think I'm going to try the BonaKemi Drifast oil mod.

BTW they also have Masterline, wonder if that's any good?
And how come I'm only seeing quirt prices, don't they sell these in 5g or 2.5g tubs?

The size of the containers is due to the VOC laws in place around the country. Urban areas will have tighter VOC laws. To get around those laws, manufacturers are allowed to sell the "old" formula with higher VOC's in quart containers. So, for most manufacturers of OMU, the "good" stuff is sold in quarts. Only the stuff that is VOC compliant is sold in gallons and the days of 5 gallon containers of OMU are over.

And yes, I am a pro. I get contractor pricing at my distributors.

How about THIS: a supplier by me has one single 5gl bucket of semi-gloss Bona Woodline 450 on hold for me!! I think that will take good care of me.

They have it for $115 and a whole lineup of their own in house made oak samples with all the bona stains.

I think I'm gonna be in good shape!

I wonder if that will be enough to covert 5 rooms over 3 coats?

Doesn't matter how many rooms. What matters is the total square footage and type of wood. You should be able to triple coat about 800-900 sq. ft. of floor with that bucket.

I'm just over 900! And I can skimp on the closets...lol