I have a new contractor that has been giving me a lot of work lately and he only wants me to use pallmans-98 and pallmans-96 [u]As the top coats[u] on his floors. I am curious if there is a more inexpensive water based sealer I can use under that top coat? I am leaning towards Basic Emulsion. A week ago I did a job for him, I had a brand new bottle of Bona Amber seal in storage and used it under the Pallmans-98 and it turned out beautifully. I am not a huge fan of universal sealers or oil under water based. Ideas???

Bona's bonaseal is easy to apply but terrible to buff out so I never use it. Their DTS is great though. Don't let the name fool you .It is barely any darker than bonaseal .It is 98% as clear as any other water based sealer.

Basic coating's hydroline sealer is also very good and buffs out nicely.I have not tried emulsion yet .

Absco Grand as a sealer is oil/water emulsion and cheap as hell

they also have the LnL 100 amber series which is a little more but still relatively inexpensive.

how much is Pallmans? and why arent you charging for it if its more than what you would normally use?

dont let anyone dictate your pricing nor how you perform the work.

requesting a product is fine.but it must be compensated for

I read posts and decided there was no risk in using oil based for my red oak floors and the only downside was the drying time. On the plus side I was excited for the natural amber color the oil based would bring to my floors. Noone told me that in recent years the formula of the oil based has changed to lower the fumes == which in turn causes more air bubbles!! Although the air bubbles were more like pimples in the floor I could not live with it, apparently some people don't take notice of these things so do some it may not be an issue. In the same month I had my floors refinished down to the hardwood for a second time and went with the water based...I will now wait for the floors to darken naturally over time but I am much more satisfied with the smooth finish : )