I friend of mine said he had a professional floor company put down an epoxy finish on his floor 10 years ago and it looks like the day it was installed. I never heard of that, he said most companies don;'t like to advertise it, bcause its hard to work with.. feedback??

I've worked with epoxy coatings a lot (mostly wooden boats) and there are a few things worth considering. First, unless you add a flex agent to it, epoxy can be brittle and crack from seasonal expansion and contraction of the wood joints. The flex agent reduces the hardness, which somewhat negates the reason for using epoxy in the first place. Secondly, two-part epoxy is recommended because the no-mix single stage variety doesn't hold up that well to foot traffic. Third, repairing and blending worn areas is trickier with epoxy than than with urethane finishes, and two-stage expoxy coatings are generally a lot pricier. Fourth, in high-humidity applications, blushing during the cure might be a problem. If it happens, your only option is to strip it and re-do it - never a happy circumstance. Lastly, fumes and cure-time are also issues. Personally, I would not be living in the house where I was finishing floors with epoxy, even if it is one of the newer non-toxic varieties. For all these reasons I'd stick with a high quality polyurethane. If you want to experiment, do a closet floor first.