I have 12 years of flooring experience and now 3 years of site finished experience. After attending the Bona school, I commited to using Traffic exclusively or EON for a quick turn around recoat. I have no experiece in using the oil modified finishes. I am partial to the waterborne clear appearance.

I am curious about the opinions of those with experice applying both types of finishes. In terms of the ease of application, does the oil modified finish or the water borne finish apply easier?

The reason both are still used today, along with others, is that there isn't a "one size fits all" floor finish, IMO. All floor finishes have their place and their pros and cons. I decided years ago to limit my finishes to OMU, waterbornes, tung oils, shellacs, waxes and penetrating oil sealers. This leaves out moisture curing urethane, lacquers and acid curing urethanes, which some call catalytic varnish. Those have some very nasty solvents. But to your question. In some ways, oil is easier. And in other ways, waterbased is easier. Oil has a longer open time which allows the finisher more time to apply the finish evenly and blend different areas together. But it does have noxious fumes and you need to wear a respirator. Clean up requires mineral spirits. Waterbased dries much quicker so the finisher needs to be fast and accurate in their application. But clean up is much easier and the odor/fumes are not nearly as odorous. One should still use a respirator. The appearance is different and that should be factored in as well. Sometimes, cost will determine which finish I will recommend. If I sense the customer is needing inexpensive and they have a large floor area (2000 ft. or so), I will recommend three coats of oil to keep costs down. Example: 2000 sq.ft x (3) coats of OMU @ 500 sq.ft. per gallon x $25.00 per gallon = 12 gallons x $25.00 = $300.00

With BONA Traffic:
2000 sq.ft. x (3) coats @ 400 sq.ft. per gallon x $100.00 per gallon = 15 gallons x $100.00 per = $1,500.00

Since on a large job, you can't get more than one coat per day on, there is no time savings using waterbased over oil. But by using oil, you will save approx. $1,200.00, a considerable amount.

I appreciate your imput. I work in a small market. about 4 differest finishers to service a population of 275,000. I have heard comments from 2 of the other finishers. One said any monkey could apply ater based. The other said it was more difficult. I am the only finisher using water based finishes in this market. It is a good position to be in. I am in high demand even as you note I must charge a premium rate.

Really interested in the relative comparision of the ease or difficulty in finishing with OMU vs. Waterborne. I take by your comments that you might feel waterborne is perhaps more challenging.

Don't worry about what others have to say. Just point out the benefits of using the waterbased floor finishes to your customers, which seems to be working for you. Customers do not care if your job is difficult or easy. They typically want value and performance. Offer that and you'll do fine. You know what they say, " Opinions are like a**holes; everyone's got one."