Advanced Wood Floors wrote:
Basic Coatings and Bonakemi are two of the best in the water based finish game. My favorite and the most expensive is Bona's Traffic. The look is excellent, it levels like oil based and can be applied with the Bonakemi roller and can be applied very heavy without bubbling.
Lots of guys mention that they can use a 1/4" nap roller with Basic's Street Shoe. Then both companies have less expensive , non catalyzed versions.
I've always recommended Bona Traffic to my customers, and when I did my own floor, I sealed with Bona's oil-modified sealer called Dri-Fast, and finished with only two top-coats of Traffic in the Satin sheen.
I also chose not to trowel-fill the floor, because that would have ruined the look I was aiming for, which was to have the
texture of the grain (rift & quartered white oak) show through. I say trowel filling would have ruined that, because when you trowel fill a floor, you make the entire surface smooth like glass, and that is very cheesy, and looks like something from the 1990's era. This is also why I chose to use only 2 coats of finish over the sealer, because as you apply multiple coats, you are smoothing over all the texture of the wood's surface. Also, using a t-bar to apply the Bona Traffic seemed to help achieve this look by not caking on the finish too thick.
Bona Traffic is the way to go! Although I am sure Basic Street Shoe is good, for me personally I'm gonna stick with what I know works from experience.