I have just installed some prefinished 3/4" oak hardwood in what is to be my home office. The hardwood has the aluminum-oxide finish. My question is...what could I put over the top of this hardwood to help protect it longer from scratches and to also help fill in the small gaps between some of the edge pieces?

I was thinking that I could use a water based polyurethane, but is there something better? Will this work with the prefinished floors? Other suggestions or comments?

Thanks,

You shouldn't have gaps between the boards. All wood finishes will scratch. It is not a good idea to to put finish over a prefinished floor there will be adhesion issues not to mention the fact that its not going to help prevent anything. Use felt pads or similar on your furniture. Don't drag anything heavy or sharp over your floors.

Thanks for your reply. In my previous house, I had installed unfinished hardwood (guess I should have went that route on this one too). There we put 3 coats of polyurethane to finish the floor. I liked this as I could buff some of the light scratches away without having to refinish the entire room.

Now that I have this installed I am worried that I will not have that flexibility. I was hoping to get some of that back by top coating the prefinished floor. Has anyone done such a thing?

I like others here, were given the hype about prefinished being better than unfinished. Guess I should have done more research rather than listening to the salesmen.

There is no hype most customers don't want to be bothered with constantly having to buff and coat themselves nor do they like the idea of not being able to use their floors right away.