A water based poly will yellow less than oil based.

We refinished very badly worn, scratched (deep grooves in some areas), and stained (a few pet stain areas and black ink/paint stains from an artist daughter doing her work on the floor-ugh) red oak floors. They are the original floors of a house built in 1959. Oh, and a myriad of previous owners had done quick fixes that were sloppy and looked awful. Upstairs, each room had a different stain! We thought we would go with oil base, natural. The sanders did a terrific job with the gouging and the stains. Except for the hallways, the sanded floors were like new. And for the wear in the hallways, we were very pleased with the great improvement. We are really glad we didn't pull up the floors. The new engineered flooring varied significantly in quality, and personally, I hated the beveling. Just a dust trap. Plus, in the light to me it looks a little cheap. So our old floors came out great when sanded, they've moved and aged with the house so we don't have to worry about cupping and expansion/contraction issues a new floor might develop. And we went with -biggest surprise, and great anxiety-Bona traffic. The oil based poly looked awful on the floors (we had the contractor do a test area of oil and water (bona)) on the sanded floors. We decided we weren't staining at all. We decided natural would be the best look that would stay timeless. And posts of dust against dark stains were worrisome. Plus, our house is modest-a cape, but with lots of light. We wanted to keep things light and bright. So, end of story, well sanded floors to original bare natural wood, application of sealant, and Bona Traffic, in semigloss. The floors are beautiful! With no stain, I look at beautiful natural wood, not yellow, not orange. Looks great with our traditional furniture. The finish is a nice soft luster-yes it's semigloss-gorgeous! And I sit and look off into a hallway where I know I need to sweep, where there are dust bunnies-and I can't see them at all! I will get to them eventually, but seriously I have no intention of becoming a slave to my floor. Anyway, very happy with the result! The contractors we used were well used to using Bona, and I think that was key to the happy ending. And we're glad it's better for the environment and the people using it. Win-Win.

this is a really old post but i love our natural red oaks, just had them refinished. ours did turn a bit yellow but not too bad.

A question for Susan Linton... What color BONA SEALANT did you use under the Bona Traffic? Thank you! Could you please text me the info ? 503 686 8585 Judi

Hi Oziyanki
It’s been two years now, the sealant had no tint at all, I guess just called “natural”? It’s been a while. I think Bona has tinted sealants, but we did not want any color other than the natural tones in the red oak itself. We’re still very happy with our choice. So no tints in the sealant or the topcoats. Hope that helps.

@Susan Linton do you have a photo of your floors you could share? I have red oak and thinking of going natural with just water based poly.

Here are photos as of today. Red oak definitely has some very light pink tones, along with the many other tones. I guess I like the wood showing variation than very uniform. So still very happy with the job-wished we’d done it sooner.

Susan, what stain did you end up using. Your floors are beautiful! I have red oak and really hate them. If they could look like this I would be thrilled!

Susan what sealant did you use? i saw you said sealant and Bona Traffic, in semigloss.

red oak sanded with bona natural finish no stain we love them so much

How much different did they look unsanded to after the seal? we have sanded floors and u have to decide today on a finish. i want the lightest possible color- most like the sanded they are now

If you want them as light as possible/like they are unfinished/sanded go with NO stain color or tint at all, only clear sealant/protective coat! I love a matte finish - they will still have some sheen to them. In my opinion that also keeps them looking more natural as well. Good luck. At the end of the day the wood is still a living, changing, aging thing...love them for what they are!

I like that a lot! It’s exactly what I want my floors to look like.

My flooring guy said (and backed it up with a sample) that a water-based sealant with *no tint* (I think Bona ClassicSeal?) will slightly darken the floors and sort of intensify the variation (the sample boards almost looked wet to me). Bona NaturalSeal has a bit of white pigment (less than NordicSeal). We went with that because the sample board looked exactly like the bare sanded wood, which is what we wanted. Finished with three matte protective coats. LOVE

Laurel P, any chance you could post a picture. We just sanded down red oak and also want to keep them natural.

Sure! One picture has two sample boards on top of the unfinished, sanded floors. The top board has one coat of Bona NaturalSeal and then a couple of matte topcoats (what we chose). The bottom is *I think* Bona ClassicSeal (which doesn't have any white pigment) and topcoats. And then the other picture is after the floors were finished.

Is it possible to fully seal the area where the sanding and Buona Nordic seal is applied? And still live in the house?