This has become on going battle for us at Allied Floors. It seems that there are those in the industry that sell water based on a few of its virtues while neglecting to mention its faults. Since water based makes better business because of the rapid dry time its benefits typically lie in the favor of the flooring contractor.
The largest selling point for customers is that some formulations of water based are harder then oil based. This means that it can be more resistant to scratches then oil based finishes. This however can be very misleading to the customer since though it is harder it is much, much thinner then oil based finishes. There in lies the problem that we have with water based. It is simply too thin to adequately protect a floor for the amount of time that we'd expect it to.
The appeal of water base for flooring contractors lies in its extremely rapid drying. Instead of having to wait 24 hours between coats a contractor is able to put two or three coats on in one day. That in turn means he can complete the job much sooner collect the payment and move on to the next job.
To us it is common sense that the thicker your finish is the longer it will take to wear though. And in our experience this has held true. When we refinish water based floors they typically have more areas that are worn through, more dirt in the grain of the wood, and are resanded sooner then their oil based counterparts.
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