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I am having two rooms’ wood floors refinished (kitchen and bedroom). Kitchen is VERY high traffic area (crossroads of apartment). Can anyone recommend a really tough waterborne finish? Or, a tough solvent base finish with lower fumes? I have asthma and need to live in here the whole time.
My landlord is doing the refinishing (I’m not the owner). He is generally very cheap. The manager told me she wanted to use something waterbase because of my asthma…but think that is mere lip service, because the workers told me they are using primer plus one coat of varnish. Also, I use to do some hobby woodworking and finishing, and IIRC as of a few years ago there were not too many tough waterbase floor finishes.
Anyway, I’m in Fort Green. Any floor product in Brooklyn I may be able to persuade her to use (they would need to buy it today)? If it is a water base product does the filler putty they use matter (they put in some putty to fill some gaps)? The workers are not a floor refinish company, just the general low cost guys the landlord uses for inexpensive renovation jobs. They can do the floor repairs and refinish, but I do not know their experience handling anything other than their standard varnish. If you know a product and have application tips, please share.
One final thing: any idea how to proceed so I can ‘use’ the kitchen while the finish cures? I need to cross the kitchen to get to bathroom.

Thanks.