More precisely you really cant refinish laminate flooring. Real wood floors you put varnish or lacquer or polyurethane to "finish" the floor. Laminate is more of chemically made product. Most of it is is made of fiber board with a laminated wood finish on top and then a sealer finish which is usually made of resin. Now the thing to understand is the resin can be made really good and it can take a lot of punishment BUT that is not the problem.
There is an old saw in the flooring world that goes basically "A floor is only as good as what is underneath it."
The resins they use are really good on the surface. BUT the fiber board underneath the resin layer and the wood pattern, is not really sealed it just has lots of resin mixed in it and is water "Resistant" not water proof.
Look up the term delamination.
They will all do it and if they get very wet (soaked as in pipe leaks or really big spills) they will fall apart fairly quickly. First they will pucker on the edges and then they will further deteriorate. And once the puckering starts any time even a bit of water gets in those puckers it will further delaminate the bonds.
And eventually laminate will draw moisture into the fiberboard layer no matter how good the resin on top is.
Your real wood floor can get wet. It will swell and hoove-up BUT unless it is totally cracked in the process it will usually shrink back down once you dry it out and can be refinished and look like a million bucks again. There is no fixing laminate once the bonds of the layers are broken, you must replace it once it starts delaminating.
I have 1800 sq ft of oak i need refinishing, any idea how much is that going to cost me?