Flooring help needed

[Bristolian]

Mae Teng is a good choice, hard and impervious to termites. My home has Mae Daeng planking throughout, my builder must have found a good source because it's planking approx 25mm thick and 250 mm wide (unfortunately without tongue and groove, which means that the gap between boards needs to be filled and replaced occasionally.

Some fool, (namely me) had an extension built, by what turned out to be a cowboy builder. Having asked for and paid for a hard wood flooring it turned out to be beautifully stained and camouflaged mango wood. Needless to say, within 18 months the termites had feasted on the new floor and it needed to be replaced, which we did with Mae Daeng. It could have been a much more serious and expensive problem, had the termites made their way into furniture in the rest of the house but fortunately the Mae Daeng flooring stopped their progress but still we treated all the remaining soft wood, furniture etc to ensure that they would not reappear.

[Zero]

Thanks for all the help and advice folks. Unfortunately, the Thai chap that was recommended to me upthread to lay the floor is no longer using that number.

However, we found a really smashing Thai flooring fella who, despite us not speaking a word of each others lingo, has really succeeded in putting a big smile on my face because of the careful manner in which he has approached this work. After spending some time on getting the level correct, the ribs are now finished. He used an air gun to fasten 6 or 7 planks down this evening to see how it will look. I'll let you all know how the floor ends up looking and i'll try and post a pic or two up.

So, my next question comrades...the finishing. Stain and varnish? Just varnish? Briwax? I really am totally without a clue on this side of things. I'd just like to keep the wood as natural as possible, whilst giving good protection from the elements, as 30% of the total floor area will run under the glass shop front, and up to our Soi, if you get me.

Any help, advice or cautionary tales will be suitably welcomed!

Z.