Question for the installers. I've just picked up boxes of 6" engineered planks. Although I really like the way it looks, I've noticed something that I wouldn't have known about unless I had read info. earlier on this forum. It's a distressed wood floor that's 3/8" thick (3-ply) and I noticed that all of the boards are the same length. (45") I've also noticed that there is somewhat of a repeating pattern in some of the boards. Will the installer cut them into various lengths when he 'dry fits' them and is this the way that the repeating pattern in some of the boards is hopefully not noticed? Thanks for your input.

P.S. You may have noticed from a few posts back that I was considering a D-I-Y job. Now that I've read all of the valuable info. on this forum and looked at all of the things to consider when installing the floor - forget it! I'm gonna let someone who knows something about floors install it....I can pull out a marble entry way with a jack-hammer, I might even be able to float a new floor that's pretty flat, but putting down moisture barrier, and then glueing an engineered wood floor down...blah. No thanks.

The only time an installer should cut boards shorter is when cutting to length to finish a run OR if the flooring is NOT endmatched (T&G) then the installer can/may cut the flooring to different lengths to get a more pleasing layout. Some custom wide plank floors come without endmatching and 5/16" face nail flooring is not T&G. The product you have is probably endmatched and if I was your installer, I would NOT cut those to different lengths except to complete a run. That is the nature of many engineered floors. 48" or less in length (not all, most), only one or two lengths. The installer needs to use different length STARTER boards to stagger the end butts nicely and it is still a challenge if all the boards are the same legth.