Hello,
I was hoping someone could please help me out with a layout question.
When starting a standalone bedroom with a transition or header board in doorway, do I need to start the first board in the doorway to avoid ripping a board in the entry way?
The same goes for stairways where the top bull nose meets the floor. Do I need to start my first board attached to the bullnose to avoid ugly rips? Or do you start where you think is best and measure to predict where the board will land.
Thanks very much.

It would be great if we could find just the right start to end where the details show up every time a person walks by and could notice. Usually starting on the longest straight wall works well enough. If a person would like to make a focal point that shows off and is going to be longest lasting a whole board near nosing and in doorways it does take planning. Plans don't always go well. I can make a close call better by planing the groove edge a little over the last few boards. The groove is deeper than the tongue so you could take almost an eighth inch off each row by planing the groove and also the tongue so they fit together. If you keep track of how things are going, like being parallel to both walls with the flooring when the walls measure differently at ends of the room, you can start refining the way the floor is laying as you go before you get to the place where you want to end. This method is going to work with unfinished flooring much better than pre-finished flooring which may have a micro-bevel depending on how the surface is finished since most pre-finished flooring has a micro-bevel. Another option is to spring for another width of flooring to match the flooring finish that you are using. Sorry if you will need to get a whole box of the other width so you could adjust spacing with one or more rows of the different width just to make the job better. This depends on availability.
Starting at the perceived focal point and working away from it would be the simple answer.

Thank you sir