End Board Sizing During Installation

Q: When I lay out the first row of flooring I end up with a 1.5 inch cut off. Would I be better off to cut a board in half to start the row, so I end up with random lengths at each end of the room?
A: The short answer to this is “Yes.” Let’s examine this a bit further though to explain why you don’t want such a short piece at the end of a row. I will mention as a preface, that it will matter what type of installation is being done. For floating and nail/staple-down floors you will want to have a longer section at the ends of each rows. For nailed/stapled floors you should not nail or staple closer than 4 inches the the end of a board. The reason behind this is that if you nail or staple that close to the end of a board you run risk of cracking the tongue– so ideally you will want 8 inch to 1 foot sections or longer at the end of your floor.
For floating floors, the lock mechanisms require certain distances to maintain enough pressure. This means that similar to nailed hardwoods, you will want to have a plank length of 8 inches to 1 foot or more at the ends of each row to ensure proper locking power is maintained and the floor will remain intact.
With glue-down floors this can be different, but ideally you will want to remain to the same practice. An end piece that is 1.5 inches is not a wise idea as this will be unstable and could cause issues later on regardless of the floor installed.