Classy prefinished flooring

Q: Is there such a thing as pre-finished flooring that isn’t made of small pieces of wood? I’d like to cover the old, squeaky hardwood floors I’ve got now, but I’m not crazy about the jigsaw puzzle look created by the 12" to 48" lengths of wood I’ve seen sold as prefinished flooring. Is it possible to get longer lengths? Can you recommend a source?

A: I agree with you wholeheartedly. The jigsaw look crops up all too often in DIY flooring, from solid, pre-finished hardwoods to laminates. Short pieces of flooring might look okay in the package, but once you put down a whole room's worth it becomes way too busy. And in the case of laminates, the situation is especially extreme. Even large, click-together pieces of flooring often have the pattern of different pieces of wood rendered on them. The good news is that if you look hard enough, you’ll find large-format, pre-finished wood-type flooring. You'll sometimes have to pay more to get solid wood like this, but I think it's worthwhile. I’ve been searching for non-busy flooring myself, and one option that caught my eye is the Eco Exotics line of laminates from Kronopol. It's manufactured in Europe from materials that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) as ecologically harvested. I've seen the wild merbau version in Home Depot stores and it’s gorgeous. It comes in pieces 3 1/2" wide by almost 4 feet long with continuous grain patterns on each board. One thing to consider before installing any new floor is the need to stabilize the noisy hardwood you've got using screws. You need to get the squeaks under control for any new floor to live up to its full potential.