What's actually under the boards
Most Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy tenements were built with suspended timber floors on joists spanning between party walls, and it's rare to find them dead level after a century of settlement and repair. Boards are often narrower and thinner than modern equivalents, and some will have been lifted more than once for pipework.
Before anything goes down we check for soft or springy sections, gaps where floorboards no longer meet properly, and any sign of past woodworm treatment, since all of these affect what finish will sit well and last.
Where this stock sits in Fife
Tenement flats are concentrated in the older cores of Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, with smaller pockets in Cowdenbeath and Leven town centres. Many blocks fall within or near a conservation area, and some flats are in listed buildings — worth confirming with Fife Council before altering skirtings, thresholds or anything visible from the street.
Where we'd hold back
- We're cautious about full-width solid wood in upper-floor flats without checking joist spacing first.
- Thick, hard underlays that raise floor height can jam doors and upset skirting lines in older rooms.
- We won't lift original cornice-adjacent skirtings without agreement if the block is listed.
Sound and your downstairs neighbour
In a tenement, what you put on your floor is also a decision about someone else's ceiling. Factors and title deeds sometimes specify minimum impact-sound performance for hard flooring, so it's worth checking your title conditions or asking the factor before ordering anything.
Common surprises when we lift old boards
- Newspaper or old carpet used as historic underlay or draught-proofing.
- Sections of board replaced in mismatched timber after plumbing work.
- Gaps at the perimeter where skirting has moved with the building.
- Old gas pipe runs still routed under mid-room boards.