Explain the route in before the lock itself
Around the avenue Franklin-Roosevelt, in the old village, several terraced houses are still reached through a shared courtyard, up an outside staircase, or by a service door at the back. The street number alone will not do: give the entrance that actually works, the name on the letterbox, and a landmark visible from the yard.
In the Terraillon and at Parilly the logic reverses. The hall opens with a fob or an entry phone, the blocks carry a letter rather than a number, and the internal roads of an estate are not always drawn on online maps. Give the block letter, the floor, and say whether the hall is standing open or not.
Say which level, too. A good share of calls in Bron concern a cellar, a garage box or a bike store in the basement rather than a flat door. That is neither the same lock nor the same kit, and the basement of a Parilly slab block is not something you cross without knowing which staircase goes down to it. An estate at Les Genêts can have two car park entrances for a single street number: say which one is yours.
Slammed shut or locked: two different jobs
When a door has simply slammed shut, nothing holds it but the latch. On a pre-war timber leaf in the old village, one that has moved with the decades, the leaf has warped: the play shifts, it closes at the top while it gapes at the bottom, and a shim does not pass where it would on a mass-produced door.
A locked door is another matter entirely. In the refurbished stairwells of the Terraillon, as in the 1970s blocks, a multipoint throws several bolts up the height of the leaf and the cylinder is sometimes shielded. Nothing is announced before the door has been seen: the survey on site comes first, then the itemised quote, then the work.
Before any opening you will be asked to show that you live there — a rent receipt, an energy bill or a home insurance certificate. If your documents are shut inside, mention it during the call. A statement from a neighbour on the landing, or from the caretaker where a Bron estate still has one, usually settles the matter on the spot.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door opening page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Bron.