Between two occupants, the cylinder is usually enough
The Porte des Alpes campus, the hospitals on the eastern side of Lyon and the business parks bordering the airfield keep Bron's rental stock moving. After a few tenancies nobody knows how many copies were handed out, or to whom. Changing the cylinder at each handover beats an approximate count of keys that may or may not have come back.
The cylinder is the part the key goes into, the part that carries the code. One screw on the edge of the leaf releases it, and the mechanism stays where it is. That is the standard job on the mass-produced flat doors of the Terraillon and Les Genêts, identical floor after floor and often block after block.
The whole lock comes out for other reasons: a bolt that no longer throws, bent linkage, a faceplate deformed by an old attempt. In the old village it is often a surface-mounted lock on an old timber door, a model long out of production for which no compatible part is made. The set is then replaced, keep included, and sometimes the frame with it.
What gets measured before anything is ordered
The survey happens on site, never over the phone: cylinder length either side of the leaf, the distance between handle and barrel, the height of the locking points, whether the linkage sits behind a shroud. A shrouded 1970s multipoint, still common in the Parilly towers, does not come off the way a recent mortice lock does.
In a block of flats two further questions arise. The appearance of a flat door seen from a shared hall falls under the co-ownership rules, and the refurbished Terraillon stairwells are watched more closely than most on that point. And the hall's entry system, fob or intercom, is never the same thing as the lock on your own front door.
An itemised quote is presented before the work, part by part, and an itemised invoice at the end. If the cylinder supplied works on a security card, that card is yours: on a let property in the Terraillon or Les Genêts it is the card, not the keyring, that has to follow the flat from one tenancy to the next.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our lock and cylinder replacement page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Bron.