The symptoms we see here, and what they point to
The door you have to lift before it will close is the commonest fault in the old village. Timber leaves of that age swell with damp, shrink again in the dry cold of the plateau, and the hinges have taken up play season after season. The lock is not the culprit: the bolt and the striking plate have simply stopped lining up.
A key that turns without engaging anything will not wait. The cam or an internal link has given way, so the door opens today and may refuse tomorrow. In the small blocks of Cuire-le-Bas, where original cylinders have seen a great many copies cut over successive tenancies, this one comes round regularly.
At Vassieux and up on the heights the faults move outdoors: a gate lock taking the rain head-on, an electric strike on a side gate, a garage cylinder seizing up. Those mechanisms work outside all year, and the grit off gravel driveways eventually finds its way into the keyway.
The reflexes that turn a nuisance into a lock-out
All-purpose spray lubricant is the commonest reaction and the most damaging. It leaves a film that traps dust and turns a stiff cylinder into a seized one within weeks. On a Vassieux gate lock, exposed to downpours and to swings in temperature, the result shows up faster still.
Forcing with pliers, or insisting with a worn spare, ends with the key blade snapped off inside the keyway. If a key has already broken — in a Montessuy flat door or the side gate of a house up on the heights — leave the fragment where it is and try nothing: extraction is far simpler when nobody has pushed the piece deeper into the cylinder.
Lastly, do not grease a lock that is stiff before working out where the effort comes from. In a village stairwell, a door that drags at the end of winter is nearly always a question of adjustment, of the striking plate or the hinges, not of lubricant. The survey is done with the door open, before anything is taken apart. Note how long the symptom has lasted and in what weather it appears: a village door stiff since November and a Vassieux gate seized overnight do not send us looking for the same part.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our locksmith repairs page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Caluire-et-Cuire.