Cylinder, lock, and what separates them
The cylinder is the part the key goes into. It carries the secret and comes out with one screw on the edge of the leaf. The lock is the whole mechanism: case, bolts, linkage, faceplate. On the flat doors of the recent blocks by the Grand Large everything sits under a cover plate, and reaching that screw means taking the plate off before any diagnosis at all.
A key lost on a walk along the canal de Jonage, a tenant moving out, a duplicate still in circulation after a short let: the cylinder is enough. A bolt that no longer throws, a bent linkage, a faceplate torn off after an attempt: the lock itself has to be dealt with. That is settled on site, not over the phone.
In the centre the constraint is dimensions. The village houses along the avenue Jean-Jaurès and the streets around it carry doors of every size, sometimes with surface-mounted locks fitted decades ago. A like-for-like swap is not always available: the backset, the spindle height and the leaf are measured before anything is ordered.
In an estate house there is never just one door
On an estate at Les Marais or the Berthaudière the front door is one way in among several: gate, side gate, up-and-over garage door, service door on the flank, sliding window onto the garden. A single-storey house multiplies them further. Working on the front leaf alone leaves all the rest untouched.
Hence the sense in handling the lot at once. Several cylinders can be ordered to one key, which spares you the six-key ring that ends up living in the glovebox. It is a decision to take before ordering: adding another door to the same secret later means going back over every cylinder already fitted. On a plot at the Berthaudière that can mean five barrels rather than one, so the count is taken before the order goes in.
Landlords raise this constantly. Between the centre, the streets along the T3 tram and the flats let near the Montout, turnover is real and key sets scatter from one tenancy to the next. A cylinder changed between occupants removes the nagging doubt about how many duplicates are still out there.
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 Décines-Charpieu.