Between two tenants, the cylinder is almost always enough
The 7th around the Guillotière and Jean Macé, much of the 3rd and the streets near the campuses see leases turn over from one academic year to the next. After four or five occupants nobody knows how many copies are still out there, which makes a cylinder swap at handover the most ordinary request in the city.
The job leaves the rest of the door untouched. On the flat door of a recent block in the 3rd as on an old timber leaf on the Pentes, the cylinder comes out with one screw on the edge of the leaf and takes every old key combination with it; the case, the linkage and the strike plate stay where they are. That is what separates it from a full lock replacement, reserved for mechanisms that have genuinely failed — and which, on an oversized weaver's door, is prepared quite differently.
A landlord holding several flats in the same building on the cours Gambetta should settle the key plan first: a pass key for the cellar and the bike store, separate keys for each flat. It is decided before ordering, because it governs which cylinders are bought and what length they need to be. Length matters as much as the make on a leaf that is thicker than it looks.
The Lyon doors that refuse a catalogue product
The silk-weavers' buildings of the 1st and the Croix-Rousse plateau were put up to house looms. Their doors are tall, wide, sometimes double-leaved, and their dimensions match no current standard: the lock centres, the cylinder length and the handle height are all measured door by door before anything is ordered. A photograph with a tape across the leaf saves a wasted visit.
In the 6th, on the avenue Foch or the cours Vitton, original nineteenth-century locks are still working on double-leaf doors. The semi-fixed leaf, its top and bottom bolts and the espagnolette all govern what can be fitted: changing the lock alone, without checking how the second leaf is secured, simply leaves the weak point in place.
Where the street-facing appearance is protected, in the listed heart of Vieux Lyon or the Presqu'île, the work moves to the inner face of the leaf. The old ironmongery is kept and the mechanism is worked on, rather than imposing a faceplate and handle that would change how the entrance reads from the pavement.
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 Lyon.