The faults you meet between the plateau and the valley floor
At Beaunant, on the floor of the Yzeron valley, damp lingers far longer than at the top of the commune. Locks on garages and basements cut into the bank silt up, bolts develop play, and a key you have to hunt for is announcing a seizure to come. A padlock left out on a service gate all winter tells exactly the same story.
Up on the plateau it is the swing in temperature that does the work. Winters here bite harder than on the coast: a solid timber leaf swells, the keep no longer receives the bolt where it should, and every evening you force it a little more. The lock is not at fault, but it wears quickly in that state.
Outdoor closures on walled properties are a case of their own. A service gate that is seldom used, a gate lock exposed to rain and to the dust off the lane: the mechanism seizes without warning, and you find out on the day you need to go out that way. The grounds play their part too, since a hedge growing against a gate slowly pushes it out of alignment.
Adjust the door before blaming the mechanism
When you have to lift or push to lock up, the fault is almost always alignment. Fitting a new lock changes nothing: it will take exactly the same strain. The keep is reset, the hinges are taken up, the leaf is given back its clearance, and only then is the mechanism looked at. A rubbing leaf leaves a clear mark on the jamb, and that mark says where to start.
Two habits make everything worse. Forcing a key that resists: it snaps clean inside the cylinder, and extraction becomes a job in its own right. And spraying general-purpose penetrating oil, which leaves a film that holds the dust off the lane and turns light fouling into a full seizure. A dry lubricant is what is needed.
One check a year is enough: dry lubricant in the cylinder, faceplate and keep screws checked for tightness, the clearance of the leaf in its frame verified. On a house left empty part of the year, do it on your return rather than before you leave, because a door shows what has shifted after weeks shut.
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 Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon.