One key ring, several closures
In the walled properties of La Gravière and high up in Chavril, the front door is only the last closure in a series. The gate, the service gate, the garage and sometimes an outbuilding all hang on the same ring. A lost ring opens the whole plot, not just the house.
So the question becomes what to replace. The cylinder is enough in most cases, including when keys have gone round: grounds maintenance, a former tenant, a tradesman who came in the summer. A replacement is also the moment to bring several closures onto one key, which shortens the ring instead of lengthening it. Count the spares left with a neighbour on the lane as well, since they belong to the same set and are withdrawn at the same time.
The whole lock is replaced when the mechanism itself is at fault: a bolt that no longer throws, bent linkage on a multipoint, a faceplate working loose from its housing. On gates and service gates exposed to rain and to the dust off the lane, it is more often the mechanism than the cylinder that gives up.
What your door will actually take
In the old centre many town-house doors are old, thick and of solid timber, with a rim lock mounted on the inside face. You do not move from one family of locks to another without altering the leaf: faceplate dimensions, fixing centres and the cylinder axis are all measured before anything is ordered. On leaves that thick, the old bolt and the new one must fall into the same keep, or the keep has to be reworked too.
In the Plan du Loup co-ownerships and the terraced developments of Chavril, flat doors are newer and often fitted with cased multipoint locks. There the building’s rules can govern the outward appearance of the door, since it opens onto common parts. The cylinder, on the other hand, remains the occupant’s own choice.
Whether the door opens onto place Xavier Ricard or stands at the end of a lane in La Gravière, an itemised quote is presented before the work, and the invoice lists what was fitted line by line. Keep the security card if your cylinder came with one: it is what allows copies to be cut, and it belongs somewhere other than the hall drawer. Note the number of keys handed over as well, since it appears on the invoice.
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 Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon.