The order matters as much as the repair
Put nothing back before the police have been. Tool marks on the frame and on the faceplate are part of what gets recorded, and a door already repaired makes that impossible. Photograph before anything is touched: the door from the landing if you live on a plateau montée, from the street if your bourg house opens straight onto the pavement.
Report the burglary, then notify your insurer within the deadline set by your policy; the police receipt is asked for by almost every one of them. In the meantime temporary securing closes the home without dismantling the attacked parts: a temporary lock, a keep made good, boarding over a broken yard-door pane. The Puisoz blocks often have a side light that needs closing off on its own.
Keep everything that comes off — the drilled cylinder, the torn faceplate, the splinters of softwood frame. Those pieces show what kind of attack it was, and your insurer may ask to see them. The itemised invoice handed over at the end separates what was secured on the night from what was replaced afterwards, whether the forced door opens onto a la Darnaise landing or onto a vieux bourg back yard.
Secondary accesses, the real Vénissieux weak point
In the basements of the plateau and of the Parilly blocks, cellars and bike stores still close on cylinders fitted thirty years ago, while the flat door has been renewed. We look at them even when only the flat was entered: they connect to the montée and sometimes serve several stairwells. A badge lost in the incident concerns the managing agent too.
In the vieux bourg the rear yard and the alley change everything. A service door, an old wash-house, a gate onto the neighbouring yard: original ironmongery, non-standard sizes, and usually no locking point top or bottom. Redoing the front door and leaving that as it stands deals with half the problem.
At Moulin-à-Vent, where houses have a garage at the bottom of the plot and a garden shared with next door, entry is frequently made round the back, out of sight of the street. If keys went missing in the break-in, the garage cylinder and the service door cylinder are changed at the same time as the front one. The side gate deserves the same look as the street frontage.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our securing your home after a break-in page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Vénissieux.