What the substrate will actually take
A retrofit keeps your door: folded steel over the leaf, angle sections on the frame, a multipoint, anti-lift pins. It is only worth what sits behind it. On a softwood frame fixed into a plastered partition, as in many plateau blocks, the whole force of a break-in transfers to the fixings. We probe the frame before pricing anything on those doors.
In the vieux bourg the old masonry of the terraced houses gives a solid anchorage instead, provided it is worked by someone who knows the material. The sizes, on the other hand, fall outside standard ranges: a complete door set there usually means something made to measure, after a careful survey of the opening.
At the recent Puisoz and Grand Parilly schemes the flat door is already a multipoint in a steel frame. The useful reinforcement is then not the leaf but the cylinder, its protection and the keeps. Armouring what is already armoured moves the spending without moving the weak point. The new leaf on those schemes is almost never what gives way first.
Who decides how your door looks
The flat door is privately owned, but the face seen from the landing can fall under the co-ownership rules, particularly in the plateau stairwells whose halls were redone during the regeneration. As a tenant, written consent from the owner or the social landlord is needed before you even ask for a quote: this is an alteration to the dwelling. Ask the managing agent what finish the refurbished hall requires.
For a door opening straight onto the street — common in the bourg, where some houses have no hall or landing at all — the outward appearance can require planning consent. The planning department at the Ville de Vénissieux will tell you what applies at your address before you commit to anything. A prior declaration takes time: allow for it before ordering.
Finally, armouring protects an opening, not a home. Reinforcing the front of a Moulin-à-Vent house whose rear French windows give onto a garden with no overlooking neighbours simply moves attention round the back. Consistency between all the ways in counts for more than the performance of any single leaf.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door reinforcement page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Vénissieux.