Cylinder, lock, and what the door will take
The cylinder is the part the key goes into; one screw on the edge of the leaf releases it. The lock is the whole mechanism: case, bolts, connecting rods. In Villefranche the dividing line usually follows the age of the door, between the rim locks still in service in the old centre and the multipoint units fitted since the 1980s.
A key lost on a market morning, a tenant handing back the keys in Béligny, a spare copy that has been circulating for twenty years: in each case the cylinder alone settles it and your door stays where it is. A bolt that no longer comes out, a loose faceplate, rods bent by an impact: then the lock itself has to come off. The mechanism stays put, your habits with it, and the door is not removed.
On the oversized leaves of the centre — unusual heights, uneven thicknesses, old keyholes — the measurements are taken at the door before anything is ordered: the fixing centres, the length of barrel on each side, the spindle. Nothing is bought from a photograph, and an off-the-shelf unit does not always go straight on.
Visible ironmongery: what the street imposes
A good many frontages on the rue Nationale and the streets around it are protected, and what is seen from the road cannot be altered freely: the street leaf, its visible ironmongery, its handle and its studs are all part of that. So the original furniture is kept wherever possible, with the mechanism modernised behind it. An old keyhole plate can be taken off and refitted, provided it is handled cold.
In a block of flats the landing door is often covered by the co-ownership rules: colour, appearance, sometimes a set pattern of furniture for the whole stairwell. In the Troussier buildings what turns up most is multipoint locks out of adjustment, and swapping the cylinder between two occupants remains the commonest request.
For a house at Les Bulles or a farmstead in the neighbouring Beaujolais the problem changes shape: several ways in to deal with — house, garage, vat house, outbuilding — and a fair wish to carry one key only. A keying plan is drawn up on site, once every opening has been measured, rather than from a catalogue. How many keys will then be in circulation is settled at that point, not after fitting.
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 Villefranche-sur-Saône.