A new cylinder after moving in, a better one before the house closes for winter, or a repair for the lock you have been coaxing for a month. Booked for a time that suits you and priced before the work starts.
Most homes in Dénia pass through a lot of hands. Only about four in ten are somebody’s main home all year, according to a University of Alicante study presented to the town hall; the rest are second homes and lets, with agents, cleaners and neighbours holding keys along the way.
In the centre and in Les Roques, many houses are old, and so are their locks. In Baix la Mar, a protected quarter, the lock has to suit a door that should stay as it is.
The part the key goes into. On most doors here it is a European profile cylinder, and changing it is the usual job: quick, and it retires every old key at once.
The mechanism inside the door that throws the bolt. It is replaced when worn or broken, which is much less common than a tired cylinder.
Several bolts driven along the edge of the door. On uPVC, aluminium and sliding doors that is its own job: see sliding and uPVC doors.
Anti-snap cylinders are a normal choice for a replacement. If the door has been forced, or you want the house properly hardened, that is a wider job: high-security locks after a break-in.
The edge of the door with the cylinder in it, and the key if you have one.
Booked when it suits you. The price is explained on site, before anything is removed.
The new cylinder goes in, the door is locked and unlocked from both sides, and you check it yourself.
A new cylinder comes from the manufacturer with its own set of keys, handed to you in their packaging. No copies are made here.
A stiff lock is not always a dead one. Dirt, dust and grit, plus months without use in a house that stays shut, make a cylinder drag; cleaning and the right dry lubricant bring many back. Household oil does the opposite over time, because it holds on to the dirt.
If yours is a house you only open a few times a year, the page on locks in homes that stand empty is written for you.
Shut out rather than planning ahead? That is opening the door first; the lock can be dealt with afterwards. To book, use phone, WhatsApp or email.
Often, yes, when the cylinder is a common size. Unusual lengths and some security makes have to be ordered, and then the job is booked for when the part arrives. A photo of the edge of the door tells us which case yours is.
Usually only the cylinder, the part the key goes into. The lock body inside the door lasts far longer. It is replaced only when the mechanism itself has worn or broken.
In most cases. You cannot know how many keys the previous owners, their agents, cleaners and tenants handed out over the years. A new cylinder on each outside door is the cheapest way to be sure.
That the cylinder is built to break at a sacrificial point if somebody tries to snap it, leaving the part that holds the lock intact. It is an ordinary replacement option now, not a specialist product.
Usually it can be made to, and on an old street door the aim is to change the working part while leaving the door and its ironwork as they are. Where it cannot, you are told before anything is removed.
The edge of the door and the cylinder in it. From that alone we can usually tell what the job involves and book a date.