The cylinder is the part that turns over fastest in Juan-les-Pins
Around the pine grove and port Gallice, furnished flats change occupant every week in season. Swapping the cylinder between two lets is routine management: the secret changes, the lock stays where it is, the door is untouched. A set of keys that never came back at handover is reason enough on its own.
The cylinder carries the secret and comes out after a single screw on the faceplate. It is the right answer to a lost key, a departing tenant, a spare handed over the winter to the firm that services the pool of a Cap villa. The mechanism itself is only in question if it binds, if it catches, or if it no longer locks cleanly.
The sizes still have to be right. Length either side of the faceplate, the backset, the thickness of the leaf are all measured on site. A cylinder that protrudes offers a grip; one that is too short stops the key turning properly. On a La Fontonne door hung in the 1970s, those measurements are almost never the catalogue ones.
Inside the ramparts, like-for-like replacement does not exist
Doors in Vieil Antibes are solid timber, often tall, with period ironwork and dimensions unique to each opening. Rim locks screwed to the inside face are still found there, because the leaf is too thin or too heavily moulded to be mortised. Moving from one family of lock to another then means working the timber itself.
At Les Semboules and La Fontonne the picture changes: landing doors in ordinary sizes, three-point multipoint locks, sound metal frames. Replacement is mechanically straightforward. The question becomes the building itself: if your key also opens the hall or the pram store, the building manager has to be involved so the master key scheme survives.
As a tenant you may replace a faulty lock, but tell the landlord in writing and keep the parts removed for the end of the tenancy. As the owner of a second home reopened in spring, replace the cylinder if you have no idea how many spares circulated while the place stood empty. The job touches neither the leaf nor the original ironwork, which matters on older doors inside the ramparts.
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 Antibes.