What the ground does to mechanisms
The lower part of the commune lives close to water. Along the Brague and towards the beach, garages, storerooms and side doors take up damp, and sea air leaves a film on moving parts that eventually seizes the pins. A key that catches in the storeroom before it catches at the front door is telling you exactly that. The storeroom warns first, because it is opened least.
Up in the village it is the timber that rules. A solid leaf facing full south swells in summer and shrinks in winter, and the bolt no longer meets the keep at the same height from one season to the next. Shouldering the door to get it locked ends up distorting the faceplate or breaking a cam.
On the Saint-Philippe slopes and along the roads climbing towards the hills, the fault often shows at the gate before the house. A straining motor, an electric strike that no longer releases, a wicket-gate lock thrown out of line by a settling pillar: these are openings in their own right, not accessories, and they are diagnosed the way a front door is.
Read the symptom before replacing the part
The key turns and nothing happens: the cam or a linkage inside the case has gone, and the cylinder no longer drives the mechanism. The handle drops: the spindle or the return spring is worn. You have to push the door to lock it: that is adjustment, a hinge or the frame, not the lock. On an old village leaf the three causes happily overlap.
Each symptom points to one part. Fitting a complete lock where a spindle would have done is money spent for nothing; stacking repairs on a tired mechanism only puts off the day. We strip it, look, explain what is in front of us, and the quote separates the part from the adjustment — on a Clausonnes landing as much as in a village lane.
A word on keys broken in the barrel: no pliers, no glue. The fragment goes in deeper, the pins jam, and a simple extraction turns into a cylinder replacement. Leave the key as it is, force nothing further, and say whether the door was deadlocked or merely latched. Photograph the piece still in your hand — it helps identify the profile.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our locksmith repairs page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Biot.