Turnover in the plain is a cylinder job
Around Les Clausonnes and Saint-Philippe, homes change hands quickly: short contracts tied to the neighbouring employment area, transfers, seasons. The doors there are recent and standardised, fitted with multipoint locks taking a Euro-profile cylinder. Replacing the barrel alone resets every key without touching the case or the linkage.
The useful habit when taking over a flat is to count the keys handed to you and compare that with the manufacturer’s card, where one exists. A missing set in a Clausonnes block with secured common parts is not only your landing’s problem: the hall key and the bike store key travel with it. Have them counted at the inventory, not a month later.
A cylinder is chosen by measurement — inside and outside lengths taken either side of the fixing screw. Too short and it sinks into the leaf; too long and it stands proud, ready for a pair of grips. On a door in the plain fitted with a protective escutcheon, that measurement is taken before ordering. A photograph of the door edge, screw removed, often settles it.
In the village, like-for-like is rare
The doors of old Biot come in no standard size. Thick solid timber, ironwork fitted when the house was built, sometimes a rim lock set against the stone reveal: each opening was adjusted to its own place, often more than once. A catalogue product will not go in without cutting into timber or masonry. You measure, you take the centres, and you adapt rather than substitute.
Village streets are looked at. A door giving onto the place des Arcades or onto a paved lane belongs to a built ensemble, and both the co-ownership rules and local practice bear on what may be altered on the outward face. That is discussed before the old door comes off, not once it has gone.
There is often a middle path: keep the old case and its faceplate, replace the cylinder, then rework the keep fixings in the frame. Security improves without disfiguring a door the lane has watched for generations. The inspection on site decides, and the quote itemises every part. Nothing about this kind of opening is settled over the phone.
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 Biot.