The cylinder alone, or the whole lock?
The cylinder holds the secret. One screw on the faceplate releases it, and it is swapped without touching the mechanism. After keys lost on the way down to the market in the centre, a tenant leaving Val Fleuri or a property taken back between two seasons, that single replacement is what is called for, and nothing else on the door changes.
The whole lock is at fault when the mechanism gives up: a bolt that no longer throws, bent connecting rods, a distorted faceplate. At Cros-de-Cagnes salt speeds up corrosion inside, and a multipoint that has spent years facing the sea is sometimes replaced outright, new cylinder or not. Rods and rollers pit first, long before the key gives any warning.
At Haut-de-Cagnes the question comes even earlier. Many old leaves are out of standard sizes, with a backset and a spacing that match no catalogue model, and a faceplate cut to fit. Dimensions are taken at the door before anything at all is ordered. A faceplate that is a little short can be worked around; an unusual backset much less easily.
Three things to check before ordering
Compatibility comes first: cylinder length on each side, thickness of the leaf, handing. A cylinder that protrudes offers a grip; too short, and the key no longer drives the mechanism cleanly. On the lined flat doors of the blocks along avenue Renoir and place du Général de Gaulle, the facing panel adds a thickness people forget: the margin comes down to a few millimetres, so it is measured rather than guessed at.
Then the coherence of the whole. A high-grade cylinder fitted to a split frame protects nothing. At the Cros, ground-floor storerooms and side doors opening onto the lane are often the weak link, well before the front door: the most vulnerable opening is looked at before any model is chosen. Down by the water those secondary doors rarely get the attention the front door receives.
Finally the communal side. In the larger Val Fleuri residences the same key ring often opens the hall, the cellar and the bike store. A cylinder chosen on its own breaks that arrangement: the replacement follows whoever holds the key card for the system, and the building manager will have the name. Tenants should tell their landlord in writing and keep the parts that were removed.
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 Cagnes-sur-Mer.