Altitude, rain, and joinery that moves
Grasse does not get the coastal winter. Frost on January nights, heavy autumn rain on the hillside, the gap between a south-facing front and a lane that never sees the sun: timber moves. A solid leaf swells, drops back, and ends up rubbing in its frame.
The symptom is always the same: the door has to be lifted or pushed before it will lock. The lock is not at fault, but it absorbs that strain at every turn of the key, and it is the part that breaks first. On the solid leaves of the old houses in Magagnosc, adjusting a keeper or the hinges often settles the matter; replacing the mechanism without touching the alignment simply postpones the failure.
So a door that closes badly in January and perfectly in June does not necessarily have a lock problem. It is the inspection on site, leaf open then shut, that separates a fault of alignment from genuine wear. On old doors in the old town that inspection takes in the frame too, usually more tired than the leaf itself.
The faults we meet most often here
A key that turns without resistance points to a broken cam or a linkage that has come apart inside the case. A key that no longer goes in is down to dirt, or to a poor copy that has worn the barrel. On the metal doors of the converted perfumeries it is more often the handle that goes soft: a worn spindle or follower, a tired return spring.
On a multipoint lock, a point that no longer engages comes from rods out of adjustment or a keeper that has shifted. Carrying on forcing twists the linkage, and the repair then changes in nature. In the hamlets, where a house is sometimes shut up for months, the fault is discovered on return: it pays to try every lock before leaving. In Saint-Antoine and on the Saint-Jacques slopes, outbuildings opened once a year concentrate this kind of unpleasant surprise.
Two things to avoid. Never force a key that resists: it snaps clean off inside the barrel. And do not spray the lock with general-purpose penetrating oil — the greasy film picks up the dust off the restanque tracks and turns light fouling into a complete seizure. A dry lubricant, once a year, is enough.
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 Grasse.