Getting a door up into the old village
A reinforced door set is carried by hand as soon as the street turns pedestrian. Around rue Saint-Sauveur, the cobbled ramps, the uneven steps and the vaulted passages set a very concrete limit: the weight and bulk of the leaf count in the choice just as much as its performance figures. The route is measured before anything is ordered.
Doors there are rarely a standard size. Made-to-measure is the rule rather than the exception, with low leaves and irregular openings. In exchange, the frame is bedded into stone masonry that offers a remarkable anchorage — provided someone has checked that the existing timber is not rotten at the rebate. A sound frame is the condition for everything else.
Then comes appearance. Altering a door visible from a village lane, near the chapelle Saint-Sauveur or the Tour des Danys, may require a prior works declaration. Ask the town planning department in Le Cannet before you place the order: the answer depends on your precise address, not on a general rule.
On a condominium landing the constraint changes nature
In the buildings of Rocheville and boulevard Sadi Carnot the doors are standard sizes and the masonry behind them is sound. The difficulty moves to the condominium rules, which often govern how landing doors may look. Ask the building manager before choosing a finish, and have the colour approved if the rules require it. That precaution saves taking a new door back off.
Choosing between retrofit armouring and a full door set is settled by the state of the frame, not by the catalogue. Steel sheet and angle sections fitted to a sound frame genuinely strengthen it; the same parts on a tired one simply pass the load to the fixings. The narrow lift in some blocks weighs on the decision too.
Finally, reinforcement protects an opening, not a home. On the ground floor of an Aubarède block, with a sliding door onto a walled garden, strengthening only the flat door moves the problem rather than solving it. Consistency across every way in is worth more than a high figure on one of them, so all the openings are looked at before a choice is made.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door reinforcement page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Le Cannet.