The cylinder alone is enough more often than people think
The cylinder holds the secret and comes out with a single screw on the faceplate. Keys lost on the beach below the château, a set left with a weekly tenant, copies handed to a cleaning firm between two stays: in all of those the cylinder is replaced and the rest of the mechanism stays exactly where it is.
A complete lock is another matter: the case, the bolts, the linkage of a multipoint, the faceplate visible on the edge of the leaf. That comes into play when a locking point no longer engages, when the faceplate has been torn away, or when a mechanism that has faced the sea wind for years no longer responds cleanly.
On the exposed frontages of the marinas and the seafront, the choice of cylinder matters: a model protected against snapping, with an escutcheon or a guard, and internals that cope with salt air. A cylinder left protruding from the leaf offers a grip, and that is a common flaw on replacements rushed through just before the season.
What the building rules and the leaf itself impose
In the gated marina residences the flat door is private property, but its appearance on the landing is often governed by the building rules. Check what is required on the landing side before ordering, and tell the managing agent if the same key also opens the hall, the bin store or the quayside gate.
Plenty of people here carry one ring for the front door, the gate on a shared Capitou lane, the letterbox and the bike store. A master-key plan has to be drawn up first: you list what must still open with the same key before anything is taken apart, otherwise the new key closes the flat and nothing else. On the marinas, the key to the gate or the storage room often comes from a single supplier chosen by the residence.
In old La Napoule, solid timber doors still take rim locks in sizes that are no longer made. Moving to a current model means work on the leaf, sometimes on a frame bedded in stone. Centre distance, backset and thickness get measured before any model is named.
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 Mandelieu-la-Napoule.