The faults we find between sea spray and rock
Facing the sea at Carnolès and Le Cabbé, salt settles inside the barrel and on the faceplate. A home shut from November to Easter sometimes reopens on a cylinder that refuses the key although it turned normally on the day of departure. The mechanism is not broken for all that: it is clogged. Cleaning the barrel often settles what looked like a dead lock.
In the village, damp comes from the rock and the vaulted passages. Timber leaves swell, the door rubs on the threshold, and it has to be lifted before it will lock. The lock takes that strain on every turn and eventually distorts a linkage that was never the cause of anything. The timber settles back in summer and the strain returns the following winter.
On Cap-Martin the fault often lies at the gate rather than at the door of the house: a keep pushed out of line by a pillar that has moved, an off-centre roller, a motor forcing a badly adjusted leaf. Say on the phone which of the two is blocking you, because it changes the tools we bring. A property gate and a landing door do not call for the same parts.
Adjust first, replace afterwards
A door that locks badly because it is out of alignment is not fixed by a new lock: the new one takes the same strain within weeks. We reset the keep, work on the hinges, check the clearance inside the frame, and only then judge the state of the mechanism. Adjusting early avoids the stripping-out that follows a jam.
Repair remains sensible while the fault is local and the part still exists: spring, driver, handle spindle, roller, keep to reposition. Replacement is the answer when the case is distorted, when the model is out of production, or when the lock has been attacked during a break-in attempt. On a cased multipoint, the linkage is never dismantled blind.
Before closing a Cap-Martin house or a Carnolès flat for several months, a check avoids a bad surprise on your return: dry lubricant in the barrel, faceplate and keep screws retightened, a test of the key left with a neighbour. And never force a key that resists, because it snaps off cleanly inside the barrel.
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 Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.