Planned work
Lock change in Alcoi, booked for a day that suits you
A new home and no idea who else has a key. A tenant who has moved out. A cylinder so worn the key needs coaxing. A PVC door you have to shoulder shut. None of these needs a night call-out: they are booked for a day and time that suit you.
Open 24 hours · 7 days
- Measured to fit flush
- Anti-snap and anti-bump options
- Every new key tested in the door
When to change it
Good reasons to replace a cylinder that still turns
- You have just moved in. Previous owners, tenants, cleaners and neighbours may all still hold keys.
- A set of keys has gone missing, especially with something that carries your address.
- Someone has left: a tenant, a flatmate, an ex-partner, a member of staff.
- The key is getting hard to turn, or has to be jiggled. Worn cylinders fail at the worst moment.
- The cylinder sticks out of the door more than a few millimetres, which is what someone trying to snap it looks for.
What goes in
Euro cylinders, anti-snap and anti-bump, explained briefly
Most modern front doors in Spain take a euro-profile cylinder. They range from basic ones, which can be picked or snapped quite easily, to cylinders with a sacrificial break line, anti-bump pins and anti-drill inserts. You are shown two or three that fit your door and told plainly what each one resists, so you can choose.
If the door has already been forced, or you want the strongest protection a door can take, that is a different conversation, held on the page about break-ins and stronger locks. Old wooden street doors with mortice or box locks are on their own page.
PVC, aluminium, multipoint
Doors that lock at several points, and why they drift
Multipoint locks throw bolts or hooks at the top, middle and bottom of the door when you lift the handle. They depend on the door and the frame staying in line. Alcoi has properly hot summers and cold winters, with January nights averaging around 4 °C, so doors and frames move with the seasons, PVC and aluminium most of all. A door that locked easily in October can need a shove by February.
Most of the time the fix is adjustment: hinges, keeps, sometimes the gearbox. The same goes for aluminium balcony doors that no longer catch, which the guide written after Cabalgata night deals with.
Rentals and shared flats
The start of every academic year, and other changes of tenant
The UPV campus in Alcoi counted 2,387 students in a recent academic year, 96 of them from abroad, and many share flats that change hands every summer. Landlords who change the cylinder between tenants avoid the question of who still has a key; students sharing a flat sometimes want a lock on their own room. Both are covered in the guide to bedroom locks in shared flats.
In the older blocks of Zona Nord and Santa Rosa, the street door of the building is a common element: this guide explains who decides when it stops latching.
Booking it
How a planned lock change works
-
Send two photos
The cylinder from outside and the edge of the door. That is usually enough to know what is needed.
-
Pick a day
Planned work is booked in normal hours, at a time you can be there.
-
Agree the price
Once the door has been seen and you have chosen the cylinder, before the old one comes out.
-
Fitted and tested
The new cylinder is fitted flush and every new key is tried in the door before you sign anything off.
Locked out right now instead? That is an emergency call-out. Not sure which to ask for? Send a photo and ask.
Before you ring
Cylinders, sizes and doors that need a shove
Do I need to change the whole lock, or only the cylinder?
On most modern front doors, only the cylinder: the part the key goes into. The lock body inside the door stays. The whole lock is replaced only when its body or gearbox is worn or broken.
How do I know what size of cylinder my door takes?
Send a photo of the edge of the door, where the screw holds the cylinder, and one of the cylinder from each side. The exact length is measured on the visit, so the new one sits flush.
Can one cylinder be fitted to the street door and the flat door, so I carry one key?
For the flat door and a back or terrace door, yes, with cylinders that share a key. The street door of a block belongs to the community and cannot be changed by one owner alone.
My PVC door only locks if I push it hard. Does it need a new lock?
Usually not. More often the door has dropped or the keeps on the frame have moved, and adjusting them is enough. If the gearbox inside is worn, that part is replaced.
Often needed next
Related work on the same door
-
Securing a forced door
A forced door made to close and lock on the first visit. Then, when you are ready, a stronger cylinder, a guard plate or a high-security lock.
-
Old door locks
Street doors in the old town, in l’Eixample villas and in the villages of El Comtat, with mortice or box locks that are older than anyone in the house. Repaired and made secure, so the door can stay.
-
How a door is opened
Most front doors are opened through the lock or the latch, with nothing broken. The drill is the last resort, used only when you agree to it.
Guides on the same kind of problem
Time for a new cylinder?
Send a photo of the lock from outside and of the door edge on WhatsApp, and suggest a day.
Open 24 hours · 7 days