Old town and village houses
Wooden door lock repair in Alcoi, for doors worth keeping
Heavy wooden street doors with a mortice or box lock, a long key and a bolt that has been sliding for decades. When they stick, refuse to lock or lose their only key, the answer is rarely a new door. It is usually the lock, the keep or the wood around them.
Open 24 hours · 7 days
- Repair first, replace if needed
- Modern cylinders fitted to old doors
- The look of the door kept
What is on the door
Mortice locks, box locks and the long key
Old street doors in Alcoi and the villages around it usually carry one or more of these:
- A mortice lever lock, set into the thickness of the door, with a long key and a keyhole you can see through.
- A box lock screwed to the inside face of the door, often with a separate latch and a knob.
- Sliding bolts top and bottom, the real strength of many old doors when shut from inside.
- A later cylinder lock, added in the 1970s or 80s, often to a door that was never meant to take one.
Each of these can be freed, cleaned, adjusted or replaced with one that fits the same space. Where the lock is past saving, a new lock goes into the same pocket in the wood, so the door does not have to be cut again.
Where these doors are
The old town, l’Eixample, and every village in El Comtat
The Centre and the Barri de la Sang are the oldest part of Alcoi: streets laid out before cars, with old, modernista and newer buildings side by side. The town hall gives grants to restore façades and party walls there, and a street door is part of every façade. If yours is being restored, it is a good moment to have the lock seen to as well.
Across the bridges, l’Eixample has the villas that Alcoi’s industrialists built in the early twentieth century and the Cases Roges, the worker houses of 1929–31 with their decorated façades. The same kind of door turns up in the old village houses of Cocentaina, Muro, Penàguila, Benilloba and the smaller villages of El Comtat. Every town covered is listed here.
Damp, heat and wood
Why an old door locks in summer and fights you in winter
Wood takes on moisture and lets it go. Alcoi has hot summers and cold winters, and the old town has had a reputation for damp for a long time: once the Pont de Sant Jordi opened in 1931, thousands of people left its narrow streets for l’Eixample. A door that swells in January presses the bolt against the keep and the latch against the frame, and the lock seems broken when it is the door that has moved.
Moving the keep, easing the latch and freeing the bolt are usually enough. The full explanation, and what you can safely check yourself, is in the guide on damp in the old town and the sticking street door. If you have just taken on a village house, start with the first-week lock check.
Keeping it, making it safe
Character on the outside, a modern lock on the inside
Many owners want to keep the old lock and the look of the door, and still sleep with a lock that resists picking. The usual answer is to keep the old mechanism working and add a modern cylinder lock, set into the wood with the minimum of cutting. Choosing that cylinder is covered on the cylinder and lock change page; if the door has already been forced, start with the break-in repair page.
Locked out behind an old door tonight? That is a door opening, and old lever locks can usually be opened without damage. To send photos of the lock from both sides first, use WhatsApp or email.
Before you ring
Old keys, old wood and new cylinders
Can a modern cylinder be fitted to an old wooden door without spoiling it?
Yes. A cylinder lock can be set into the wood beside or in place of the old mechanism, keeping the outside of the door as it was. The old lock can stay as a second lock or be kept as it is.
The only key to the old lock is lost. What now?
The lock is opened, and then either a new lock that fits the same pocket in the wood is fitted, with its own keys, or a cylinder lock is added. Locksmith Alcoi does not make copies of old keys.
The door drags on the floor in winter. Is that a locksmith’s job?
Partly. Planing the door itself is a carpenter’s work. Moving the keep so the bolt catches again, freeing the lock and easing the latch are ours, and often enough on their own.
Is an old lever lock safe enough to keep as the only lock?
Often not, on its own. Many old locks have few levers and large keyways. Keeping it for character and adding a modern lock is the usual answer.
Often needed next
Other work on the same house
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A new cylinder
New euro cylinders, anti-snap and anti-bump upgrades, worn multipoint locks on modern doors, and PVC or aluminium doors that no longer lock. Booked for a day and time that suit you.
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A high-security lock
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.
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Door opening
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
An old door that will not behave?
Send photos of the lock from the outside and the inside, and of the edge of the door, on WhatsApp.
Open 24 hours · 7 days