Most locks are replaced in an emergency, at the worst possible hour, for the highest possible price. Almost all of those replacements could have been planned weeks earlier.
Six moments when the answer is yes
You have moved in. You have no idea how many keys exist for your new front door. Neither does the person who sold it to you, and neither does the agency that showed you round.
A key is missing and you cannot account for it. The question is not whether someone found it, but whether anything with it showed your address: a parking remote, a community fob, an envelope.
Someone’s access has ended. A tenant, a cleaner who has moved on, a builder who had a key for six weeks in 2019. Nothing sinister, just a list that has grown longer than you would like.
The lock has developed a technique. Lift the handle, pull the door towards you, jiggle twice. A lock that only works if you know the trick is a lock close to failing.
There has been a break-in, or an attempt. Even where nothing was taken, a lock that has been attacked has been weakened.
The cylinder is the cheapest one available. A great many doors here carry whatever barrel the builder bought by the box. Upgrading one costs less than most people expect.
The warning signs before a failure
Locks announce themselves.
- The key needs to be wiggled to find the sweet spot.
- You have to pull or lift the door to turn the key.
- The key goes in stiffly, or comes out slowly.
- The handle has become loose, or droops.
- Locking requires two hands.
Any of these, and you are on borrowed time. All of them at once, and you are the person who calls at eleven at night.
What the coast does to a lock
Salt is the local factor. Properties near the water in La Olla, Cap Negret and along the front go through cylinders faster than houses further inland, because salt-laden air works into the pins and springs and corrodes them from the inside.
A cylinder in that position benefits from being cleaned and properly lubricated once a year. Use a lock-specific lubricant: household oil and general-purpose sprays attract dust and make the problem worse within months.
Second homes have the opposite problem. A property closed for the winter and opened at Easter has had six months of still, damp air in the mechanism and no use at all. Locks do not like being ignored either.
Repair or replace
Not everything needs replacing. Handles, strike plates and alignment are adjustments. A cylinder that is stiff but intact often only needs cleaning. What genuinely needs replacing is a cylinder with internal wear, a sheared cam, or a barrel that projects beyond the handle plate where it can be gripped.
That last one is worth checking today. If your cylinder sticks out more than a couple of millimetres past the plate, read about snapping before you decide it does not matter.
Doing it on your terms
A planned lock change happens in daylight, at a normal rate, with the cylinder you chose after a conversation. An emergency replacement happens at midnight with whatever is in the van.
The difference in cost is significant. The difference in stress is larger. If a lock has started warning you, have it looked at while it is still only a warning, and consider the security side at the same time if the door is an exposed one.