Pinar de Campoverde grew on a pine-covered rise at the foot of the Sierra de Escalona, beside the Río Seco. The first villas went up from the mid-1980s, many of them built by British, German, French and Scandinavian buyers; a newer part to the west was begun in the late 1990s.
A house from that first wave is now around forty years old. Kitchens and windows get replaced over that time; the front door lock is easy to forget.
Signs the lock is worn out
- The key has to be jiggled, or only turns at a certain angle.
- You lift or pull the door to get the key to turn. (That one may be the door, not the lock: see below.)
- The key is worn smooth along its edge, or the cylinder face is pitted.
- You do not know who else has a key. After forty years and perhaps several owners, nobody does.
- The lock is set into the edge of a timber door and its spring feels weak, so the latch does not always catch.
Lock, or door?
On older timber doors, the problem is often that the door has dropped on its hinges or the frame has moved, so the latch no longer meets its keep squarely. That is an adjustment, not a new lock, and it is worth ruling out first. A locksmith checks it before suggesting any parts.
What replacing it involves
If the door has a euro cylinder (the usual narrow key, with a cylinder you can see from the edge of the door), the cylinder is measured and swapped. Every old key stops working at once.
If it has a mortice lock set into the door, it can often be serviced. If it is beyond that, a lock that fits the same pocket in the timber is fitted, so the door does not need cutting again.
If the door itself is tired, you are told so. A stronger lock on a weak door changes little.
Before the house is left for a while
A worn lock is also the kind that a returning owner finds stiff or refusing to turn. If you are going away, get it looked at before you go, not on the day.
Finding the house is half the job at Campoverde: the streets climb and the older footpaths are narrow, so a pin helps. How to describe where a house is. If someone has already tried your door, what the locksmith’s note should say for your insurer.