Planned work
New cylinders and repaired locks, booked ahead
A new cylinder is one of the cheapest ways to control who can open your door. This is the side of the job that is booked ahead: measured first, fitted when it suits you, tested with every key before we leave.
- Measured from your photos
- Booked for your time
- Tested with every key
When
Five good reasons to change the cylinder
- You have just moved in. Builders, agents and previous owners may all have had a key. With new towers in Poniente, and more planned in the Ensanche Levante, it is a sensible first job in a new flat.
- Your keys went with a bag. In the first half of 2025, 811 thefts were recorded in Benidorm, and a stolen key ring often travels with something showing the address.
- The flat has had many hands on its keys. Tenants, cleaners, a winter let. If you have lost count, it is time. Managers of holiday lets have their own page for the between-guests version of this.
- The key has started to stick, or it only turns with a knack.
- You want a stronger cylinder than the one the door was built with.
What goes in
Cylinders and locks, without the catalogue
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European profile cylinder
The standard in Spanish flats. It is changed from the edge of the door with one screw, and it is measured side by side, because the inside and outside lengths are often different.
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Anti-snap and anti-bump
A cylinder that breaks where it is meant to if forced, and resists the bumping and drilling tricks that open cheap ones in seconds. The sensible default for a front door.
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Multipoint front-door locks
The lock that throws bolts at several points of the frame at once. When the handle lifts but the key will not turn, it is often this mechanism rather than the cylinder.
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Repair instead of replace
A misaligned strike plate, a loose fixing or a dropped door makes a good lock feel broken. Those are adjusted, not sold to you again.
Sliding and hinged balcony doors use different mechanisms again, covered on the balcony door page. If the door has already been forced, or you want to step up the whole door rather than the cylinder, start with the page on repairs after a break-in.
The visit
How a lock change is booked
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Photos of the lock
From the edge of the open door and from each side. They tell us the size and the type.
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A price for the part and the fitting
Before the visit is booked, so nothing is decided on the doorstep.
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Fitted at the time you chose
Between guests, before the shop opens, or on the day the new keys are handed over.
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Every key tried, from both sides
The door is locked and unlocked with each new key before we go.
By the sea
What sea air and sand do to a cylinder
Benidorm sits on two bays, with towers facing straight onto the water. Fine sand and salty air work their way into the pins of a cylinder, and a lock that stays shut for weeks in a flat used only part of the year is the one that sticks when you come back.
A stiff key is a warning, not a quirk. Caught early, a clean and a dry lubricant sometimes solve it; left until the key snaps, it becomes a call-out. Book the planned visit through the contact page.
Asked on the phone
About changing a lock
Do I need a whole new lock, or only the cylinder?
Most of the time only the cylinder: it is the part your key goes into, and the part that decides who can open the door. The lock body inside the door is changed only when it is broken or when a different kind of lock is wanted.
How do I know which cylinder my door takes?
Take a photograph of the lock from the edge of the door with the door open, and one from each side. Euro cylinders are measured from the fixing screw to each face, and the two sides are often different lengths. The photos let us bring the right size.
What does anti-snap mean?
A cylinder designed so that, if someone tries to break it by force, it breaks at a sacrificial line outside the lock and the part that works the bolts stays in place. Anti-bump and anti-drill protections are usually part of the same cylinder.
My key has become stiff. Should I oil it?
Not with cooking oil or a thick grease, which traps dust and sand and makes it worse. A dry lubricant made for locks can help. If the key still catches, the cylinder or the key is worn and it is time to look at it.
Can you do it at a time that suits a rental or a busy business?
Yes, that is the point of planned work. Tell us the window you have, between guests or before opening time, and the visit is booked into it.
Send us three photos of the lock
One from the edge of the open door, one from each side. You will get the size, the options and a price back.