Flats · armoured doors · townhouses · fincas · room doors
Door opening San Juan de Alicante, matched to the door in front of you
A door is opened by working out what kind of door it is, not by reaching for the drill. Sant Joan has every kind side by side: flats round the centre, townhouses from the 1990s and 2000s, timber doors in huerta houses centuries old, and room doors in the shared flats near the campus.
Open 24 hours · 7 days
- Latch, then cylinder, then drill
- Your yes before any damage
- Proof of residence asked
Most doors here open without damage. A door pulled shut on its latch opens through the latch. A double-locked door opens through its cylinder. A drill is the last resort, and it is only used after you have agreed to it.
Door by door
Five kinds of door you find in Sant Joan, and how each one opens
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Flats round the centre
Standard timber or reinforced flat doors with a euro cylinder. Usually opened through the latch if they were pulled shut, or the cylinder if they were locked.
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Armoured doors
A steel core, a multipoint lock and often an anti-drill plate. Opened through the cylinder; slower, never forced through the frame.
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Townhouse doors
The front door of an adosado plus, often, a locked street gate in front of it. The gate comes first, then the door.
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Old timber doors of the huerta
Thick doors on fincas and houses built between the 16th and 19th centuries, many with lever locks and big keys. Opened through the keyhole, lock left intact.
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Room doors in shared flats
Inner doors with a simple key lock, the kind found in rooms let to people who work or study near the hospital. Quick, and almost never damaged.
Method
Gentlest first: the order every opening follows
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Check who is asking
ID and something tying you to the address: a contract, a bill, the padrón certificate, or the owner on the phone.
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Try the latch
If the door was only pulled shut, the latch is slipped from outside. The lock is untouched and works as before.
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Work the cylinder
If it was locked, the cylinder is opened with picks or a bypass tool suited to it. Some cylinders survive; some have to be replaced afterwards.
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Drill only with your yes
If nothing else works, the cylinder is drilled at one precise point, and a new one is fitted so the door locks again before we leave.
Here in particular
Why the age of the house changes the job
Seven tenths of Sant Joan’s built floor area went up between 1980 and 2009, according to the Catastro, and 31.5 % of it in the 2000s alone. Doors of that age usually have euro cylinders that open well through the cylinder, but many have never been changed since the house was new. If yours has been a struggle for a while, changing the lock at a time you choose beats waiting for the day it jams.
The town is also much older than its housing. The huerta towers go back to the 15th to 17th centuries, and fincas of the 18th and 19th centuries survive among newer streets. Their doors deserve care: the heavy timber door of a huerta finca explains why.
And the municipality has a university hospital and the UMH health campus inside it. If you rent a room in a shared flat while you work or study there, your bedroom door may well have a lock of its own: locked out of your own room covers what to try first.
Not a door?
When it is the gate, the safe or a car
A locked street gate, a garage door or a patio slider round the back is the townhouse page. A safe that will not open is its own job. If it is the middle of the night and you are outside right now, go straight to the call-out page. Every part of the municipality is covered: see the areas.
Questions
Doors, cylinders and old keys: the usual questions
Will opening my door mean buying a new lock?
Not when the door was only pulled shut: the latch is slipped and the lock is left as it was. If it was double-locked, the cylinder is worked or, failing that, replaced, and you are told which before anything starts.
Can an armoured door be opened without wrecking it?
Usually, yes. Armoured doors are opened through their cylinder. What makes them slow is a good anti-drill plate, and in that case you are told how long it will take and what it involves before work starts.
My finca door has a big old key and no cylinder at all. Can that be opened?
Yes. An old lever lock is opened through its keyhole with the right tools, and the lock is left working. Old locks are worth keeping where possible, since a matching replacement can be hard to find.
I am locked out of my bedroom in a shared flat, not the front door. Do you do that?
Yes. Room doors with a key lock are among the quickest to open, almost always without damage. Have the rental contract for the room to hand.
Also useful
What often follows an opening
Guides that lead here
A photo from a step back says most of it
Front and lock, from a step back. It tells us most of what we need before the drive.
Open 24 hours · 7 days