Quads, bungalows, townhouses, villas
Door opening in Orihuela Costa: cylinder first, drill last
Most front doors on this coast open through the cylinder, with the lock left working afterwards. Drilling is the last resort, not the first, and you are told before it happens.
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- Proof of address first
- Lock kept wherever possible
- Price agreed before work starts
Kinds of door
How the homes here are built changes how they are opened
Most of Orihuela Costa was built as urbanisations: quads and bungalows around a communal pool, terraced and semi-detached houses, apartment complexes behind a gate, and detached houses among the pines of the Dehesa de Campoamor. Each has its own sequence of locks.
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Quads and bungalows
Upstairs units often have an outside staircase with its own gate, then a front door with a euro cylinder. Both are usually opened without damage.
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Apartment complexes
A community gate, sometimes a block door, then the flat door. Many flat doors are reinforced "blindada" doors with a security cylinder, which take longer, not force.
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Townhouses with a glazed porch
The porch enclosure is often the first lock you meet. Its aluminium door is a job for porch and terrace door locks.
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Detached houses and villas
A garden gate, then a front door that may carry two locks. Say which ones were locked when you left, because that decides the route in.
Method
Cylinder first, drill last
A euro cylinder is picked or bypassed with tools that leave it working. A latch that was only pulled shut is often slipped without touching the cylinder at all. When neither works, a second lock on the same door may be the easier way in.
Drilling destroys the cylinder, so it is the last thing tried, and only after you have agreed to it. A replacement goes in on the same visit, so the door locks before anyone leaves. For a change of locks as planned work, see replacing a cylinder.
On doors close to the sea, years of salt air and fine dust can leave a cylinder stiff long before it fails. If the key was already hard to turn, say so: it changes the method.
Before the door is touched
Why you are asked to prove it is your home
Only 31,863 of the 88,528 homes counted in the municipality of Orihuela are somebody's main home. Many of the rest stand empty for months, and a locksmith who opens doors for anyone who asks would be a gift to the wrong people. So before any door is opened, you show that you have the right to be inside.
- An ID or residence document with the address, or a utility bill in your name.
- A rental contract, or a booking confirmation for a holiday let.
- The owner, the agency or the property manager confirming it by phone.
- A neighbour or the community president who knows you, while the papers are inside.
Holiday-let guests who cannot get in are a regular case; owners and managers will find locks between bookings useful.
The visit
A door opening, in the order it happens
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Photos and the address
A picture of the keyhole and your WhatsApp pin decide which tools come in the van.
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Proof and a price
Your right to enter is checked, and the price agreed before any work starts.
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The door is opened
Through the lock where possible, by another route where not, by drilling only with your agreement.
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The lock is checked
If it is worn, damaged or drilled, it is replaced; if it is fine, it stays.
If you are shut out right now, the emergency line is the faster route. The urbanisations covered are on the coverage page, and photos can be sent from the contact page.
Questions
About opening a door without the key
Will the door or the frame be marked?
Not when it opens through the cylinder, which is how most front doors here are opened. If a lock has to be drilled, the cylinder is lost but the door and the frame are not, and a new cylinder goes in before leaving.
My front door has a security cylinder. Does that mean drilling?
Not necessarily. Some high-security cylinders resist picking for a long time, and then a different route is tried, through the latch or a second lock. Drilling is discussed with you before it happens, never assumed.
I rent the flat. Can I ask for the door to be opened?
Yes, with your rental contract or anything else that ties you to the address, or the owner or agency confirming it by phone. Tell your landlord afterwards if a cylinder had to be replaced.
The community gate is the problem, not my door.
Pedestrian gates on complexes usually carry a simpler lock than a front door and are opened the same way. If the gate belongs to the community, the president or administrator should know, because the repair is theirs.
Can a garden gate in Campoamor be opened without cutting the lock?
Usually, if the lock is not seized. Gate locks out in the weather often are, and then the lock is replaced rather than coaxed. You decide which, once it has been looked at.
Along the same coast
What people usually need next
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A call-out tonight
Shut out of a bungalow at midnight, a key snapped in the gate, keys gone with a bag on the Saturday market: the phone is picked up at any hour.
Emergency call-outs -
Repairing the lock you have
Fresh euro cylinders, snap-resistant upgrades, worn multipoint gearboxes and seized garden gate locks, on a date you choose.
Lock change & repair -
Aluminium door repairs
Sliding terrace doors that will not latch, glazed porch enclosures, solarium doors and uPVC doors that have dropped out of line.
Aluminium & uPVC doors
A door that will not let you in?
Phone us, or put a picture of the keyhole and your pin on WhatsApp.
Open 24 hours · 7 days