When the flat door is already a multipoint lock: what is left to reinforce?
The homes delivered over the past fifteen years or so at Tasta, Ausone or Treuils come with a flat door already fitted with a multipoint lock, often shielded. Fitting a full reinforcement over the top is then of limited interest. The gain lies elsewhere: protecting the cylinder with an escutcheon or a cylinder guard, replacing the cylinder with a more resistant model, adding pins that stop the door being lifted off the hinges, checking how the strike plates hold in the frame. An inspection on site says what is really missing.
Then comes permission. The co-ownership rules may require the doors opening onto the landing to be uniform: colour, handle, number, spyhole. Any change of appearance visible from the communal areas has to be submitted to the syndic, and sometimes to the general meeting. As a tenant, the landlord's written agreement is necessary. Finally there is the logistics: in a recent building, a certified security door set has to go up in the lift or the stairwell, and that is measured before anything is ordered.
In the old centre, everything depends on what holds the frame
The old houses of the centre present the opposite case. The door is timber, often original, sometimes outside standard sizes, and the frame has been reworked over the decades. Before talking about steel, we look at what surrounds it: the condition of the timber, how it is anchored into the masonry, how the hinges hold, the thickness of the wall. A reinforcement fixed to a tired frame transfers the whole force of an attempt onto its fixings, and therefore onto a support in no condition to take it.
If the door is visible from the street, its external appearance comes under planning rules: check with the relevant department at the town hall before starting work, as a prior declaration may be required. Think about the consistency of the whole, too. Reinforcing the entrance of a house whose service door and garden patio door remain original moves the weak point without removing it. On a plot in the old centre, the question is dealt with opening by opening.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door reinforcement page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Bruges.