Start with the door nobody thinks about: the one to the garage
The typical Mérignac house has an attached garage, reached from the street through an up-and-over or sectional door, and connected to the living room or the kitchen by an internal door. That connecting door has very often been fitted as an ordinary internal door: hollow-core panel, latch handle, surface-mounted hinges. Once the garage has been got into, it holds nobody up and the work is done out of sight. Dealing with it, with a solid leaf, a deadbolt and a strike plate fixed into masonry, counts for more than reinforcing the front door.
The surround dictates the rest. On the 1970s and 1980s estates, door frames are set into blockwork with sometimes thin reveals, and the anchoring of a certified security door set has to be studied before ordering, not at the time of fitting. Another local particularity: a house's front door opens straight to the outside. If it was replaced under the sound-insulation scheme for residents near the airport, it was chosen for its acoustic performance as much as for its locking, and the project has to take that benefit into account.
In a flat, the front door is only part of the problem
In the residences of the town centre and Arlac, three checks come before any decision. The co-ownership rules first: the flat door is private property, but its appearance on the communal side may be regulated, and the building managing agent (syndic) remains the right person to ask. Then the dimensions, because door leaves fitted in older developments do not always match standard market sizes. And finally access: in a building without a lift, the width of the staircase and the turn on the landing decide what can physically be carried up to your flat.
That leaves overall consistency, which counts particularly here. A ground-floor flat opening onto a private garden, a cellar whose door is held together by plywood, a lock-up garage whose lock dates from construction: reinforcing the flat door alone leaves those access points untouched. The same reasoning applies to lower floors served by a walkway or by a balcony reachable from a garage roof. The assessment is made on site, the solution chosen is explained to you, and it is priced in a detailed quote before anything starts.
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 Mérignac.