The gate comes before the door
Most homes in the town are set back from the road, behind a swing or sliding gate and a hedge that encloses the plot. When the house key is locked inside, the gate key usually is too, and so is the remote control. Say so as soon as you call: it changes where the van can park, how the equipment is carried in and how your house is identified from the road. While you wait, check whether a pedestrian gate, a gap in the hedge or a boundary with a neighbour lets you reach the garden without forcing anything.
Once on the plot, it is always worth walking round the house before tackling the front door. A utility room door left unlocked, a sliding patio door on the terrace side, a bathroom window left ajar, a garage door that connects to the hallway: in the detached housing of Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, the least invasive way in is almost never the main entrance. This is also the moment to gather whatever shows that you live there, including a neighbour at home during the day if your documents are shut inside.
New developments on the main roads, houses in the old village cores
Along the roads running towards Bordeaux, recent apartment schemes have brought entrance halls with access control and multipoint flat entrance doors. That means two obstacles in a row: getting into the building, then opening your own home. Think about who can release the hall door — a neighbour, the entryphone of a resident who is in, the building's managing agent — and say on the phone which floor you are on, then whether the door simply slammed shut or whether you double-locked it when you left this morning.
In the old centre, in Hastignan or over towards Corbiac, the buildings tell a different story: terraced village houses, solid timber doors sometimes original to the property, frames that have moved over the years, mechanisms surface-mounted on the inside face. The thickness of the door leaf, the presence of glazing and the state of the threshold all shape the method used, and none of that can be guessed over the phone. Describe what you can see: what the door is made of, roughly how old it is, how many locking points it has, whether there is a spyhole or a glazed fanlight.
How does this service work?
Techniques, typical situations, standards and things to watch out for: it is all on our door opening page. This page focuses on what the service involves in Saint-Médard-en-Jalles.