The colours are what everybody photographs in La Vila Joiosa. Inside the historic centre, façades are painted with the colour chart the town hall approved for the Plan Especial del Casco Antiguo, with white also allowed, so houses are repainted regularly in the same strong pinks, ochres, blues and reds. Blocks of flats outside the walls get their façades and stairwells repainted too.
A fresh coat on the wall is lovely. A fresh coat on the door, its frame and its lock is often the reason a door that worked for years suddenly does not.
Where the paint goes
- Between the door and the frame. Two coats on each edge can take up the gap the door needs to close. The door now has to be pushed or slammed.
- Over the keep, the metal plate in the frame that the latch and the bolt drop into. Paint narrows the opening and the latch no longer clicks in.
- Over the latch itself, so it sticks half in, half out.
- Into the keyhole, when a brush or a spray goes over the escutcheon. Dried paint in the keyway makes the key stiff or stops it going in fully.
- Over the hinges, which then squeak, drag and let the door drop.
Cleaning off the paint without making it worse
- Open the door and look at the frame edge and the keep. Fresh paint on the keep can usually be scraped out carefully with a plastic scraper or an old card.
- Clean the latch with a cloth, without lubricating it with oil: a dry lubricant for locks is better.
- Do not oil the keyhole to loosen dried paint. If paint went into the cylinder, use a dry lock lubricant and work the key gently. If it still drags after a few days, the cylinder needs cleaning or replacing.
- Leave the door open for a day if the paint is still soft, so it does not glue itself to the frame.
When it is not the paint
If the door was already dragging before the painters came, or if it is an old wooden street door that swells in winter, the paint may only be the last straw. Old doors inside the walls are often fighting a frame that has moved, a hinge that has sagged, or a mortice lock that has worn. That is described on the old town locksmith page.
When to call a locksmith
- The key no longer turns fully, or turns only with force.
- The latch or bolt no longer meets the keep, even after scraping.
- Paint went deep into the cylinder and cleaning has not helped.
A cylinder is replaced or a keep moved in a short visit, booked when it suits you. Do not wait until the day it locks you out: that day is an emergency instead of an appointment.
If you live inside the old town, the locksmith comes up on foot from outside the restricted streets, as explained in locked out inside the old town’s camera zone. For the booked visit itself, see lock change in Villajoyosa.