--- title: "A Low House in the 1829 Grid: Street Door, Patio, Back Gate" description: "Guardamar was rebuilt after 1829 as straight streets of low houses with deep patios. Three doors to think about in one of them, and which one usually lets you down." url: "https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/a-low-house-in-the-1829-grid/" business: "Locksmith Guardamar del Segura" --- # A low house in the 1829 grid: street door, patio and back gate Guardamar was rebuilt after 1829 as straight streets of low houses with deep patios. Three doors to think about in one of them, and which one usually lets you down. 6 November 2026 · 4 min read In March 1829 an earthquake shook the Vega Baja. In Guardamar it brought down the old village and much of the castle above it. What replaced it was not rebuilt where it stood but planned: the engineer José Agustín de Larramendi drew a new town of straight streets crossing at right angles, running north to south, with low houses and deep patios. He wrote that Guardamar would be “the prettiest town in the kingdom”. The ruined castle was used as a quarry for the new houses. Many of the houses in the centre of Guardamar still follow that pattern, rebuilt and extended over two centuries. If you own or rent one, you have more doors to think about than a flat has. ## The door onto the pavement It opens straight onto the pavement. On older houses it is often a solid timber door with an old mortice lock that takes a long key, and a newer cylinder added later above or below it. Two locks, two keys, and often only one of them is actually used. **What fails:** the old mortice lock, when someone turns it after years of leaving it alone. Or the cylinder, if it faces the street and collects grit. **Worth doing:** decide which lock you use. If it is the cylinder, make sure it is a good one; the old mortice lock can stay as it is, unused. ## The doors onto the patio Between the house and the patio there is usually a glazed door or a pair of them, often with a simple lock or a bolt on the inside. They matter less for keeping people out, as long as the patio itself is closed, but they are the doors that warp and stick after a wet winter. ## The back gate Where the patio has a gate or door to the back, it is the one most often forgotten. It may have a lock nobody has turned in years, and a key nobody can find. It is also the door a burglar finds quietest. **Worth doing:** find out whether it locks, with what, and who has the key. If nobody knows, change the cylinder or fit a lock you control. [Who else can open your door](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/who-else-can-open-your-door/) helps you count keys; [the lock change page](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/lock-change-guardamar/) explains a booked change. ## When it is the old lock that has jammed Do not force a long key in an old mortice lock: they bend and snap. Ring, say it is an old timber door with a mortice lock, and send a photo. Grit is as much a problem in the centre as on the beach front: [sand in the cylinder](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/sand-in-a-door-cylinder/) explains what to do about it. **Locked out of a town house?** Street doors, patio doors and gates are opened through the latch or the cylinder first, and left working. [Door opening Guardamar, with the door left whole wherever it can be](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/door-opening-guardamar/) Read these two next - [Sand in the cylinder: what helps, and what turns it to paste](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/sand-in-a-door-cylinder/) · 4 min read - [Who else can open your door? Counting the keys you have lost track of](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/who-else-can-open-your-door/) · 4 min read - [All the Guardamar guides](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/) ## Quicker to say it than to read it? Ring whatever the hour, or WhatsApp a photo of the lock and a pin of where you are. Open 24 hours · 7 days [+34 678 583 290](tel:+34678583290) [WhatsApp](https://wa.me/34678583290?text=Hi%2C%20I%20need%20a%20locksmith%20in%20Guardamar.%20Where%20I%20am%20(street%2C%20and%20the%20area%3A%20the%20town%2C%20the%20beach%2C%20El%20Raso%2C%20Moncayo%2C%20Los%20Esta%C3%B1os%E2%80%A6)%20and%20what%20has%20happened%3A)