--- title: "Reopening a Beach Shop in Spring, and the Shutter Is Stuck" description: "Months of sea air on a shutter padlock and a door cylinder. What to check the week before reopening, what to try on the morning, and what not to force." url: "https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/reopening-a-beach-shop-in-spring/" business: "Locksmith Guardamar del Segura" --- # Reopening a beach shop in spring, and the shutter will not budge Months of sea air on a shutter padlock and a door cylinder. What to check the week before reopening, what to try on the morning, and what not to force. 6 November 2026 · 4 min read Tourism has been Guardamar’s main business since the 1950s, and a good part of it runs to the summer. If yours is a shop, bar or kiosk that pulls its shutter down in autumn, the first morning in spring has a way of starting with a padlock that will not turn. ## What the winter does **Salt.** A padlock on a shutter that faces the beach spends months in salty air. Its shackle and its mechanism rust, slowly but surely. **Sand.** Fine sand blows off the beach and into the keyway of the padlock and the cylinder of the shop door. **Nothing moving.** Locks that are not used do not clear themselves. The grease hardens and the grit stays. ## A week before the shutter goes up Do not wait for opening day. A week before: 1. Go and open everything: shutter padlocks, the shutter lock, the shop door, the back door, the office. 2. If a padlock is stiff, blow out the keyway with compressed air and use a dry lock lubricant, not oil. 3. Turn each key several times and lock and unlock each padlock a few times. 4. If anything is still stiff after that, have it seen to now, on a quiet day, rather than on the busiest morning of the year. ## On the morning, if it will not open - **Do not hammer the padlock.** It rarely works and damages the shutter. - **Do not force the key.** A key snapped in a padlock makes the job longer. - **Do not cut it yourself** with an angle grinder near a shutter you want to keep. - Take a photo of the padlock or the lock and send it on WhatsApp. A seized padlock is often freed rather than cut, and if it has to be cut, a new one goes on before you close that night. ## New staff for the summer, old keys from last year Spring is when the team changes. If staff from last summer still have keys, it is a good moment to change the cylinders: see [the lock change page](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/lock-change-guardamar/). A car locked with the keys inside on the way to work is another story, covered in [keys locked in the car at the edge of the pinada](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/keys-locked-in-the-car-by-the-pinada/), and for the list of everyone who might still have a key, read [who else can open your door](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/who-else-can-open-your-door/). **Opening day and still stuck?** Shutter padlocks freed or replaced and shop cylinders changed, fitted round your opening hours. [Commercial locksmith Guardamar, for premises that open with the season](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/commercial-locksmith-guardamar/) Read these two next - [Keys locked in the car at the edge of the pinada](https://locksmithguardamardelsegura.es/blog/keys-locked-in-the-car-by-the-pinada/) · 3 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)