Most homeowners do not notice the springs on their garage door until they fail. The springs on your garage door are the primary lifting mechanism - so they are essential to proper operation.

Garage doors typically have two tightly-coiled springs on each side of a horizontal shaft that is mounted above the door. The ends of those springs are attached to the cables that run down the sides of the garage door on the inside of your garage. Your opener raises and lowers the door, but the springs provide the necessary torque to lift it. When one or both of those springs fail, your 1/4 or 1/2 horsepower door opener will be no match for the several hundred pound door.

GARAGE DOOR SPRING REPAIR

Most garage door springs are rated to raise and lower a garage door at least 10,000 times. This translates into a 10- to 15-year useful life for the garage door springs. If your garage door is in good shape, a skilled technician will probably be able to replace the springs for a couple hundred dollars. A few words of caution are applicable with respect to this repair.

First, do not attempt to replace the springs yourself, particularly if you do not have the correct tools or experience for the job. When coiled, garage door springs store a tremendous amount of energy. If you try to do the repair yourself and you accidentally release the coiled energy during the repair process, you can suffer serious or even fatal injuries. Skilled technicians have the correct tools and experience to replace broken springs. The money you might save while doing the job yourself is never worth the risk of injury.

Next, even if only one spring breaks, make sure the technician replaces both the broken and the remaining good spring. Your garage door springs were installed in tandem when the door itself was originally installed. If one of those springs fails, the remaining spring is likely close to failure as well.

Finally, do not attempt to lift the garage door when one of the springs is broken. If you try to manually raise the door when one of the springs is broken, again, you are risking serious injury.

IT MIGHT BE TIME TO CONSIDER A GARAGE DOOR REPLACEMENT

A broken garage door spring is a good opportunity to determine if a whole new garage door is needed. As noted, springs have a useful life of about 10 to 15 years. When a spring breaks, take a good look at the entire door and its components.

  • Are any of the hinges between door panels corroded or otherwise degraded?
  • Are the roller tracks on the sides of the garage door still in good shape?
  • Is the electric door opener still functioning properly?
  • Are there any home security upgrades or energy improvements that you can implement with a new garage door or door opener?

Rather than just adding a new component onto an old door, you can take your garage door spring failure as a sign it's time for a garage door replacement.

If one of your garage door springs has failed, or if you want more information about options for garage door replacements, we are here to help. We service and install all types of garage doors and can provide information on new materials and technologies that are available for your use and convenience.