Garage Door Spring Replacement

How to tell your spring has broken

• You heard a loud bang. People often think something fell over or a gunshot went off. That is the spring letting go.
• The door will not open, or opens a few inches and stops. The opener cannot lift the full weight.
• The door is incredibly heavy by hand. Without the spring you are lifting the whole thing yourself.
• You can see a gap in the spring. Look at the coiled spring above the door — a broken one has an obvious separation.
• The opener strains, hums, then gives up.
• The door slams down instead of lowering smoothly.

What a garage door spring actually does

This surprises most people: the opener does not lift your garage door. The springs do.

The springs are wound to counterbalance the exact weight of the door, so a 200-pound door feels like it weighs almost nothing. The opener just guides it up and down. That is why a small motor can move something so heavy — and why, the moment a spring breaks, the opener has no chance.

The two types of spring

Torsion springs

Mounted on a bar above the door opening. The modern and safer design, and what most doors use now. They last longer and control the door better.

Extension springs

Long springs running along the tracks on each side. Common on older single-car garages, especially in Scarborough and older parts of Toronto and Oshawa.

Safety point: extension springs must have a safety cable running through the middle. Without one, a broken spring can fly across the garage. If yours do not have safety cables, we fit them as part of the job.

Why we always replace springs in pairs

If your door has two springs and one broke, we replace both. Every time.

They were fitted on the same day and have done the same number of cycles. The second one is just as worn — it simply has not failed yet. Replacing only the broken one means you will be calling us again in a few months and paying a second call-out. Replacing both also keeps the door balanced, which matters more than most people realise.

How long springs last

Springs are rated in cycles, not years. One cycle is one open and one close.

• Standard springs: around 10,000 cycles.
• Normal family, 4 openings a day: roughly 7 years.
• Busy household, 8–10 openings a day: under 3 years.
• High-cycle springs: 20,000 to 30,000 cycles — two to three times the life.

If your garage is the main way everyone enters the house, high-cycle springs are worth the small extra cost. We will talk you through it.

Why this is not a DIY job

A torsion spring holds hundreds of pounds of stored energy. Releasing it without the right winding bars and technique is how people lose fingers, break bones and end up in hospital. The tools cost less than the injury. Please just call us.

What we do on the visit

• Measure the door and work out the correct spring size and rating.
• Safely release the old springs.
• Fit new springs — both of them.
• Check the cables and drums, since a spring failure often damages them.
• Rebalance the door and test it by hand.
• Reset the opener’s force and travel settings.