Garage door spring replacement
A broken spring is the most common reason a garage door stops working, and it's the one job on a door that isn't safe to attempt yourself. One spring runs $225 to $340 installed. A pair runs $365 to $520. We carry standard and high-cycle springs on the truck, so a spring job doesn't wait on a parts order.
How to tell it's the spring
The spring, not the opener, carries the weight of the door. The motor only guides it. So when a spring fails, the opener is suddenly trying to lift 150 to 300 pounds it was never sized for, and the door either doesn't move or lifts a few inches and stops.
There's usually a bang beforehand. People describe it as a gunshot or a car hitting the house, and it often happens overnight with nobody in the garage. Look at the shaft above the door: a broken torsion spring has a visible gap in the coil, like a length has been cut out of it.
The other tell is weight. Pull the red release cord and try to lift the door by hand a few inches. With a good spring it's light. With a broken one it's immovable.
Why this one isn't a DIY job
A torsion spring holds enough stored energy to break bones, and it releases all of it at once if a winding bar slips. That's the whole reason this is the job homeowners are told to leave alone, and we agree with the advice.
The other thing to avoid is running the opener anyway. Forcing the motor against a dead spring strips the drive gear, and a spring job turns into a spring and opener job.
Standard or high-cycle
A standard spring is rated at about 10,000 cycles, and one open plus one close is one cycle. A household opening the door four times a day uses roughly 1,460 cycles a year, so about seven years of life.
That average doesn't fit everywhere we work. In Union City 79.4% of owner households keep two or more vehicles and 39.7% keep three or more, and in Hayward 40.8% keep three or more. At six to eight cycles a day a standard spring is a four or five year spring. A high-cycle spring is rated for two to three times the life and costs more up front, and in those households it's usually the better spend. We quote both.
Replace one or both
If the door has two springs, replace both. They were installed on the same day, they've done the same number of cycles, and the second one typically fails within months of the first. Doing them together costs less than two separate visits.
How the visit goes
- We check the door's weight and measure the existing spring: wire size, inside diameter and length. The wrong spring balances the door badly even if it fits.
- We clamp the door and unload the old spring safely with winding bars.
- New spring goes on, cables get reseated on the drums, and the door is wound to the correct tension for its actual weight.
- We test the balance by hand at the halfway point, then reconnect the opener and run a full cycle.
- We check the safety reversal and the photo eyes before we leave.
Where we do this work
Newark, Fremont, Union City, Hayward. In Hayward that means 94545 and 94544 in the south of the city, not the whole of it.
Questions we get asked
How long does a spring replacement take?
Usually about an hour for a single spring and a little longer for a pair, assuming nothing else has been damaged by running the opener against the broken spring.
Can I use the door until you get here?
Leave it alone. If the door is down, leave it down. Running the opener against a broken spring is what strips the drive gear and turns one repair into two.
What warranty comes with the spring?
Every spring we install carries a written warranty, and the terms are on the invoice rather than only in a conversation.
Get a price for spring replacement
Call (510) 509-9998 and describe the door. We'll tell you what it usually is, what it usually costs, and when we can get to you.
Newark · Fremont · Union City · Hayward