Garage Door Spring Replacement

If you woke up this morning to a garage door that won't open, heard a loud bang from the garage, or noticed your door feels impossibly heavy when you try to lift it by hand, there's a very good chance you're dealing with a broken spring. It's the single most common garage door repair we handle at Integrity Garage Doors & Gates, and we've been doing it across the Bay Area since 2009 — more than 17 years of replacing springs the right way.

Springs are the hardest-working component on your garage door. They bear the full weight of the door every time it opens and closes, and they do it under enormous tension. When they fail, your door becomes a 150- to 300-pound slab of steel that your opener was never designed to lift on its own. Understanding how springs work, why they break, and what goes into replacing them properly will help you make a smart decision when the time comes.

Torsion vs. Extension Springs

There are two types of springs used on residential garage doors, and knowing which one you have matters because the replacement process, pricing, and safety considerations are different for each.

Torsion springs are mounted on a steel shaft directly above the garage door opening, typically inside the garage. When the door closes, the springs wind up and store energy as torque. When the door opens, that stored energy unwinds and does the heavy lifting. Torsion springs provide smooth, controlled motion because the force is applied evenly through the shaft and cable drums on each side of the door. They're quieter, longer-lasting, and far safer than the alternative. If your home was built or your door was installed in the last 15 to 20 years, you almost certainly have torsion springs.

Extension springs are the older design. They run along the horizontal tracks on both sides of the door and stretch (extend) to store energy when the door is closed. As the door opens, the springs contract and pull the door up through a system of pulleys and cables. Extension springs are less expensive to manufacture, but they have significant drawbacks. The stretching motion creates more wear over time, the force is less evenly distributed, and when an extension spring breaks, it can fly across the garage at high speed — which is why safety cables running through the center of each spring are required by code. Despite the safety cables, extension spring failures are inherently more dangerous than torsion spring failures.

Which is better? Torsion springs, without question. They last longer, operate more smoothly, handle heavier doors, and fail more safely. If your home currently has extension springs, we strongly recommend upgrading to a torsion spring system when replacement time comes. The upfront cost is slightly higher, but the improved lifespan and safety more than justify the investment. We perform torsion conversions regularly and carry the necessary hardware on our trucks.

Why Garage Door Springs Break

Every garage door spring has a finite lifespan measured in cycles. One cycle equals one full open-and-close of the door. The standard spring that comes with most residential garage doors is rated for approximately 10,000 cycles. That sounds like a lot — until you do the math.

Most households open their garage door at least 4 times per day: out in the morning, back at lunch or mid-day, out again in the afternoon, and back in the evening. That's 4 cycles per day, which adds up to roughly 1,460 cycles per year. At that rate, a 10,000-cycle spring will last about 6.8 years — call it 7 years. If you have kids, work from home, or use the garage as your primary entry point, you may be running 6 to 8 cycles per day, which means your springs could give out in as few as 4 to 5 years.

Cycle fatigue is the primary reason springs break, but it's not the only one. Several other factors accelerate spring failure:

• Rust and corrosion: Moisture in the garage — especially in coastal Bay Area cities like Hayward, Oakland, and San Francisco — causes springs to rust. Rust increases friction on the coils, which generates more heat and wear during each cycle. A rusted spring can lose 10 to 15 percent of its rated cycle life. Regular lubrication with a silicone-based spray helps prevent this, but most homeowners never think to do it.
• Temperature fluctuations: Metal expands and contracts with temperature changes. In the Bay Area, we don't get extreme cold, but morning-to-afternoon temperature swings of 30 degrees or more are common in the East Bay hills and inland valleys. Over thousands of cycles, these micro-expansions and contractions contribute to metal fatigue.
• Improper installation: If the original springs were not the correct wire gauge, length, or inside diameter for the door's weight, they'll be over-stressed on every cycle and fail prematurely. We see this frequently on doors installed by handymen or low-bid contractors who use whatever springs they have on the truck instead of calculating the correct specifications for the door.
• Poor maintenance: Springs that are never lubricated, on a door that was never balanced, with hardware that was never tightened — these springs are working harder than they should on every cycle. A 10,000-cycle spring on a poorly maintained door might only last 6,000 to 7,000 cycles.

Signs Your Springs Are Failing

Springs rarely fail without warning. If you know what to look for, you can catch a failing spring before it breaks and schedule a replacement on your own timeline instead of dealing with an emergency. Here are the most common warning signs:

• The door feels unusually heavy: Try disconnecting the opener (pull the red emergency release cord) and lifting the door by hand. A properly balanced door with healthy springs should feel light — almost weightless — and stay in place at any height. If the door feels heavy, slams shut when you let go, or won't stay open at the halfway point, your springs have lost tension and are nearing the end of their life.
• Visible gaps in the coils: On a torsion spring, the coils should be tightly wound with no visible gaps between them when the door is closed. If you can see daylight between the coils or notice a gap where the spring has separated, it's already broken or about to break.
• A loud bang from the garage: This is the classic "my spring just broke" moment. A torsion spring under full tension releasing all at once makes a sound like a gunshot or a car backfiring. Many homeowners initially think someone broke into the garage or a shelf collapsed. If you heard a loud bang and now the door won't open, it's the spring — almost guaranteed.
• The door won't stay open: If you open the door manually and it slowly drifts closed or won't hold its position, the springs can no longer counterbalance the door's weight. This is a safety hazard — a door that slides shut unexpectedly can cause serious injury, especially to children and pets.
• The opener strains or stops mid-travel: Your garage door opener is designed to move the door, not lift it. The springs do the lifting. If the opener motor sounds like it's working harder than usual, stalls partway through the cycle, or the door opens a few inches and then reverses, the springs are no longer carrying their share of the load.
• The door opens crooked: On a two-spring system, if one spring is weaker than the other, the door will rise unevenly — one side lifts faster than the other. This puts stress on the tracks, cables, and opener, and it means at least one spring is close to failure.

Why Spring Replacement Is Not a DIY Job

We understand the appeal of doing it yourself. There are YouTube videos, forum posts, and hardware-store winding bars that make it look straightforward. But garage door spring replacement is one of the few home repairs where the risk of serious injury is real and immediate, not hypothetical.

A standard torsion spring for a two-car garage door is under approximately 200 to 300 pounds of tension when fully wound. That tension is what lifts your 200-pound door. The spring is wound tight on a steel shaft using winding bars inserted into holes in the winding cone. If a winding bar slips, if you use the wrong size bar, if the set screws aren't tight, or if you miscalculate the number of turns, that stored energy releases in a fraction of a second. The winding bar becomes a projectile. The spring can whip off the shaft. The torsion tube itself can spin violently.

Emergency rooms across the country treat thousands of garage door spring injuries every year. Broken wrists and fingers from winding bars snapping back. Lacerations from spring coils. Head injuries from torsion tubes. In the worst cases, deaths have been attributed to amateur spring replacement attempts. This is not scare-mongering — it's the reason most garage door manufacturers print "DO NOT ATTEMPT" warnings directly on the springs and why professional installation is recommended by every major industry association.

Beyond the safety issue, there's the precision factor. Springs must be matched to the exact weight of the door, and the number of winding turns must be calculated based on the spring's wire gauge, length, and inside diameter. Get it wrong and the door will be unbalanced — too much tension and the door flies open dangerously; too little and the door slams shut or the opener burns out. A professional technician measures and calculates these specifications on every job.

Our Spring Replacement Process

When you call Integrity Garage Doors & Gates for a spring replacement, here's exactly what happens — no surprises, no hidden steps:

1. Diagnosis and quote: Our technician inspects the spring system, measures the door, and confirms the correct spring specifications. We give you a written, all-inclusive quote before any work begins. If you don't want to proceed, there's no charge for the inspection.
2. Secure the door: We clamp the door in the closed position and lock the track to prevent any movement during the repair. If the old spring is still intact but failing, we carefully unwind it using professional winding bars before removing it.
3. Remove old springs and hardware: The broken or worn springs are removed along with the bearing plates, center bracket, and any damaged hardware. We inspect the torsion shaft for wear, bending, or damage.
4. Install new springs: We install a matched pair of new, high-cycle torsion springs sized specifically for your door's weight and height. New bearing plates and center brackets are installed if the old ones show any wear.
5. Wind and balance: The springs are wound to the precise number of turns calculated for your door. We then test the door's balance by disconnecting the opener and checking that the door holds its position at multiple heights — fully open, halfway, and one-third from the floor.
6. Lubricate and test: All moving parts — springs, hinges, rollers, and bearing plates — are lubricated with professional-grade silicone lubricant. We reconnect the opener, test the door through multiple full cycles, and verify that the opener's force and travel limits are correctly adjusted.
7. Safety inspection: We check the cables for fraying, the drums for wear, the tracks for alignment, and the opener's auto-reverse safety system. If we spot anything that needs attention, we let you know — but we never do work you didn't ask for without your approval.
8. Clean up and review: We remove all old parts and debris, clean the work area, and walk you through everything we did. We answer any questions and provide care tips to maximize the life of your new springs.

Pricing

Spring replacement at Integrity Garage Doors & Gates starts at $608 for a pair of torsion springs. That price includes:

• Both springs (we always replace as a pair)
• High-cycle rated springs — not the cheap 10,000-cycle variety
• All hardware: bearing plates, center bracket, set screws
• Professional installation and precision winding
• Full door balance adjustment
• Complete safety inspection
• Lubrication of all moving parts
• Our parts and labor warranty

Why do we always replace both springs? Because both springs were installed at the same time and have the same number of cycles on them. When one breaks, the other is statistically at the end of its service life too. Replacing just the broken spring saves you a few dollars today but virtually guarantees a second service call — and a second trip charge — within weeks or months. We've seen it happen hundreds of times over 17 years, and we'd rather save you the hassle and the money by doing it right the first time.

Pricing may vary for oversized doors, commercial doors, or doors that require a conversion from extension springs to torsion springs. We'll always provide the exact price before starting any work.

Ready to get your door working again? Call us at (888) 485-6995 for same-day spring replacement or request a free estimate online.