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Garage doors across 32 Dallas Fort Worth cities

(469) 281-7750

What we work on

Garage door spring replacement

A broken torsion spring is the most common reason a door stops lifting. The fix is a matched pair sized to what the door actually weighs, not the cheapest spring that fits the shaft.

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A torsion spring stores enough energy to cause serious injury. It should only be unwound, adjusted or replaced with proper winding bars by someone trained to use them. This is not a do it yourself repair at any skill level.

What garage door spring replacement actually involves

Garage door springs do the actual lifting. The opener only guides a door that the springs have already balanced. When a spring breaks you usually hear it: a bang like a gunshot from the garage, and afterward the door either will not lift at all or feels like it weighs two hundred pounds, because it does.

Torsion springs are rated in cycles, and a standard spring is good for roughly ten thousand of them. One cycle is one open and one close. A household that comes and goes four times a day burns through that in about seven years, which is why springs on homes built in the 1990s and 2000s are failing across the metroplex right now. We replace springs in pairs even when only one broke, because the surviving spring is the same age and the same number of cycles from failing, and doing them together costs less than doing them twice.

Signs you are dealing with this

  • A loud bang from the garage, then the door will not open
  • A visible gap in the coil of the spring above the door
  • The door is far too heavy to lift by hand
  • The opener strains, hums, or lifts the door a few inches and quits
  • The door slams down rather than lowering under control

What we check on arrival

  • Spring wire size, inside diameter and length to confirm correct sizing
  • Whether the existing springs were correctly specified for the door weight
  • Cable and drum condition, since a broken spring often damages both
  • Center bearing plate and end bearing wear
  • Door balance after installation, tested by hand at three heights

How it goes

How a visit runs

Four steps, in this order, every time.

  1. 01

    We size the spring to the door

    We measure wire diameter, coil diameter and length, and we weigh the door where there is any doubt. The right spring is a specification, not a guess.

  2. 02

    Tension comes off safely

    The old springs are unwound with proper winding bars and the door is secured before anything is removed. This is the step that sends people to the emergency room when it is done wrong.

  3. 03

    Both springs go on together

    We install a matched pair, replace the cables if the break damaged them, and check the bearings while the shaft is accessible.

  4. 04

    We balance and test

    A correct door stops and holds anywhere you leave it. We set it, cycle it, and reconnect the opener only once the door is right on its own.

Typical range

$200 to $450

A standard pair of torsion springs on a two-car door sits mid-range. Oversized, high-cycle or custom-weight doors run higher.

This is a range, not a quote. The exact price comes after we see the door and you approve it before any work starts. Call (469) 281-7750 and describe what it is doing.

Before we get there

A torsion spring stores enough energy to cause serious injury. It should only be unwound, adjusted or replaced with proper winding bars by someone trained to use them. This is not a do it yourself repair at any skill level.

What people get wrong about this

The opener is broken, because the door will not go up.

A garage door opener is a half to three quarter horsepower motor. It is built to guide a door that the springs are already holding almost weightless, not to lift one. A double door weighs somewhere between 150 and 250 pounds. When a torsion spring breaks, that whole weight lands on a motor that was never sized for it, so the opener strains, clicks or does nothing at all. The opener is usually the symptom. The spring is usually the fault.

What to do: Pull the release cord only if the door is already fully closed, then try lifting by hand. If it will not move or feels like dead weight, it is the spring.

Only one spring broke, so only one needs replacing.

Torsion springs are rated in cycles, and one cycle is one trip up and one trip down. A standard spring is rated at about 10,000 cycles, which at four openings a day works out to roughly seven years. On a two spring door both springs were installed on the same day and have turned the same number of times. When the first one goes the second is at the end of the same countdown. Replacing one leaves a mismatched pair, and the new spring carries a load it was not balanced for.

What to do: Replace them as a pair. Ask what cycle rating you are getting, because a higher cycle spring costs a little more and lasts considerably longer.

The door is stuck, so I should pull the red cord and force it.

The red release handle disconnects the door from the opener trolley. If the door is closed, that is a safe thing to do. If the door is part way or fully open and the spring that was holding it has broken, releasing the trolley removes the last thing keeping it up, and a 200 pound door can come down in about a second. This is the single most common way people get hurt by a garage door.

What to do: Only pull the release when the door is all the way down. If it is stuck part way open, leave it, keep people and cars out from under it, and call.

The door is only a few years old, so nothing should be wearing out.

Springs do not age by calendar, they age by use. A household that opens the door six times a day gets through a 10,000 cycle spring in about four and a half years. A household that opens it twice a day gets close to fourteen years out of the same part. Two identical doors installed on the same street on the same day can be years apart in real wear, which is why age alone is a poor guide to condition.

What to do: Count roughly how many times a day the door runs. That number, not the age of the house, tells you where the springs are in their life.

How this varies across the metroplex

  • A 16 foot double door weighs roughly 150 to 250 pounds depending on panel construction, and the torsion assembly above the header carries all of it. Most double doors of this width run a pair of springs on a shared shaft. When one breaks the other is usually near the end of its life, since both were wound the same day and cycled the same number of times.
  • Single layer steel doors sit at the light end of the residential weight range, so their springs store less energy than an insulated door of the same width. The correct replacement is still read off the old spring: wire diameter, inside diameter, length, and wind direction. Door width alone does not determine the spring, because panel construction changes the weight it has to balance.
  • An insulated steel door carries polystyrene or polyurethane between two skins, which adds weight over a single layer panel of identical width. Springs have to be wound for that extra load. Fitting a spring specified for a lighter door leaves the door heavy at the floor and drifting closed from waist height, and it shortens the opener's working life.
  • One piece tilt up doors do not use a torsion shaft above the opening. The springs mount on the jambs and work with the pivot arms, so the balance point changes as the slab swings out. Hardware for jamb mounted spring systems is not interchangeable with sectional torsion parts, and the geometry of the arm matters as much as the spring rating.
  • A wood overlay or custom door can weigh two to three times what a standard steel door of the same opening weighs. Spring sizing follows the weight on a scale, not the width and height on a tape measure. Doors like this often need heavier wire or a longer spring than the width alone would suggest, and sometimes a pair where a steel door would balance on one.
  • An 8 foot single door often runs one torsion spring where a 16 foot door runs a pair. That single spring has no partner to share the load, so the door drops hard when it breaks and the opener cannot lift it at all. Some single doors of this width still use extension springs stretched along the horizontal tracks instead.
  • A three bay elevation with two singles and a double needs more than one spring specification. The double is roughly twice the weight of each single, so the shafts carry different springs even though the doors were installed together and look alike from the street. Replacing all three with the same part leaves two of them out of balance.
  • Oversized openings past the common 16 foot width put more panel weight on the same shaft, and the spring has to be wound for it. Wider doors also flex more across the middle, which is why many carry a strut on the top section. Spring length and wire size both change with the weight, and a longer shaft may need a center bearing plate.

Coverage

Springs across the metroplex

Pick a city for what the door population there means for this job.

Get a price

Tell us what the door is doing

If the door is stuck open or will not close, call. That is a security problem and the phone is faster than anything else on this page.

(469) 281-7750

A person answers 7am to 11pm.

The noise it makes and when it started narrows the cause more than you would think.

Door stuck open or will not close? Call (469) 281-7750 rather than waiting on a reply.

Questions

Garage door spring replacement, asked and answered

What does garage door spring replacement cost?

A standard pair of torsion springs on a two-car door sits mid-range. Oversized, high-cycle or custom-weight doors run higher. Typical Dallas Fort Worth market range for this work. It is not a quote. The on site estimate is free and that is the number that counts.

How long does garage door spring replacement take?

Usually under two hours from arrival. Torsion springs are rated in cycles, and a standard spring is good for roughly ten thousand of them.

Is the work guaranteed?

Parts and labour carry a 5 year warranty. The price is agreed before any work starts, and the on site estimate is free.

Where do you cover?

32 cities across the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex, worked from Coppell. Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin Counties.

Does it change depending on the door?

A 16 foot double door weighs roughly 150 to 250 pounds depending on panel construction, and the torsion assembly above the header carries all of it. Most double doors of this width run a pair of springs on a shared shaft. When one breaks the other is usually near the end of its life, since both were wound the same day and cycled the same number of times. Single layer steel doors sit at the light end of the residential weight range, so their springs store less energy than an insulated door of the same width. The correct replacement is still read off the old spring: wire diameter, inside diameter, length, and wind direction. Door width alone does not determine the spring, because panel construction changes the weight it has to balance.

Get it fixed

Need garage door spring replacement?

Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate on site is free.

(469) 281-7750 Request a callback
Call (469) 281-7750