A garage door spring that broke overnight is one of the most common calls we take from Attleboro homeowners. The door weighs 150 pounds or more, and the spring is the part that carries that weight. Once it snaps, the opener is left trying to lift the whole door alone, and it cannot.
How to tell the spring is the problem
- You heard a single loud bang, like a firecracker or a dropped plank.
- The door lifts six inches and stops, or the opener hums and gives up.
- There is a clear gap of an inch or two in the coil above the door.
- The lift cables look slack or have dropped off their drums.
- The door feels far too heavy to raise by hand.
A gap in the coil settles it. If the spring looks whole and the door hangs crooked, the trouble may be a cable instead. Our guide on what to do when a cable comes off covers that case.
What to do in the first ten minutes
1. Stop using the opener
Unplug the opener or leave the wall button alone. Running it against a dead spring can strip the drive gear, bend the top door section or pull the opener bracket off the door. That turns one repair into three.
2. Leave the door where it is
If the door is closed, keep it closed. If it is stuck open, do not stand or park under it, and keep children and pets out of the garage. Do not pull the red emergency release on an open door. With no spring holding it, the door can drop fast.
3. Do not touch the spring or the cables
A broken spring has let go of its tension, but on a two-spring door the second spring is still fully wound. The set screws, winding cones and bottom brackets are all under load. This is the part of a garage door that sends people to the emergency room.
4. Get the car out another way if you can
If the car is trapped and you need it, call before you try to lift the door. Two strong adults can sometimes raise a door with a broken spring, but it has to be propped safely and it will not stay up by itself.
Why springs break, and why winter is the busy season
Springs wear out from use. A standard torsion spring is commonly rated for about 10,000 cycles, and one cycle is the door going up and coming back down. A family that uses the garage as the front door can reach that number in six or seven years.
Cold makes it worse. Steel is more brittle at low temperatures, and a spring near the end of its life tends to fail on the first hard frost. Rust is the other cause in this part of Massachusetts. Damp garages and road salt pit the coils, and a pitted coil is where the break starts. More on that in our guide to winter garage door problems in Attleboro.
How the repair is done
Proper garage door spring repair is more than swapping a part. The new spring has to match the weight of your door, which means the right wire size, length and inside diameter. On a door with two springs we replace both as a matched pair, since they have done the same number of cycles.
After the new springs are wound, the door is tested by hand. A balanced door stays put when you lift it to waist height and let go. If it drifts up or sinks, the springs need adjusting. We also check the cables, drums, bearings and rollers while the door is apart, because a worn part there will shorten the life of the new springs.
Can you replace a garage door spring yourself?
We would not. Torsion springs are wound with steel bars under enough force to lift the door, and a slipped bar or a loose cone releases that force in an instant. Extension springs along the side tracks are easier to reach, but they can whip across the garage if a cable or pulley fails. Either type needs the right tools and a careful hand.
Johnny Garage Door Service has worked on garage doors for 30 years. If your spring has broken in Attleboro or a nearby town, call (508) 709-6644 and tell us what you see. You can also read more about garage door repair in Attleboro on our homepage.