Garage Doors · Service

Garage door springs: the one job to hand over

A torsion spring stores enough energy to lift a door heavier than you are, and it releases all of it in an instant if it is unwound wrong. Here is what the job involves, what a fair quote looks like, and why every tutorial on page one is selling you winding bars.

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In short

What is garage door spring replacement?

Garage door springs counterbalance the weight of the door so the opener only has to overcome friction, not mass. When one breaks, the door becomes its own dead weight and will not lift. Replacement means safely releasing the remaining stored energy, fitting a matched replacement, re-tensioning it to balance the specific door, and almost always replacing the cables and checking the drums at the same time. It is the one garage door job where the honest advice is to hire it out.

The job

How garage door spring replacement actually works

Identify which counterbalance system the door uses

Torsion springs sit on a shaft above the door opening and wind under torque. Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on each side and stretch. They fail differently, are replaced differently, and only one of them is fitted to your door.

Watch for: A quote given over the phone without the technician knowing which system you have, or how heavy the door is. Spring selection is matched to a specific door weight and travel; getting it wrong produces a door that either fights the opener or will not stay down.
Neutralise the stored energy safely

On a torsion system the remaining spring is unwound in controlled increments with purpose-made winding bars while the shaft is secured. On extension springs the door is opened fully and blocked so the springs are slack before anything is unhooked.

Watch for: Screwdrivers or rebar used as winding bars. This is the specific substitution behind a large share of garage door injuries — the wrong bar slips out of the winding cone under full torque.
Replace as a matched set, not one side

A two-spring door has springs that have completed the same number of cycles. When one goes, the other is at the end of its life too. Any technician worth hiring replaces both and prices it that way from the start.

Watch for: A quote for one spring on a two-spring door "to save you money". It saves you nothing — the second one fails soon after, and you pay a second service call for the privilege.
Cables, drums and bearings

The cables run from the bottom brackets to the drums and carry the door's weight in tension. A spring failure often lets the door drop and the cables jump the drums, fray or kink. Bearings and the shaft are checked at the same time because they are already exposed.

Watch for: Frayed or kinked cable being re-wound and reused. This is the shortcut that turns one failure into two, and it is invisible once the job is finished.
Wind to tension and balance the door by hand

The new spring is wound until the door is balanced — lifted by hand with the opener disconnected, it should move easily and stay roughly where it is left near the middle of its travel. Balance is set to the door, not to a chart.

Watch for: The opener being reconnected before a hand balance test. If nobody lifted the door manually after tensioning, nobody knows whether it is balanced or whether the opener is quietly compensating.
Reconnect, reset the opener and re-test safety

The opener is reconnected, its travel limits and force settings are re-checked against the newly balanced door, and both safety functions are re-tested: photo-eyes, and reversal when the door meets an obstruction.

Watch for: Force settings turned up to make a poorly balanced door work. That converts a mechanical problem into a safety one — the door now has more power to push through whatever is under it.

Money

What does garage door spring replacement cost?

Spring replacement pricing turns on how many springs the door carries, whether cables and drums go with them, and whether it is an after-hours call. Higher-durability springs cost more up front and are usually the better buy on a daily-use door. See the garage door cost guide.

See the full garage door spring replacement cost guide — by material, size and region →

Straight answer

When garage door spring replacement is the wrong call

Everyone else ranking for this is paid when you say yes. Here's when you shouldn't.

The door lifts by hand easily and stays put. Then your springs are doing their job and the fault is elsewhere — most likely the opener. A broken spring is not subtle; a balanced door rules it out in ten seconds.
The door is old, rusted through at the bottom sections, and you are already thinking about replacing it. Fresh springs on a failing door is money spent on the wrong part of the problem. Price a new door in the same conversation and decide once.
You have been sold "lifetime" springs without being told what the term covers. Ask whether the warranty is on the part only, whether labour is included, and whether it survives a change of homeowner. A spring warranty that requires you to pay a full service call to claim it is a marketing term.
Somebody has quoted you a full door replacement because a spring broke. A broken spring is a component failure on a door that is often otherwise fine. It can be the moment to replace, but it is not a reason on its own, and a technician who leads with it has not diagnosed anything.
The problem started right after a vehicle hit the door. Impact usually damages sections, tracks and brackets, and any spring symptom is secondary. That needs a structural assessment first, not a spring swap.
You are about to attempt it yourself because a video made it look manageable. Videos do not show the failures. This is the single most common serious injury in residential garage door work, and the entire saving is one service call.

Straight answer

Can I do this myself?

This is the genuine exception to every "you can probably handle this" instinct. A wound torsion spring holds enough energy to lift a door that weighs more than most adults, and it is released through two thin bars held in your hands, inches from your face. When a bar slips out of a winding cone under load it does not slow down. Broken fingers, broken jaws and lost eyes are the documented outcomes, and they happen to competent, careful people using the wrong bar. There is no version of this page that tells you how to do it, because there is no responsible version of that advice.

Reasonable to DIY

Looking at the spring above the door to see whether there is a visible gap in the coil, so you can tell the technician what you have
Checking whether the door is a one-spring or two-spring setup, and photographing the label on the spring or the door if one is visible
Pulling the emergency release with the door fully closed and confirming by hand that it is too heavy to lift
Unplugging the opener so nobody tries to run the door before help arrives
Parking outside and keeping children and pets out of the garage until it is fixed

Call a licensed pro

Winding, unwinding, adjusting or replacing any spring — torsion or extension, without exception
Anything attached to the bottom brackets, which stay under full cable tension even when the door is closed
Cable replacement or re-seating a cable that has jumped its drum
Forcing a door open that will not lift, which risks dropping it on whatever is underneath
Re-setting opener force limits after any counterbalance work

Before you sign

What to check when hiring for garage door spring replacement

Are you replacing both springs, and is that in the quoted price?

On a two-spring door the second spring has done the same work as the first. One-spring quotes look cheaper and usually are not.
Are the cables and drums included, or extra?

A spring failure frequently damages the cables. Finding this out as an add-on after the van has arrived is the most common surprise on this job.
What durability grade of spring is this, and what is the alternative?

Springs are made in different cycle grades. You should be offered the choice explicitly rather than given whatever is on the van, especially on a door that opens several times a day.
Will you weigh or hand-balance the door before selecting the spring?

Spring selection follows door weight. Insulated doors, added windows and replaced sections all change it, so "same as before" is not automatically right.
What exactly does the warranty cover — part, labour, or both?

The most common gap in this trade. A part-only warranty still costs you a full call-out when it is claimed.
Will you show me the hand balance test after tensioning?

The one verifiable proof the job was finished properly. It takes seconds and any competent technician will be happy to demonstrate it.
Are you licensed and insured for this specific work?

This is the highest-injury job in the trade. Confirm the coverage before someone stands on a ladder in your garage with winding bars.

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FAQ

Garage Door Spring Replacement — questions people ask

Still have a question? Talk to our team →

Can I replace a garage door spring myself?

You should not, and this is the only repair in this industry where that answer has no qualifiers. The tension is released through winding bars held by hand under full load, and when it goes wrong it goes wrong instantly and at close range. The entire saving is one service call, weighed against a serious hand or face injury. Extension springs are only marginally less dangerous — a door held open on blocked, slack springs is still a heavy object above you.

Why do both springs need replacing when only one broke?

Springs are rated in cycles, and a matched pair on the same door has completed the same number of cycles. When the first fails, the second is at the same point in its life and typically follows within a short period. Replacing both means one service call and one balanced door; replacing one means a second call-out at full price, plus a second set of labour.

How long do garage door springs last?

Springs are rated by cycles rather than years, so lifespan depends entirely on how often the door is used — a household that opens the door six times a day exhausts a spring far faster than one that opens it twice. Springs are also sold in different durability grades, and upgrading to a higher-cycle spring is usually the cheapest meaningful improvement available on a busy door. Ask your technician what grade is going in.

What is the difference between torsion and extension springs?

Torsion springs mount on a shaft above the door and store energy by twisting; extension springs run alongside the horizontal tracks and store it by stretching. Torsion systems are generally smoother, better controlled and more common on newer doors. Extension springs should have containment cables run through them so that a failure cannot send the spring across the garage — if yours do not, ask about it.

Can I use the opener to force the door open with a broken spring?

No. The opener is sized to overcome friction on a counterbalanced door, not to lift the door's full weight. Trying turns one broken part into several: stripped gear sets, bent top sections, cables jumped off the drums. Pull the emergency release, leave the door closed, and park outside until it is repaired.

Is it safe to leave a door with a broken spring part-open?

No, and it is worth being blunt about. With the counterbalance gone, the only thing holding a part-open door up is whatever is jamming it, and that is not a mechanism designed to hold weight. Get the door fully closed if it can be done safely, unplug the opener, and keep people out of the opening until it is fixed.