Garage Door Spring Replacement

Your garage door torsion spring is the heavy coiled steel spring mounted on a metal shaft directly above the door opening. Its job is to counterbalance the weight of the door — most residential garage doors weigh between 150 and 350 pounds, and the spring is what makes the door feel light enough that your opener can lift it. When you press the opener button, the motor isn't actually doing most of the lifting — the wound torsion spring is releasing stored energy and the motor just guides the door up. Without a working spring, your opener cannot lift the door. The motor will burn out trying, which turns a $299 spring repair into a $700+ spring + opener replacement.

Torsion springs sit horizontally on a shaft above the door and twist (wind) to store energy. Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on either side of the door and stretch to store energy. Torsion springs are safer, last longer, operate more smoothly, and balance the door more accurately — they're what we install on every job. Extension springs are older technology found mostly on lighter doors or older installations. If you have extension springs and they fail, we'll typically recommend converting to a torsion spring system, which is a one-time upgrade that significantly improves door performance and safety.

Standard torsion springs are rated for approximately 10,000 cycles. One cycle equals one open and one close. For a typical family using their garage door 4 times a day, that works out to about 7 years of service. A household using the door 6–8 times a day will hit 10,000 cycles in 4–5 years. We also offer high-cycle springs rated for 20,000 or 25,000 cycles for homeowners who want longer service life or use their door heavily. Our standard high-cycle springs come with a 3-year parts warranty.

Single-spring systems are common on lighter, single-car garage doors and were standard on many older builder-grade installations. Two-spring (dual-spring) systems are required on heavier double doors and are safer overall — if one spring breaks, the second spring keeps the door from slamming down. We frequently upgrade single-spring setups to dual-spring during replacement when the door weight justifies it. Both springs in a pair should always be replaced at the same time, even if only one has visibly broken — the other is the same age and is about to fail too.

The most common signs are: (1) you heard a loud bang from the garage — broken torsion springs snap with a sound like a gunshot; (2) your garage door will not open with the opener, or the opener struggles, hums, and stops; (3) when you try to lift the door manually, it feels extremely heavy or impossible to lift; (4) you can visibly see a gap in the spring above the door — broken torsion springs separate cleanly into two pieces; (5) the door opens crooked or only partway. If you see any of these signs, do not try to force the door open with the opener — you can damage the motor and create a safety hazard.

Often, yes. A spring that has lost tension or is partially failed can lift the door part of the way before the opener gives up. This can also be caused by a misadjusted opener force setting, a broken cable, or a door coming off the track. We diagnose for free — when you call us out, we test the spring tension, check the cable condition, balance the door manually, and inspect the track. We'll tell you exactly what's wrong before any work is done and give you a written price.

It can be. As springs near the end of their cycle life, they often start groaning, popping, or making metallic clanging sounds because the steel is fatiguing. This is your warning sign — the spring is going to fail soon. Other causes of loud doors include worn rollers (which we can replace with quiet sealed nylon rollers) and dry hinges that need lubrication. We diagnose all three on every visit. If you're hearing new noises from a door that used to be quiet, it's worth getting it inspected before something breaks unexpectedly.

Yes — this is the most common scenario. Most homeowners hear a loud bang from the garage and discover the spring snapped while no one was using the door. Springs are under enormous stored tension (we wind them with bars and ratchet wrenches), and when the steel reaches its cycle limit, it fails almost instantly. The good news is that broken torsion springs are contained by the steel shaft they're mounted on, so they almost never cause property damage when they break. The bad news is the door is now stuck. Call us — we get to most of Contra Costa County in under an hour.

Most standard single-spring replacements start at $299, which includes the spring, all hardware, labor, and a 3-year parts warranty. Dual-spring (two-spring) replacements typically run $429–$549 depending on door size and spring specifications. Heavy commercial-grade or oversized residential doors may be slightly higher. We always provide a written quote before any work begins — there are no hidden fees, no surprise charges, and no upsells for parts you don't need. See our full pricing page for complete details.

Those prices are bait. Genuine quality oil-tempered torsion springs cost more than $79 just at wholesale — no honest company can profitably replace one for that price. The pattern is: tech shows up, says the advertised price is for an extension spring (which you don't have), then quotes $600+ for what you actually need. Or they install the cheapest, lowest-cycle-count spring available which fails within a year. We don't play those games. Our $299 starting price is the real, all-in, no-surprise price for a quality spring with warranty.

A standard single-spring replacement takes 30–45 minutes once we arrive. A dual-spring replacement takes 45–60 minutes. We carry common spring sizes on the truck so most jobs are completed in a single visit. Less common heavy-door springs may need to be picked up from our supplier, but we usually have those back to your house the same afternoon. After the new spring is installed, we perform a full balance test, lubricate the entire system, and verify your opener's force settings are correct.

Yes — guaranteed same-day service when you call before 6 PM, 7 days a week. We answer phones from 6 AM to 9 PM but we're available 24/7 for genuine emergencies. Most calls in our core service area (Martinez, Concord, Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, Pittsburg, Antioch) get a tech on-site within 60–90 minutes. Call or text (925) 316-8384.

Yes — California Contractor's License #1113495. Fully licensed, bonded, and insured. You can verify our license directly on the California Contractors State License Board website. We also carry general liability insurance and workers' compensation. If a contractor cannot show you a current CSLB license number, do not let them work on your garage door — spring tension is genuinely dangerous and unlicensed contractors typically have no insurance to cover injuries or property damage.

Strongly not recommended. Torsion springs hold an enormous amount of stored energy — the equivalent of hundreds of pounds of force compressed into a tightly wound steel coil. Replacing one without the correct winding bars, the right spring specifications for your door's exact weight, and experience handling tensioned hardware is genuinely dangerous. The garage door industry sees serious injuries and fatalities every year from DIY spring replacements gone wrong. The cost savings versus our $299 starting price isn't worth the risk. The springs themselves cost about $40–$80, the proper winding bars cost another $30, you'll likely buy the wrong spring size for your door's weight, and one mistake can put you in the emergency room.

Determining the correct spring size requires three measurements: door weight (we use a digital weight gauge), door height, and required cycle life. A spring that's too small will fail quickly. A spring that's too large will overpower the door, slam it open, and damage the opener. We bring a spring weight calculator and a complete inventory of standard residential spring sizes on every job to ensure the spring matches your door precisely. This is the single most common mistake we see from previous DIY attempts and unlicensed contractors — wrong spring size for the door, leading to repeated failures.

Yes — always. Both springs in a pair are the same age, have completed the same number of cycles, and have the same wear profile. When one breaks, the other is essentially at end-of-life too and will typically fail within weeks or months. Replacing both at the same time costs less than two separate service calls, and you avoid being stranded again with a broken door. We recommend this on every dual-spring job — and we'll explain the math so you can decide what makes sense for your situation.

Often yes — particularly on older single-spring systems without proper safety cables installed inside the spring. When a single spring breaks while the door is open, gravity takes over instantly. This is one of the reasons we strongly recommend dual-spring systems on heavier doors and always install safety cables on extension spring conversions. If your door has fallen and damaged a vehicle or property, we offer emergency same-day service to get the door safely back in place and the spring replaced. Document any damage with photos before we arrive for insurance purposes.

Three things: (1) Annual lubrication of the spring with a quality silicone or lithium-based garage door lubricant — never use WD-40, which is a degreaser and actually shortens spring life. (2) Balance the door manually once a year — disengage the opener, lift the door halfway, and let go. A properly balanced door should stay in place. If it falls or rises, the spring is out of adjustment and needs service. (3) Choose high-cycle springs (20,000 or 25,000 cycles) when replacing if your household uses the door heavily. We include lubrication and a full balance test on every spring replacement we do.