Torsion and extension

Garage Door Spring Repair and Replacement

Your springs, not the opener, carry the weight of the door. A standard spring is commonly rated around 10,000 cycles, one cycle being a full trip up and back down, and DASMA counts spring life separately from the life of the door it lifts.

White raised-panel garage door with a flowering vine growing beside it

Is a spring the reason your door feels wrong?

Most likely, if the door suddenly weighs far more by hand, will not stay put part-way open, or creeps down after you raise it. These six signs are what bring most Santa Clarita spring calls. Once you spot one, stop using the door.

Door feels heavy

A door that suddenly fights you when lifted by hand has lost spring support. Do not run it.

Won't hold halfway

A balanced door stays still when stopped about 3 to 4 feet up. One that sinks toward the floor is out of balance.

Drifts down open

A fully open door that slowly slides down is short on spring torque, often from age or too few turns at install.

Coils rubbing

Coils that rub or snake along the shaft point to a torsion spring stretched wrong, or a shaft shifting side to side.

Rust on the wire

Rust thins the working wire and starts fatigue cracks at each pit. A rusty spring is running on borrowed time.

No safety cable

An extension spring with no containment cable through it can fly across the garage when it snaps.

Valley housing

Why are so many springs here wearing out now?

Because a big share of Santa Clarita homes went up in the same stretch: the city's median home dates to 1987, and about 59% of housing units were built between 1980 and 2009. Plenty of those doors still run original springs or a second set. Climate adds load. DASMA lists extreme climates among the things that shorten spring life, and the Saugus weather station swings from a 36.0 F average January low to a 94.3 F average August high. Rust, a door made heavier by paint or add-ons, and a spring sized for some other door cut life further. We replace torsion and extension springs, check cables and drums, and balance the door before we leave.

Torsion and extension Spring sized to door Cables and drums checked Balance tested after

Shaded picnic lawn with a bench under old trees

Two spring types

Torsion and extension springs, side by side

What to look at	Torsion spring	Extension spring
Where it sits	On a shaft above the door header	Usually beside the horizontal tracks
How it stores energy	Twists, and the shaft passes the torque to the cable drums	Stretches as the door comes down
When it breaks	Stays on the shaft, so the break is contained	Needs a containment cable or it can whip loose
Rated cycles	10,000 to 20,000	8,000 to 15,000 by one guide, 10,000 to 20,000 by another
Typical years	About 8 to 15	About 7 to 12
Wall-mount opener	Works, since a jackshaft opener turns the torsion shaft	No, a jackshaft opener needs a torsion shaft to drive

A spring visit

From a snapped spring to a balanced door

Describe

We take spring calls across Santa Clarita, from older Newhall streets to newer Valencia tracts. Tell us where the springs sit and send a photo if you can.

Measure

Tension comes off first. Then we size the replacement by wire gauge, inside diameter, length and wind direction, and you get the price in writing.

Fit

The new spring gets the right number of turns for the door's weight. Too many overload the hardware. Too few let the door creep down.

Test

We check cables and drums, confirm the door holds still part-way open, run the opener's reversal test, and leave the old springs with you.

Before you try it

Can you replace a garage door spring yourself?

Not a torsion spring: This Old House calls extension springs a possible do-it-yourself job but advises against torsion work, and DASMA says only a trained door technician should touch either. The danger is stored energy. Winding a torsion spring the wrong way, or past its proper torque, is flagged as a hazard to the person holding the bar. Bottom brackets sit under full spring load too. If a spring has broken, leave the door down.

How we work

What a careful spring job includes

Spring work is where a garage door can hurt someone. DASMA warns that springs and their hardware hold enough tension to cause serious injury or death. Tension comes off before anything is unbolted. The new spring is matched to the door rather than copied from the broken one, because a door that has picked up weight may need a stronger spring. Where the weight is in doubt, the door goes on a scale.

Tension released before any work
Spring matched to the door
Safety cables on extension springs
Balance checked part-way open
Opener reversal test run
Old springs left with you

Inside a garage: ceiling opener, its rail running to a sectional door with windows, and the side tracks

Repairs and installs

Garage door work in Santa Clarita

Six kinds of garage door jobs, each on its own page with the parts involved, the warning signs and what a visit looks like.

Single-story ranch house with a white two-car steel garage door at the end of a curved drive

Spring Repair

A snapped torsion or extension spring, a door that weighs a ton by hand, or a gap in the coil above the opening.

Opener Repair

Openers that hum without lifting, reverse for no reason, ignore the remote or stop halfway up the track.

Opener Installation

Chain, belt, screw and wall-mount openers fitted to the door you have, with the battery backup California requires.

New Door Installation

Steel, wood-look, carriage-style and glass sectional doors measured, hung, balanced and sealed in one job.

Track and Cable Repair

A frayed or slack lift cable, a roller out of the track, a crooked door or a bent section of rail.

Insulation and Seals

Insulated door options, new bottom rubber, side and top seals for garages that bake in a valley summer.

Springs explained

A door that suddenly feels much heavier, or will not stay where you leave it part-way open. Keep it closed and call.

A torsion spring twists on a shaft above the door and hands its torque to the cable drums, while an extension spring stretches beside the horizontal track and needs a safety cable run through it.

Guides put both types around 10,000 to 20,000 cycles. This Old House turns that into roughly 8 to 15 years for torsion springs and 7 to 12 for extension springs. Rust, hard climate swings like Santa Clarita's, a heavier door and a door left open for long stretches all shorten it.

The spring type, how many springs the door uses and what the inspection finds. You see it in writing before any work starts.

No: DASMA says a door with a broken spring should not be run at all, by hand or by opener.

Cost and the visit

Mostly fatigue: every trip flexes the wire, rust pits seed cracks, and a spring sized for another door gives out sooner.

On a door that runs many times a day, yes, since DASMA treats the high-cycle spring as its own product category.

Not always, but they get checked on every spring job, because the cables and drums carry the same load the spring does. A frayed or slack cable is covered on our garage door cable and track repair page.

Only if a spring is the cause, since a door that refuses to close is often a misaligned or unplugged photo eye, which our garage door opener repair page explains.

Yes. The opener only steers a door the springs already balance, so new springs change how it runs, and the reversal test gets run before we leave. If the opener is old enough to lack the battery backup California has required on newly installed openers since July 1, 2019, replacing it is a separate decision, covered under garage door opener installation.

Spring gave out? Keep the door closed and call

Call and describe the door

(661) 219-7632

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Sunday-Thursday 6:30 AM-11:30 PM, Friday 6 AM-3:45 PM