DeCordova, Hood County
Broken Spring Replacement in DeCordova, TX
It sounds like a gunshot in the garage. Then the door will not lift. That is a torsion spring letting go of everything it was holding, all at once. It is the single most common thing we replace in DeCordova.
- Emergency and same-day repairs
- 5.0 from 10 reviews
- Upfront pricing, no hidden fees
- Free estimates
Why this is the job we tell people to stay off of
The broken spring is not the danger. It already let go. The danger is everything else still loaded. On a two spring door, the other spring is still fully wound. Both bottom brackets are still under the full pull of that counterbalance, which is exactly why the factory puts a warning label on them. Winding a torsion spring takes steel winding bars seated in the cone holes. Wrong size bar, loose set screw, or a hand slipping, and the bar comes out at speed with hundreds of pounds behind it. Emergency rooms see these. They are hand, wrist, face and teeth injuries. People use screwdrivers and rebar because that is what is in the garage, and that is how most of it happens.
Torsion and extension springs are two different systems
Torsion springs sit on a shaft above the door. That is what most doors built in the last few decades use. Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on both sides, stretch when the door closes, and pull back to help lift it. Plenty of older and lighter doors still have them. Here is the part that matters: an extension spring needs a safety cable run through the middle of it and anchored at both ends. Without that cable, a spring that snaps becomes a length of steel whipping across your garage. If your door has extension springs and no safety cables, we will put them in. They are cheap.
Sizing is measuring, not eyeballing
A torsion spring is defined by four things: wire diameter, inside diameter, length, and which way it winds. Those decide how much torque you get per turn. Picking the replacement means knowing what the door weighs, either by putting it on a scale with the springs off or by calculating from the panel construction and hardware. Too light a spring and the door stays heavy at the floor and burns through cycles fast. Too heavy and the door wants to fly open and the opener fights it all the way down. Both feel more or less fine on day one. Both cut the life of everything they are bolted to.
Broken Spring Replacement for DeCordova homes
A gated lakeside golf community on Lake Granbury built from the 1970s onward, where narrow lots, golf-cart bays and constant lake humidity all shape the door work.
Our route through DeCordova takes in 76049.
Anywhere around Lake Granbury is a short run for us.
About 3,252 people live in DeCordova, in Hood County.
Please do not attempt this one yourself
That spring is still loaded even with the door down. People get badly hurt trying to unwind one with the wrong tools. Leave the door shut, do not pull the release, and call us.
What you are probably seeing
- Top panel flexes or bends when the opener pulls on it.
- Cables have gone slack or jumped off the drums.
- Gaps between coils on a spring that has not broken yet, or rust pits in the coil.
- A loud bang from the garage, and the door worked fine right up until then.
- A two to three inch gap in the coil of the spring above the door.
DeCordova service
Call (214) 831-2545 or request a visit.
The visit
How a DeCordova call runs
Confirm it and secure the door
We find which spring broke, check whether the other one is still loaded, and clamp or block the door so it cannot move while we work. Opener stays disconnected the whole time.
Measure the door and the old springs
Wire diameter, inside diameter, length and wind direction come off the existing springs, and we establish what the door weighs. That decides the replacement. Not a visual match.
Unwind and strip it
Any leftover tension comes off with proper winding bars, cables come off the drums, old springs come off the shaft. We check the bearings, drums and shaft while we can actually see them.
New pair, wound to the right turn count
Both springs go on. Cables get set in the drums with equal tension so the door lifts square. Springs get wound to the turns this door needs, not to a default number.
Balance by hand, then reset the opener
Door gets lifted by hand and checked at several heights to make sure it holds position. Then the opener goes back on, travel and force get reset, and we test the safety reverse.
On the job
Broken Spring Replacement in the field
Questions
Broken Spring Replacement in DeCordova
Can I replace a torsion spring myself?
No. That is the one flat no on this whole site. It takes correctly sized steel winding bars, properly seated set screws, and a stance that keeps your body out of the arc of those bars. Improvised tools slipping under that kind of torque send people to the emergency room every year. Almost everything else on a garage door is fair game for a handy person. This is not.
How long will the new springs last?
Take the cycle rating and divide by how many times a day you open the door. A standard 10,000 cycle spring is four to five years at six openings a day, or about fourteen years at two. If your house is on the heavy end, ask about high cycle springs at 20,000 or more. The price difference is small next to a second replacement.
Can I get my car out before you arrive?
Sometimes, carefully, with help. With the opener released the door weighs everything it weighs, often over 200 pounds on a double. Two adults can usually manage it. Block it open with something solid, never with a person holding it, while the car comes out. Do not run the opener, because that is how a spring job turns into a spring, cable and opener job.
Does a broken spring wreck the opener?
Running the door on it will, given enough tries. The opener suddenly has to move the full weight, and what gives out is the drive gear, the trolley, the arm, or the top panel where the arm attaches. One or two presses before you figured out what happened is usually harmless. Twenty is not.
Do you have springs on the truck?
The common residential wire sizes and lengths, yes, so most jobs get done on the first visit. Unusual sizes, very heavy custom doors, and some high cycle setups occasionally have to be ordered. If yours is one of those, you hear it at the diagnosis, not later.
Need this handled today?
Broken Spring Replacement in DeCordova and across Hood County.