Garage door repair
Off-track doors, bent panels, snapped cables, worn rollers, noisy operation. Diagnosed on the first visit and quoted before we touch anything.
Free estimate, exact price up front Repair in Orange County
A snapped spring is the loudest thing your garage will ever do, and the one repair you should not attempt yourself. We replace them in pairs so the second one doesn’t strand you next month.
Seven days a week, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM · Free estimates · CSLB #1155586
People usually describe the same handful of things. Any two of these together and it’s the counterbalance, not the opener.
A torsion spring holds several hundred pounds of stored energy. Winding or unwinding one without the correct bars and a way to lock the shaft is how people lose fingers and take a bar to the face. Replacement parts are cheap online; the tools, the torque calculation and the experience are the job. If the door is already down, leave it down — nothing about waiting a day makes it worse.
| Torsion | Extension | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it sits | On a steel shaft directly above the door opening | Along the horizontal tracks on each side, stretching as the door lowers |
| How it fails | Metal fatigues and the coil splits — you see a clean gap | Stretches out, loses tension, or snaps and whips sideways |
| Door behaviour | Door goes dead heavy and won’t lift | Door lifts unevenly, hangs crooked, jerks |
| Safety cable needed | No — the shaft contains it | Yes — without one a snapped spring becomes a projectile |
| Typical on | Most doors installed in the last 25 years | Older and lighter single-car doors |
If you have extension springs and no safety cables running through them, we will tell you, and we’ll fit them. It’s an inexpensive part that stops a failed spring from crossing the garage at speed.
Springs are rated in cycles — one open plus one close is a cycle. A standard spring is built for around 10,000 of them, which for a family opening the door four times a day works out to roughly seven years. Both springs on your door were fitted on the same day and have done the same number of cycles. When one fails, the other is at the end of its life too.
Replacing one means paying a second call-out within months, and running a mismatched pair puts the door out of balance in the meantime. We quote both. If you want the door to last longer than the next set, ask about high-cycle springs — roughly double the life for a modest amount more, and worth it on a door that opens six or eight times a day.
A standard residential pair is $500 fitted. Oversized doors, high-cycle springs, or a failure that also took out the cables or drums are quoted on sight — and we measure rather than guess, because a spring sized off the last installer’s mistake is why some doors eat springs every two years. You get the exact number before we start, and the estimate is free either way.
While we’re on the shaft we check the cables, drums, bearings and the door’s balance as part of the 25-point inspection that comes with every visit. If the opener has been fighting a broken spring for a while, we’ll check whether the gear survived it.
A standard spring is rated for about 10,000 cycles — one open plus one close each. At four openings a day that is roughly seven years. Open the door eight times a day and you will get half that. High-cycle springs roughly double the rating and are worth considering on a busy door.
By hand, only with great difficulty and real risk — the springs, not the opener, carry the weight of the door. Do not use the opener to force it: you will strip the gear or bend the top section. If your car is trapped inside, tell us on the phone and we will factor it into scheduling.
Both were installed on the same day and have done the same number of cycles, so the second is at the end of its life too. Replacing one means a second call-out within months and an unbalanced door until then. We quote both and explain the difference.
It depends on the door's weight and height, the correct spring size, whether the cables and drums survived, and whether you choose standard or high-cycle springs. Estimates are free with no trip fee, so you get an exact number before committing.
The part is cheap; the job is not. A torsion spring holds hundreds of pounds of stored energy and needs the correct winding bars, a locked shaft and the right torque. It is the single most dangerous repair on a residential garage door. It is also the one where the wrong spring size quietly destroys the opener over the following year.
We are open seven days and most jobs get handled the same day or the next. We are two owner-operators, not a dispatch fleet, so call and describe the situation and we will tell you honestly when we can be there rather than book a window we cannot hold.
One visit, one truck. If something else on the door needs attention we'll tell you and quote it before we do it.
Off-track doors, bent panels, snapped cables, worn rollers, noisy operation. Diagnosed on the first visit and quoted before we touch anything.
Free estimate, exact price up front Repair in Orange County
Belt and chain drive units supplied and installed, with the safety sensors set properly and the travel limits dialled in before we leave.
New openers starting from $849+ Openers in Orange County
Steel, woodgrain composite and modern flush panel doors. We measure, order, remove the old door and haul it away.
Starting at $1,800+ New doors in Orange CountyFree estimate, no trip fee. We’ll tell you honestly when we can be there.