Resources · Garage door springs
Broken garage door spring? What to do right now
Stop using the door, unplug the opener, keep everyone clear of it, and call for a spring replacement. Do not try to lift it by hand or run the opener again.
Open 24 hours. Same-day spring replacement across Madison and Dane County.
- Open 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Same-day service across Dane County
- Price confirmed before work starts
If your garage door spring broke, leave the door where it is, unplug the opener, and call a garage door company to replace the spring. The spring is what makes a garage door liftable. Once it snaps, the door weighs its full weight, often over 200 pounds for a two-car door, and neither you nor the opener should try to move it.
Broken torsion springs are the most common call Glacier Garage Doors gets in Madison. Here is how to tell it is the spring, what to do in the first ten minutes, and what the repair involves.
How do you know if your garage door spring is broken?
A loud bang from the garage, followed by a door that will not open, is a broken spring almost every time. People hear it from inside the house and assume something fell off a shelf. Other signs:
- The door lifts a few inches and stops, or the opener hums and strains. The opener is trying to lift dead weight.
- A two-inch gap in the coil on the bar above the door. That is where a torsion spring split.
- The door is crooked or a cable is hanging loose. When the spring lets go, the cables lose tension. See garage door cable repair if the door dropped on one side.
- The door feels far heavier than usual when you pull the release. A balanced door lifts with one hand.
What should you do right after a garage door spring breaks?
Make the door safe, then call. In order:
- Stop pressing the button. Every attempt strains the opener's gear and motor. A stripped gear turns a spring job into a garage door opener repair too.
- Unplug the opener so nobody in the house hits the wall button or a remote out of habit.
- If the door is closed, leave it closed. That is the safest position.
- If the door is stuck open, do not pull the red release cord. With no spring holding it, the door can free-fall. Keep kids, pets, and cars out from under it.
- Do not touch the springs, cables, or bottom brackets. They can still be under tension.
- Take a photo of the bar above the door if you can do it from a safe spot. It helps us bring the right springs.
- Call (608) 292-6646. Glacier Garage Doors answers 24 hours a day, so a spring that breaks at 6 a.m. on a January Saturday still gets a person on the phone.
Can you open a garage door with a broken spring?
Not safely. Without the spring, the door's full weight is on whoever or whatever is lifting it. Two people can sometimes muscle a light single-car door up, but if it slips it drops hard, and the opener cannot do it at all without damage.
If your car is stuck inside, tell us when you call. We will tell you whether it is safe to get the door up before a tech arrives, and if not, how soon one can be there.
Why do garage door springs break?
Springs wear out. A standard torsion spring is rated for about 10,000 open-and-close cycles, which works out to seven to twelve years for most households. When it reaches the end of that life, it breaks.
Madison winters speed that up. Cold snaps finish off springs that are already near the end, because metal contracts on the first morning below zero and a tired spring lets go. Road salt tracked into the garage rusts springs and bottom hardware, and frost heave in the spring can knock a door out of balance and add strain. If your spring is original to a house built in the 1990s or earlier, it is due.
Heavy use matters too. A door that is the main entrance for a family of four can cycle five or six times a day. For those garages, high-cycle springs rated well past 10,000 cycles are worth asking about.
Should you replace one garage door spring or both?
Both. On a two-spring door, the springs were installed the same day and have made the same number of cycles. When one breaks, the other is close behind. Replacing only the broken one usually means a second service call within months.
Glacier Garage Doors replaces both springs on every two-spring door, then balances the door so the opener does as little work as possible. Single-spring doors get a single replacement. Older single-car garages with extension springs, common in Nakoma, Vilas, and the neighborhoods near campus, get both extension springs replaced along with safety cables.
How long does garage door spring replacement take, and what does it cost?
Garage door spring replacement usually takes under an hour once the tech arrives. Our trucks carry torsion springs, cables, rollers, and bottom brackets for the doors common in Dane County, so most spring jobs are finished on the first visit, same day.
Price depends on the door: its weight, the spring size, torsion versus extension springs, and whether any cables or rollers were damaged when the spring let go. The tech looks at the door, tells you what it needs and what it costs, and waits for your yes before starting. No work begins on a number you have not heard. Every replacement includes tensioning, balancing, and a check of the cables, rollers, and bottom brackets.
Read more about our garage door spring repair and replacement service in Madison.
Can you replace a garage door spring yourself?
We do not recommend it. A wound torsion spring holds enough energy to break a wrist or a winding bar, and setting the tension wrong leaves a door that slams shut or flies open. Spring sizing is also specific to each door's weight and height. A spring that is close but not right wears out fast and stresses the opener.
Spring replacement is one of the jobs where calling a pro is cheaper than the hospital visit, and with techs out across the metro from our Odana Rd office, help is usually same-day.
Broken spring in Madison or Dane County?
When a garage door spring breaks, the safe move is always the same: stop using the door, unplug the opener, stay clear of it, and call. Glacier Garage Doors replaces broken springs across Madison, from Westmorland and Midvale Heights to Middleton, Fitchburg, and Sun Prairie, with same-day service most days and a price confirmed before any work starts.
Call (608) 292-6646 any time, day or night, or see every town we serve.