Garage door service in Clark County, WA
Garage door springs replaced, sized to your door's weight
We replace broken torsion and extension springs across Vancouver, Washington and Clark County, matching each new spring to your door by wire size, inside diameter, length and wind. The door leaves balanced, and a two-spring shaft gets a matched pair.
Updated
Signs you need this repair
Spring calls usually start with something heard or felt, well before anyone looks up at the shaft over the door.
- A crack like a dropped two-by-four from the garage while the door sat closed
- Two coils on the shaft sitting inches apart, with a clean break between them
- The door shudders up a few inches on the opener, then the opener quits
- The door sinks from halfway as soon as someone lets go
- Slack lift cables beside the tracks after the door came down hard
How a spring replacement visit runs
A spring visit follows a fixed order, since each step depends on the last, and it begins with the photo you send.
Read the photo, then the whole lift system
Your photo of the shaft usually shows whether the door runs one torsion spring or two, and any paint marks hint at the wire size, so the likely springs ride along on the first trip. On site we look past the break, because a spring letting go under tension can loosen a drum or kink a cable.
Clamp the door and unwind what is left
Safety step: the door is clamped in its track below a roller so it cannot climb, and the opener is unplugged. The surviving spring on a two-spring shaft still holds its full wind, so a winding bar is seated in its cone before any set screw is loosened, and the tension comes off in quarter turns with a second bar always in place.
Measure the old spring, and sometimes the door
Wire size is measured across a run of coils, inside diameter from the cone, and length from the relaxed spring, with the wind read from the cone color or the coil itself. A spring installed years ago may never have suited the door, so when the numbers look wrong we weigh the door with the springs disconnected.
Change what rides on the shaft
Swapping springs means freeing the lift cables and sliding parts along the shaft, so every piece on it gets handled anyway. That makes it the least costly moment to change a center bearing that grinds, an end bearing that wobbles, or a drum with a chipped groove, instead of unwinding everything again next year.
Wind to the door maker's turn count
Each spring gets a slight stretch on the shaft so its coils do not scrape, then the turn count the door's height and drums call for, applied in quarter turns, before the set screws are snugged. Too many turns and the door lifts off the floor on its own; too few and it drifts down from open.
Prove the balance, then reconnect the opener
With the opener disconnected, we bring the door up by hand to roughly waist level and take our hands away. A balanced door hangs there, three to four feet off the floor, without creeping. The opener is then reconnected, its travel and force are checked, and the door must reverse when it closes onto a two-by-four laid flat.
How we size a replacement torsion spring
A torsion spring is matched on four measurements, then checked against the door it lifts, because a near miss on any of them shows up as a door that drifts, jumps or strains the opener.
| Measurement | How it is taken | What it controls |
|---|---|---|
| Wire diameter | Across a run of coils, because one coil is too thin to read well | How much force each turn stores; the torsion paint code tracks it |
| Inside diameter | From the winding cone inside the spring | Which cones fit, and with the wire, how stiff the spring is |
| Length | End to end, with the broken halves pieced together | How many turns the spring takes to carry the door |
| Wind direction | By convention a red cone marks a right-wound spring for the left side, a black cone a left-wound one for the right | Which side of the center bracket it mounts on |
| Door weight and height | Worked out from the door, or weighed with the springs disconnected | Whether the old spring was ever right, and the new turn count |
Why a two-spring door gets both springs
Both springs on a shared shaft were installed together and have lifted the same door the same number of times, so when one breaks, the other has used nearly the same share of its cycles.
Replacing only the broken one leaves a fresh spring working beside a tired one, and an old survivor may not match any spring stocked today, so the door can end up pulling harder on one cable than the other.
Why damp Clark County garages shorten spring life
Rust is what shortens springs here: pits in the wire become starting points for the fatigue cracks that end a spring early, and a Clark County garage stays damp for much of the year.
Pearson Field in Vancouver sees measurable rain roughly 163 days out of 365, and Battle Ground and Longview see more. A detached or uninsulated garage, a car that pulls in dripping, or a door left open through a rainy afternoon all keep moisture on the coils.
Galvanized springs carry a zinc coating against corrosion, and other coated finishes are made too. They cost more than plain steel, so we suggest them where the old spring shows rust, the slab stays wet, or the garage has no heat and little air movement. Whatever the finish, keep the door closed when nobody needs it open.
High-cycle springs for the garage you use as a front door
If the garage is how your household comes and goes, a high-cycle spring usually pays for itself, because the count of trips, not the calendar, is what wears a spring out.
Standard springs are commonly rated around 10,000 cycles, and springs rated around 30,000 cycles are widely offered. More cycles take more steel, so we check for room on the shaft before quoting one.
Is a standard 10,000-cycle spring enough for your household?
It depends on your trips: run three times a day, a 10,000-cycle spring needs about nine years to reach its rating, but at twelve a day it gets there in barely more than two.
| Door use | Yearly cycles | Years to 10,000 | Years to 30,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 cycles a day | 1,095 | About 9.1 | About 27.4 |
| About 4 a day, one door maker's stated average | 1,500 | About 6.7 | About 20 |
| 5 cycles a day | 1,825 | About 5.5 | About 16.4 |
| 12 cycles a day | 4,380 | About 2.3 | About 6.8 |
| 15 cycles a day | 5,475 | About 1.8 | About 5.5 |
What changes the price
The posted price covers one standard torsion spring on a typical residential door, and these are the things that move a spring job above it.
- A two-spring door, where both springs are replaced as a pair
- Heavier wire or longer springs for wide, insulated, wood or carriage-style doors
- High-cycle or galvanized springs chosen for heavy use or a damp garage
- Drums, bearing plates or cables worn enough to replace while the shaft is apart
- A bent or rust-pitted torsion shaft
- Side-spring doors that need containment cables added
When replacing beats repairing
Replacing the door beats a new spring only when the door itself is failing, since a snapped spring alone never justifies a new door.
Failing looks like sections cracked along the hinge lines, steel skins separating from their foam, or a wood door gone soft at the bottom rail. There a spring only buys time, so we quote the spring and a new door together and you decide with both numbers.
Spring replacement: questions and answers
Can you tell my torsion spring size from a photo?
A photo gets us close, not all the way. Paint marks, cone colors and the number of springs on the shaft let us bring the likely sizes on the first trip. We still measure wire, inside diameter and length before winding, because the industry paint code identifies only part of a spring.
If one of my two torsion springs broke, do both need replacing?
In most cases, yes, because the survivor has lifted the door exactly as many times as the one that broke. A new spring paired with a worn one can leave the door pulling unevenly on its cables. When the springs are nearly new, we measure the unbroken one, show you what we found and let you decide.
Are high-cycle or galvanized garage door springs worth the extra cost?
They are when the door runs many times a day or the garage stays damp. High-cycle springs are built for heavy daily use, and galvanized springs carry a zinc coating that resists the rust that pits spring wire. A dry attached garage with light use does fine on a standard spring.
Could the broken spring have damaged my opener or lift cables?
It can, so both get checked before we leave. An opener that tried to lift the door after the spring snapped may have strained its drive gear or bent its door bracket, and a spring letting go under load can throw a cable off its drum or kink it. Often the opener runs normally once the door is balanced again.
Why shouldn't I wind a garage door torsion spring myself?
A wound torsion spring stores enough energy to injure someone badly the instant a tool slips out of the cone. Winding takes two proper bars that fit the cone snugly, a steady sequence of quarter turns, and the correct turn count for your door. A screwdriver or loose rod slips, and the spring unloads through the hand holding it.
Can a broken torsion spring be repaired instead of replaced?
No, a broken torsion spring is always replaced, never welded, clamped or shortened. The break is a fatigue crack in spring steel, and welding heat or a splice would leave a weak spot carrying the whole door. A new spring sized to the door is the only safe repair.
Does a repainted or reinsulated door need a bigger spring than before?
It can, because springs are sized to door weight, and paint, added insulation, a decorative overlay or a heavier replacement section all raise it. A spring sized for the old weight leaves the door heavy near the floor and makes the opener work harder, so we weigh any door that no longer fits its spring.
Where to go next
Where we do this work
Broken springs turn up from older houses near downtown Vancouver to the newest streets in Ridgefield.
Want a price before anyone drives over?
Call and describe what the door is doing, or text a photo of the door and the spring above it. You hear the likely repair and where its price starts, then decide.