You’re heading out to work on a Monday morning, press the button on your garage door opener, and nothing happens. Or worse, you heard a loud bang from the garage last night, and now the door won’t budge. Sound familiar?
If you’re dealing with a garage door that suddenly feels like it weighs a thousand pounds or won’t open at all, there’s a good chance your springs are the problem. This is one of the most common garage door repairs in Austin that we handle. Springs do the heavy lifting. They counterbalance the full weight of the door (most residential doors weigh between 150 and 250 pounds), so when they fail, everything stops.
Here in Austin, our springs take extra punishment. The brutal summer heat cycling, with 100°F days followed by cooler nights, causes the metal to expand and contract thousands of times a year. That wears them out faster than in milder climates.
We’re All Points Garage Doors, and our technicians replace springs across Austin and the surrounding suburbs every single day. Here are the five signs we tell homeowners to watch for.
1. You Heard a Loud Bang from the Garage
This is the classic sign. A torsion spring snapping sounds like a gunshot or a car backfiring. It’s loud enough to hear from inside your house. If you heard that boom and your door won’t open the next morning, you’ve almost certainly got a broken spring.
Don’t try to force it open. A garage door without working springs is dead weight, and the cables are likely under uneven tension. Forcing it risks damaging the tracks, the opener motor, or the door itself.
2. The Door Won’t Stay Open or Feels Extremely Heavy
Try this: disconnect your opener by pulling the emergency release handle, then lift the door manually about halfway. Let go. A door with healthy springs should stay put, hovering in place. If it immediately crashes back down or feels like you’re deadlifting at the gym, your springs have lost their tension.
Springs weaken gradually before they snap completely. This is actually the ideal time to catch the problem, before you’re stuck with a door that won’t move at all. If you’re in this stage, call for service before the spring gives out entirely and potentially damages other components.
| Think your springs are going? Don’t wait for the snap.Call All Points Garage Doors at (512) 796-4985 or schedule an appointment online. |
3. You Can See a Visible Gap in the Torsion Spring
Your torsion springs sit on a metal shaft directly above the door when the door is closed. They look like tightly wound coils. When a torsion spring breaks, it separates, leaving a visible gap (usually a few inches wide) in the middle of the coil.
This one’s easy to spot. Stand inside your garage with the door closed and look up. If you see a gap in one of those coils, that spring is done. And here’s the important part: do not touch it. Even a broken torsion spring holds residual tension. People have been seriously injured trying to handle these on their own.
4. The Door Opens Crooked or Jerks to One Side
Most two-car garage doors use a pair of springs working together. When one spring breaks and the other remains intact, the door pulls unevenly. You’ll see it open crooked, tilt to one side, or jerk and shudder on the way up.
This puts serious stress on the remaining spring, the tracks, and the cables. In many of the emergency garage door repair calls we get across Austin, the homeowner ignored the crooked opening for a few days and ended up with a door completely jammed in the tracks. What started as a spring replacement turned into a bigger (and pricier) repair.
We see this a lot in Round Rock and Cedar Park neighborhoods, where the homes are 10-15 years old. That’s right at the age when original builder-grade springs start failing.
5. Your Springs Are Over 7-10 Years Old
Standard torsion springs are rated for about 10,000 cycles. One cycle equals one open and one close. If your household opens the garage door 4 times a day (pretty typical for leaving for work, coming home, taking the kids somewhere, or a delivery), that’s roughly 1,460 cycles per year. That puts most springs at the end of their life somewhere around the 7-year mark.
In Austin’s climate, that number can be even lower. The constant heat cycling (metal expanding in 105°F heat, then contracting overnight) fatigues the coils faster. Our technicians see springs fail at 5-6 years on west-facing garages in neighborhoods like Circle C, Steiner Ranch, and Avery Ranch, where the afternoon sun bakes the garage door all summer.
If you moved into a home and don’t know when the springs were last replaced, a quick visual inspection during a repair visit can help us estimate their age and remaining life.
Torsion vs. Extension Springs: What’s the Difference?
There are two types of garage door springs, and knowing which kind you have helps you understand the repair:
Torsion springs mount on a metal shaft above the door. They twist to store energy and are the more common type of modern garage doors. They’re stronger, last longer, and provide smoother operation. Most homes in Austin built after 2000 have torsion springs.
Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on either side of the door. They stretch and contract to lift the door. They’re more common on older homes and single-car garages. Extension springs are more dangerous when they break because they can fly off. That’s why they should always have safety cables running through them.
Either way, spring replacement isn’t a DIY job. Our techs carry both types on the truck and can swap them out in about an hour.
Why DIY Garage Door Spring Repair Is Dangerous
We get it. There are YouTube videos that make spring replacement look doable. But here’s what those videos don’t always show you: torsion springs are wound under extreme tension. The winding bars used to adjust them can slip. The spring can unwind violently. People end up in the ER every year from attempting this repair.
The tools alone (winding bars, vise grips, the correct replacement springs matched to your door’s weight) cost nearly as much as hiring a professional. And if you install the wrong spring tension, you risk burning out your opener motor, damaging the door, or creating a safety hazard for your family.
This is one repair where calling a pro actually saves you money. A trained technician can diagnose the issue, replace both springs (we always recommend replacing both even if only one broke since they’re the same age), and test the balance and safety systems in about an hour.
If the spring failure caused other damage, such as bent tracks, frayed cables, or a damaged opener, we’ll catch it during the same visit. And if the door itself is at the end of its life, we’ll give you an honest recommendation on whether a garage door replacement makes more sense than continuing repairs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Spring Replacement in Austin?
Our technicians carry springs on the truck and can usually get to you the same day. We serve Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Lakeway, Georgetown, Leander, and the surrounding areas. Call (512) 796-4985 or get a free estimate online.
