Garage Door Repair Involving Springs Should Always Be Left to a Professional

Posted: Dec 05, 2012
Author: Doors by Nalley of Lake Norman, Inc.

A garage door spring is a large wire coil that helps lift and lower your garage door. If the springs are correctly installed and adjusted, you only have to get the garage door started by moving it manually up or down a little, and then the springs will take over. An automatic garage door opener will get the door started, but the springs still do the actual lifting and lowering.

There are 2 basic types of garage door springs – extension and torsion. They are used with swing-up doors and sectional roll-away doors respectively. The latter utilizes two torsion springs on either side of the top of the garage door. A swing-up door has two extension springs which are mounted on swing-arms that extend on either side.

When extended, the springs are subjected to tremendous tension. If failure occurs, the entire garage door could drop onto a car or a person. Unfortunately, the majority of homeowners are not aware that springs, tracks, arms, rollers and other garage door parts need routine safety checks. They overlook this fact until some other less serious garage repair issue arises.

Loose hardware, worn parts and corrosion can cause accidents, while improperly adjusted springs can make a garage door extremely difficult to lift or, conversely, cause it to literally fly up out of your hands.

When garage door repair involves springs, be advised that this is not a DIY job. The work should be left to an experienced garage door repair technician. If you attempt to change a spring, you or a family member could lose control of it and sustain an injury.