Traducir al español »

Contact Us

Garage Door Spring Repair & Replacement

The Bang You Heard Was Probably a Spring

It’s the most common garage door failure there is: a loud bang from the garage, and suddenly the door weighs a ton, opens a few inches and stops, or won’t move at all. That’s a broken spring — and it’s also the garage door repair we complete more than any other. Forest Garage Doors stocks springs for 99% of residential doors on our trucks, which means most broken springs in Chicago’s western suburbs are fixed the same day you call.

One thing before anything else: don’t keep hitting the opener button, and don’t try to lift the door by hand. The springs carry the door’s full weight — without them, you’re wrestling 150 to 300 pounds of steel, and the opener isn’t built for it either. Call (708) 652-9405 and leave the door where it is.

Request Service
Garage door spring inventory

Signs Your Spring Is Broken (or About to Be)

This matters because the fix isn’t just lifting the door back in. If we don’t correct the cause — the worn rollers, the frayed cable, the bent bracket — the door comes off again. Our repair always includes finding and fixing the reason it happened.

Loud Noise

A loud bang from the garage — the sound of a torsion spring letting go

Gap in Spring

A visible gap of an inch or two in the spring coil above the door.

Straining Door

The door feels extremely heavy or the opener strains and gives up.

Door partially opens

The door opens a few inches, stops, and settles back down.

Door Slams

The door slams closed faster than it used to — a spring losing tension.

Squealing Noise

Squealing or popping under load, or visible rust on the coils.

Our Spring Repair Process

  • Measure and match: springs are sized to your door’s exact weight and height — we measure rather than guess, because a mismatched spring wears out fast and strains the opener
  • Replace in pairs on two-spring doors: both springs have the same mileage, and replacing only the broken one just schedules your next breakdown
  • Inspect the system: cables, drums, center bearing, and rollers wear alongside springs, and we check them while the shaft is apart
  • Rebalance and safety-test: we set the door’s balance and test the opener’s force settings and safety reverse before we leave
  •  
Garage Door Torsion Springs on a rack in our warehouse

What Garage Door Springs Actually Do

Springs are the counterbalance system that makes a heavy door feel light. Most modern doors use one or two torsion springs mounted on a shaft above the door; older doors often use extension springs that stretch along the horizontal tracks. Either way, the springs do the lifting — the opener just guides the motion. That’s why a door with a broken spring is dead weight, and why the fix is always the spring, not the opener.

What Garage Door Springs Actually Do

Springs are the counterbalance system that makes a heavy door feel light. Most modern doors use one or two torsion springs mounted on a shaft above the door; older doors often use extension springs that stretch along the horizontal tracks. Either way, the springs do the lifting — the opener just guides the motion. That’s why a door with a broken spring is dead weight, and why the fix is always the spring, not the opener.

A Word on DIY — and an Honest Alternative

We’ll be blunt: torsion spring replacement is the most dangerous job in garage door work. The springs are wound under extreme tension, and a slipped winding bar can cause life-changing injuries. This is a repair worth paying a professional for. That said, if you’re an experienced tradesperson who knows exactly what you’re doing, Forest is one of the few companies that will also sell you the correct springs directly through our parts department — measured and matched properly, with straight answers about the risks.

Frequently Asked Questions

It depends on your door's size, weight, and spring configuration, but spring replacement is one of the most predictable repairs we do — we quote the exact price before starting, and estimates are free. Call (708) 652-9405 with your door's rough size and we can usually give you a realistic number over the phone.

Usually, yes. We stock springs for 99% of residential doors on our trucks, so most spring calls are completed in a single same-day visit — including morning emergencies when the car is trapped inside.

We recommend it, and here's the honest math: both springs have identical wear, so the survivor is near the end of its life too. Replacing both in one visit costs far less than two separate service calls a few months apart.

With regular garage door maintenance and tune-ups, standard springs are rated around 10,000 cycles — roughly 7 years at four opens per day. High-cycle springs rated at 25,000+ cycles are available for a modest upcharge and are worth it for busy households.

Don't try. The door is dead weight without its counterbalance — dangerous to lift by hand and damaging to the opener. If your car is trapped and you need to get out, call us; broken-spring calls get same-day priority.

Look above the door: a spring wound around a horizontal shaft is a torsion spring. Springs stretched alongside the horizontal tracks are extension springs. We repair and replace both, and can convert older extension systems to safer torsion setups.

Broken Spring? Fixed Today.

Call Forest Garage Doors at (708) 652-9405 — springs for 99% of residential doors are already on our trucks. Serving Chicago and the western suburbs since 1946.