Broken torsion or extension spring on your San Diego garage door? We repair and replace springs sized for the 1960s-90s doors common across the metro's 21 neighborhoods.
A garage door spring does one job: it counterbalances the weight of the door so the opener isn't lifting 150-plus pounds on its own. When it fails, it fails in one of two ways. A torsion spring, mounted on a shaft above the door, snaps clean and you'll usually hear the bang from inside the house. An extension spring, running along the horizontal tracks on either side, stretches out and loses tension slowly, so the door gets heavier to lift over weeks instead of failing all at once. Either way, the door will not stay up on its own, and an opener that keeps trying to lift a dead-spring door will burn out its drive gear or strip the trolley within a few cycles. We also see the safety cable missing or never installed on older extension-spring setups, which matters if a spring does let go while the door is in motion. Housing stock across the San Diego service area is mostly 1960s-70s vintage, and a lot of those garages still run the original-style spring hardware, just replaced piece by piece over the decades rather than upgraded as a system.
How We Fix It
We size the replacement spring to the door's actual weight and cycle count, not just to what was already on the shaft, because a spring that's slightly undersized will fail again inside a year. For torsion springs we check the shaft, center bearing, and end bearing plates while we're up there, since a worn bearing plate is often what killed the spring in the first place. For extension spring pairs we replace both sides together even if only one has failed - mismatched tension is the most common cause of a door that runs crooked in the tracks. We add safety cables where they're missing. On doors where the drum, shaft, or track has also worn out, spring replacement alone won't fix the underlying problem, and we'll say so rather than sell a spring job that doesn't hold. A straightforward spring swap is usually a same-visit repair; ordering a nonstandard spring size for an oversized or custom door can take longer, and we'll tell you upfront if that's the case.
How It Shows Up
Most calls start the same way: the door won't open, or it opens a few inches and stops. If the opener motor is straining and making a grinding noise but the door barely moves, that's a spring that's already gone or close to it - don't keep hitting the button, because that's what burns out the opener. A door that feels noticeably heavier than it used to, especially if you're lifting it manually during a power outage, is usually a slow-failing extension spring rather than a sudden torsion break. Visible gaps in a torsion spring's coils, or one side of the spring hanging loose while the other stays tight, means it's already broken and just hasn't fully let go. None of this is safe to force through - a spring under tension that finally releases while someone's hands are near the shaft or track is the injury we see most often on these calls.
Why It Happens Here
San Diego's mild temperate climate is actually kind to springs compared to places with real freeze-thaw cycles or high humidity swings - you're not fighting rust the way homes further inland or in wetter climates do. What drives spring failures here is age and cycle count. Housing across the service area was mostly built between 1967 and 1992, with a median build year around 1975, which puts a large share of original garage hardware at 40 to 55 years of service life on springs rated for roughly 10,000 open-close cycles. Across the 21 named areas we cover, from to that means a lot of doors are on their second or third spring already, sometimes on hardware that's a mix of eras because a previous repair swapped only the failed side. With 48,883 owner-occupied houses among the roughly 136,422 households in the area, spring wear is one of the most common calls we get, and it's rarely a surprise once you know the age of the stock.
How it works
From “it’s stuck” to “it’s fixed”
1
Tell us what’s wrong
Describe the symptom - won’t open, loud bang, opener runs but the door won’t move.
2
On-site diagnosis
A technician tests the door under power and by hand and finds what actually failed.
3
Clear, up-front plan
You get the fix that’s needed and what drives the cost - before any work starts.
4
Repaired & tested
The repair is done, the door is set true and tested, and the work area left clean.
Serving San Diego, CA - tell us what your door’s doing and we’ll take it from there.
How long does a garage door spring last in San Diego?
Most torsion springs are rated for about 10,000 cycles, roughly 7-10 years of normal use. Given that much of San Diego's housing dates to the late 1960s through early 1990s, a lot of original hardware is well past that, so failure often comes down to age and cycle count rather than any single event.
Can I replace just one spring if I have two?
On a two-spring torsion or extension setup, we replace both together even if only one broke. The surviving spring is usually close behind it in wear, and mismatched tension between an old and new spring makes the door run crooked and wears the tracks and rollers faster.
Is it safe to open the door manually if the spring is broken?
You can, but it will be heavy - the spring is what offsets most of the door's weight. Lift slowly and don't let the door drop on its own. Don't keep running the opener against a broken spring, since that's what usually burns out the motor or strips the drive gear.
Do you work on doors outside your regular coverage area?
We cover San Diego and the surrounding areas listed on our site, generally within about 15-17 miles of the city. If you're further out, check with us directly before booking, since travel distance affects same-day availability.
Ready to get your garage door sorted?
Tell us what it’s doing and where you are in San Diego - we’ll take it from there.
