Garage Door Spring Repair in Los Angeles, CA

Why did the spring break when nothing else changed?

Because springs are consumables, and here they die of cycle fatigue, not cold. Minimal freeze means no cold-snap snap. The steel work-hardens on every open and close. A crack starts at one coil surface and runs. Most let go while the door is closed and loaded. The tell is a two- or three-inch gap in the coil.

Replacement is measured, not guessed. Wire diameter, inside diameter, overall length, wind direction. Ten coils measured with a caliper give the wire size. Door weight drives the math, not door width. A 1970s hardboard sectional and a modern insulated steel door of identical size take different springs. One-piece tilt-up slabs on prewar and early postwar garages usually run jamb-mounted extension springs, and those need containment cables through the coil.

The anchor matters as much as the spring. Torsion hardware lags into the header, and daily vibration backs those lags out of old fir framing. We check the center bearing plate and the end bearings. We also check whether the drums still match the cable size.

Near the coast and in low-lying tracts, salt and humidity pit coils and hinge pins. Pitting shortens life quietly. If one spring on a dual set broke, the mate is the same age.