Garage Door Spring Repair in Alhambra

Extension springs run horizontally along the tracks either side of the door, stretching as it closes. They work perfectly well. The problem is what happens at the end of their life: an extension spring is under tension along its whole length, so when one lets go it can travel across the garage.

The protection is a containment cable threaded through the middle of each spring, which catches the pieces. On a lot of original Alhambra hardware it was never fitted. If yours do not have them, have that corrected whatever else you decide about the door. It is a small part and it is the difference between a loud morning and an injury.

Where the door is sound, we will often convert to a torsion system instead. Torsion controls the door through its whole travel, lasts longer, is quieter, and when it fails it stays on the shaft.

Much of Alhambra was built with single-car garages, so the door is lighter, the spring specification is different and single-spring systems are common. A price quoted from a standard double-door list will be wrong here in both directions.

The other thing that comes up is everything the spring has been working against. Seventy years of cycles wears bearing plates, the centre bracket and the shaft itself, and a new spring fitted to a worn bearing plate rumbles from day one. Those get checked while the shaft is exposed rather than sold to you later.

My springs are the long ones along the sides. Is that a problem?

Not in itself — extension springs are a legitimate design and millions of doors use them. The two things to check are whether containment cables are fitted through the middle of each spring, and whether the pulleys and cables at each end are in good order. If the answer to the first is no, fix that now; it costs very little.

The door is from the 1960s. Is it worth putting new springs in?

Usually yes. The sections are the strongest part of the assembly and a sound old door will outlast several sets of springs. It stops being worth it when the hinge fixings have torn through the steel or several sections are creased — at which point you are paying to repair something that will fail again, and we will say so rather than quote you both.

Alhambra sits close to our yard at 17th Avenue and Palmaire, so this is one of the shorter runs we make across 85015, 85017, 85019 and 85031 — Villa Monte Vista, Woodlea, Villa Verde and Alhambra Gardens included. Dispatch answers around the clock, there is no trip charge, and the price is agreed before anything is touched. The spring repair page covers the mechanics; Alhambra covers everything else we do here. Licensed in Arizona under ROC 344131, verifiable on the state register before anyone comes to the house.