Garage Door Springs

Broken Garage Door Springs

This is probably the most common problem that will cause your garage door to stop working. Your garage door opener only does a portion of the actual lifting required to move your garage door. A torsion spring that typically runs along the ceiling over your garage door, keeps the garage door opener from doing all of the work. If that spring breaks or stretches, which typically will happen every 5-7 years, your garage door opener will not be able to open the door.

Broken/Loose Cables

There are two main types of garage doors – those that operate by extension springs, and those that operate by torsion springs. Extension garage door springs look like normal king-size springs and are located on the left and right sides of the garage door – you will see them stretch out and expand as the garage door lowers, and contract as the garage door opens. Torsion springs are the second type of garage door springs — they look like tightly coiled springs above the garage door, and as the door lowers or raises, they twist to contract or expand. Most garage door repairs fall into two categories – broken springs, or a broken motor. Broken springs can be difficult to replace for the average person, requiring you to remove and replace high tension springs under significant compression. Most of us never think of the work that our garage door springs actually do – lifting and closing a large door every day, over and over again. The truth is, your garage door opener really doesn’t do much work, because of a physics helper, the springs! Garage Springs are used as the door is lowered, and the springs are stretched out (the motor literally pushes the garage door down). When it is time to lift the door, the garage door springs do 95% of the work as they recoil and pull the door back up, leaving the garage door motor to do little more than wind up the loose cable or chain. This is why most garage door openers are rated at only 1/2 to 1 horse power – it doesn’t take much power to lift up a garage door that is being pulled up by stretched springs. In any situation that your garage door springs refuse to move, its better to call a professional company to do the job. Broken springs can cause you a greater problem and even a risk if you don’t know how to deal with them correctly.

Broken Garage Door Rollers

The doors on your garage are moved smoothly up and down by garage door rollers. These are held in place by brackets that are attached to the door of your garage. The roller has a stem which fits into a bracket sleeve while the roller itself fits into a track. A solid design however it does not guarantee that it will stay there no matter what. It can jump off track from time to time and when that happens you will need to call an experienced garage door repair company to do the job. Even though it seems like an easy task, you can find yourself in danger or with possible greater problems if you try to fix it on your own.

GSM Garage Doors and Gates is the leading residential garage door installation and repair contractor in San Diego County and Southern California. If you are looking for a roll-up garage door, we also have just the right product for you!