Garage Door Dave

Do You Have A Broken Spring That Needs To Be Fixed?

Call Dave Vogel At 904-260-1322 and get High Cycle Springs at a Great Price

If your springs look like the ones in this picture (with a two or three inch gap) that is why the door won't open. If you would like to see a bigger version of this picture you can click on the picture. There are a few things that you need to know to make a good decision about who to use to do this work.

The Great Price - $300 For Both Springs
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Extremely heavy or oversized doors may be slightly more ($360), for details see bottom of page.

First, you need to understand that the springs break because the door has gone up and down a certain number of times. Their life expectancy is actually rated in cycles, typically around 10,000 to 15,000 cycles (that's ups and downs) for the original spring on a door.If you open the door 5 times a day, on average, the 15,000 cycle springs will last just over 8 years. There is nothing that you (or your spouse, or your tennant) did to cause it to break. It doesn't matter if the springs are rusty, or galvanized, or coated with grease (a big NO-NO), when they reach their rated life they break. Typically if you replace one spring of a matched pair the other one will break within a couple of months. It's purely a fatigue issue. If you bend a piece of metal, then straighten it out, then bend it again, repeat as necessary, eventually it breaks. That's all there is to it. I recommend replacing both springs at the same time primarilly because the cost (to you) of replacing them separately is considerably more than if you do them at the same time, not to mention the inconvenience of having the car trapped in the garage again. I only use springs that are rated at 25,000 cycles or more (in the 5 times a day scenario previously discussed that translates to a little over 13.5 years), and at a better price than most of my competitors charge for 15,000 cycle springs.


Another broken spring, you probably recognize this by now. This is an example of a single spring (two pieces, broken at the obvious gap). Notice that the spring only extends to the right of the bracket that mounts it to the wall, which is different from the picture above where there is a spring on each side of the wall mount bracket. The price for a single spring replacement is $230


You know what they say about if your not paranoid it doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you. Realize that if you have a basic distrust of service people, it is probably not just your imagination. One of the scams that you need to be aware of is that of the lifetime warranty springs. The springs provided for lifetime warranties are usually very short life springs (usually will break within a couple of years). When the spring breaks, a new one is provided for free but the labor charge for changing it out matches or exceeds what most of us charge for the whole job.

Some of the local companies will tell you that they have to be in your garage, see what your springs are, to be able to quote you a price. They are depending on the average person fearing confrontation and being reluctant to tell them to get lost (no matter how high their price is) once they are physically there.

Another scam is when the company quotes a reasonable price for the spring replacement, but when they get in your garage, suddenly you need the drums that the cables wind up on, and all of the rollers on the door, and maybe even the bar that the springs go on, and don't forget the bearing plates at the top of the tracks. Any of these can go bad, but not all at once. A great indicator is the price of the rollers. If they want $200 to replace 10 rollers tell them to get out of your garage and don't pay them for anything. If they tell you that there is no warranty unless you have them do all of the recommended service, they are scamming you.

A Wayne Dalton Torquemaster, the springs are inside the tube. A Wayne Dalton Torquemaster, the springs are inside the tube.

If you have one of the garage doors where you cannot find the springs, just a bar over the door with the little plastic spools that the cables wind up on, like the pictures above, you have a Wayne Dalton TorqueMaster. The springs are actually inside the tube and because of geometry constraints they don't last very long. I, and everyone else including the original installer, replace these with a conventional torsion spring assembly. Wayne Dalton claims these are 10,000 cycle springs, and I have my doubts. The springs I use for these replacements are rated at 40,000 to 50,000 cycles on a 7' tall door (less on an 8' tall door), depending on which door we are talking about, so they should last at least four times as long as the originals did, and will probably outlive me. The added parts and labor increase the price of a spring job by $160 for this one time conversion, but future spring jobs will just be the normal $230/$300 discussed previously on this page. To clear up the question in your head, if you have a standard two car garage (16' wide x 7' tall) this will cost $460, or a single car door (8' wide x 7' tall) the cost will be $390. If you have an 8' tall door, I charge an additional $30 because it takes longer to do the job. This makes the price for a 16' wide x 8' tall door $490, and an 8' x 8' door $420.

Finally, you can get your car out of the garage. Your garage door probably weighs between 150 pounds and 350 pounds but, as you should have noticed, you normally only have to lift 5 or 10 of those pounds. The springs do the bulk of the work, which keeps from wearing your door opener out as fast (especially if you are the door opener).Some doors have one spring, most two car garages have two, and a select few really heavy doors have three. When a spring breaks the door instantly becomes 100 to 175 pounds heavier for you or your door opener to lift, usually resulting in your car being stuck in your garage. A couple of healthy adults should be able to lift this amount of weight (the exception to this being the carriage house / barn door looking doors discussed below which weigh in at between 400 and 450 pounds), but it won't stay up by itself (you have to hold it up) and be careful closing the door also because if you just let it drop you can damage the door or hurt someone. You want to lift from as close to the center as you can so as not to tilt the door and cause a cable to come off of one of the drums that the cables roll up on. Also, do not try to lift the door too high, as this can also cause the cables to come off of the drums. The bottom of the door about 2 or 3 inches below the top of the door opening is a safe place to stop. If your two car door only has 1 spring to begin with, and it is broken, the door is going to be a little more dificult to open because it will have more of a tendancy for one side to be higher than the other, causing it to jam in the tracks. A single spring 2 car door typically weighs about 160 pounds. A single car door can usually be lifted by one healthy person as they don't weigh as much and they dont have as much of a problem with getting crooked in the tracks. Feel free to call me if you have questions prior to lifting the door. Due to the forces exerted by these springs it can be very dangerous to try to work on them without the proper knowledge and tools. This is the one job that really is better left to a professional.

I am committed to giving you the best product at a fair price.



A carriage house style door. Clarification on the price break point for heavy doors.
I have seen a few neighborhoods in Duval and northern St. Johns County that have insulated doors with a carriage house / barn door look (an example to the left). Some of these doors are heavy enough to use a commercial size spring. These springs cost me more money, consequently they cost you more money. Simply put, springs up to and including .262" wire size are covered by the $300 per pair price. Springs that are either .273" or .283" wire and less than 50" long cost you $360 per pair. I could use a smaller, shorter, cheaper spring in these cases but the springs would have a shorter life. Unfortunately I can't tell which springs you need until I am at your house and have measured the old ones. There are a few more doors that weigh more than normal doors. These would be insulated doors either 18' wide or 8' tall (7' is standard height) or both (18'x8'). Springs larger than .283 wire are custom springs and I will have to get a quote from my warehouse based on what the springs actually cost me.



David Vogel Garage Door Repairs

Founded in Honesty and Integrity

904-260-1322

Serving the Greater Jacksonville Area


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