Foley, AL · Garage Door Service
Broken torsion spring on a Foley garage door? Foley Garage Door Pros fixes springs sized for the 1990s-era housing common across Baldwin County homes.
A torsion spring repair is not a five-minute fix, even though the symptom looks simple. The tech has to unwind and remove the old spring under full tension using winding bars, measure the wire size, inside diameter, and length against the door's actual weight, and set a replacement that matches - not just one that fits the shaft. Most double doors run two springs; if one has gone, the other is usually close behind from the same wear, so we check both rather than replacing one and getting a callback in a month.
We also inspect the cables, drums, and center bearing while the door is open and unloaded, because a spring failure under tension is one of the few times you can safely see those parts without fighting spring pressure. If a cable is frayed or a bearing is seized, that gets flagged before the door goes back into service.
We don't recommend DIY spring work. The tension involved in a wound torsion spring can break bones or worse if the winding bars slip, and this is one job where the tool cost of doing it right (proper bars, a vise grip on the shaft, a ladder rated for the reach) outweighs any savings for a one-time job.
Most jobs finish in under an hour once the tech is on site, doors included.
The most common call is a door that won't move at all - the opener runs, the light comes on, but the door sits still or only shudders a few inches. That's a snapped torsion spring; the opener isn't built to lift a full door's weight on its own; it only assists a properly sprung door.
A loud bang from the garage, often mistaken for a car backfire or something falling, is usually the spring itself letting go. If you hear that and then can't lift the door by hand, that confirms it - a working spring should let you lift a disconnected door with one hand.
A door that looks crooked, with one side higher than the other when it's partway open, points to one spring holding while its pair has already failed, or a cable that's come off a drum. That's not a same-fix as a full snap, but it gets worse fast if driven on.
Less dramatic: a door that's gotten noticeably harder to lift by hand over a few months, before anything breaks outright. That's spring fatigue, and catching it before the snap means a cheaper, calmer repair.
We don't post a flat number for spring repair because the job isn't flat - a single 8-foot residential door and a 16-foot double door use different spring sizes, and a door with two springs costs more in parts than one with a single spring. Door weight, insulation, and how many wind cycles the spring is rated for all move the number too.
What we can tell you: this repair is priced by the job once we know the door, not by the hour and not with a surprise add-on for parts once we're already there. If a spring inspection turns up a worn cable or bearing that should go at the same time, we'll say so and give you that number separately before doing the work, not after.
With median household income across our service area at $61,081, most callers want a straight answer on scope before they commit to a truck coming out, and that's a fair ask. We'd rather quote accurately off a couple of questions about your door than guess low over the phone and adjust up on site.
Most houses in the Foley area went up between 1993 and 2002, which puts a lot of original torsion springs somewhere between twenty and thirty years old right now - right in the window where fatigue failure gets common, since a spring is rated for a set number of open-close cycles, not a set number of years, and that number runs out eventually.
Across the wider service area - Elberta, Summerdale, Orange Beach, Robertsdale, Silverhill, Lillian, and Point Clear - the housing stock skews 1980s and 90s rather than newer construction, so a lot of garages are carrying original hardware that's simply reached the end of its rated life at close to the same time.
The climate here matters differently than it would somewhere with hard winters. Foley sits in a mild band with only occasional freeze, so the wear on a spring comes mostly from heat and humidity cycling through the year, not from ice locking up a track or metal contracting hard in deep cold. Coils sitting in a hot, humid garage for two decades corrode and lose tension gradually rather than snapping from cold shock - by the time you hear the bang, it's been weakening for a while.
If the opener motor runs (you hear it, the light comes on) but the door barely moves or doesn't move at all, that's almost always a spring, not the opener. Try lifting the door by hand with the opener disconnected - a good spring lets you lift it easily; a broken one means it feels like dead weight.
You can get a car out only if the door was already open when the spring broke, or by lifting it manually with real effort and a second person - not recommended alone given the weight. Once a spring's gone, treat the door as inoperable until it's fixed rather than forcing it repeatedly.
Not always, but often. Springs installed at the same time wear on a similar cycle count, so if one has failed from age, the other is usually close behind. We'll check the second spring's condition on site and tell you honestly whether it needs replacing now or can wait.
We don't recommend it. A wound torsion spring holds enough stored force to cause serious injury if the winding bars slip, and the specialty tools cost more than most homeowners want to spend on a one-time job. This is one repair where calling it in is the safer and usually cheaper route.
By Neighborhood
We also handle spring repair in these Foley-area suburbs.
Call now or request a free quote - same-day service on most repairs, upfront written pricing.
