Garage Door Spring Snapped? Here's What to Do Before You Call.

A loud bang from the garage, the door is suddenly impossible to lift, and your car is stuck inside. In a Montreal household with two cars and a school run, a snapped garage door spring is a real morning-killer. Here's how to handle it.

Don't try to lift it manually A standard double-car door weighs 150–200 lbs. With both springs healthy that weight is counterbalanced — the door feels like 10 lbs. With a broken spring the opener motor is suddenly trying to lift the full weight, and you're trying to muscle it up by hand. Pulled backs, dropped doors, smashed fingers and bent tracks come from exactly this. Leave it where it is.

Don't keep hitting the opener button Most residential openers are rated for around 1/2 HP and counterbalanced doors. Trying to lift an un-counterbalanced door will strip the main gear in under a minute and turn a spring repair into a spring repair plus a new opener.

Replace both springs, not just the broken one Both torsion springs are the same age and have the same cycle count. The "good" one is at the end of its life too — replacing just the snapped one means you're back on the phone within months. We replace in matched pairs every time.

What we carry on the truck .250, .2625 and .283 wire in 27, 30, 32 and 34 inch lengths covers about 95% of residential Montreal-area doors. For high-use doors (more than four cycles a day) we recommend 20,000-cycle springs instead of the standard 10,000-cycle — roughly twice the life.

Red flags when calling around Ads that quote a flat lowball "garage door repair" are baiting you. A real spring replacement is parts plus labour, sized to your door. Ask three questions:

• What's included in your service call, and what changes once you're on-site?
• Are you replacing in pairs or just the broken one?
• Do you carry the wire size on the truck or order it after the diagnosis?

Hesitation on any of those is your cue to call someone else.