Garage door spring repair in Wilmington

If your garage door won't open and you heard a loud bang from the garage, a broken spring is the most likely cause. Stop using the opener, leave the door down, and call us. Lifting a spring-broken door by hand is how people get hurt.

Updated November 4, 2026

How to tell your spring is broken

• A loud bang from the garage, often when nobody was near the door
• The opener strains or lifts the door a few inches, then stops
• A visible gap in the coil above the door (torsion) or a dangling spring beside the tracks (extension)
• The door feels extremely heavy when you pull the release cord and lift by hand

Torsion vs. extension springs

Torsion springs mount on a shaft above the door and do the lifting by twisting; most modern residential doors use them. Extension springs stretch along the horizontal tracks and are common on older and lighter doors. Both are under enormous tension and both are replaced, never repaired, when they break. We size the springs to your door and always quote before we work.

Salt air and spring life

Springs are bare steel, and coastal air is hard on bare steel. Salt and humidity settle on the coils, rust pits the surface, and a pitted coil fatigues and snaps sooner than a clean one. Doors near the beach or the waterway tend to lose springs early. A light coat of lubricant at each tune-up slows the rust, and we can quote a coated or high-cycle spring if your garage sees a lot of salt.

Replace one spring or both?

On a two-spring door, when one spring breaks the other has the same mileage on it. Replacing both in one visit costs less than a second service call a few months later, so that's what we usually recommend. It's your call, though, and we'll price both options. Wondering about price? See our spring repair cost guide.

What every spring replacement includes

• New springs sized to your door's weight, height and drums, not the nearest size on the shelf
• A check of the cables, drums, bottom brackets and rollers, which wear alongside the springs. If any need replacing, we quote them before we touch them.
• Balancing the door so it stays put when lifted halfway by hand
• An auto-reverse and photo-eye test of the opener before we leave

Why not DIY this one

Spring replacement is the one garage door job we tell everyone not to attempt. A wound torsion spring stores enough energy to break an arm, and the right spring size depends on door weight, track radius and drum size. Our technicians do this regularly, bring the winding bars and the correct springs, and back the work with our guarantee.