Chicago, IL · Same-day service
Replacing Extension Springs on Older Chicago Garages
Go inside the garage, shut the door and look up along the two horizontal tracks that run back toward the rear wall. If a long coil spring is stretched above each track, front to back, you have extension springs. If instead there is a bar across the wall above the opening with springs wound onto it, that is a torsion setup and this is not the page you want.
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Extension springs turn up mostly on Chicago's older detached garages: single-car frame and brick buildings behind bungalows and workers' cottages, where there was never enough clear wall above the opening for a torsion shaft. They are a perfectly sound design. They are also the design with the specific safety requirement most often missing on an old install.
Safety Cables Are Not Optional
An extension spring holds its energy by being stretched. When it breaks, both halves whip along their own length, and they are mounted directly over the space where you park and walk. The fix is a containment cable, a length of aircraft cable threaded straight through the middle of the spring and anchored at both ends, so a broken spring stays on the cable instead of leaving the track.
It costs almost nothing and it is left off constantly. On garages that have not been touched in decades we find bare springs with no cable through them more often than we find them fitted. Every extension spring we replace gets one, and if we are on site for something else and see springs without them, we will say so.
Why They Only Work in Matched Pairs
Extension springs work as a left and right pair, pulling evenly against each other. They also take a set over the years, gradually stretching so they no longer return to their original free length. That drift is what puts a door out of square.
Replacing one side and leaving the other means a fresh spring pulling at full strength against a tired one. The door lifts unevenly, one top corner leads the other, the rollers bind in the tracks and the opener starts fighting the imbalance on every trip. Both sides get replaced together, sized to the door's weight and its travel height rather than to whatever came off.
When Converting to Torsion Makes Sense
A torsion setup is quieter, holds balance longer and keeps the springs off the parking area entirely. It needs clear headroom between the top of the opening and the ceiling or the joists, and it needs solid backing to lag the center bracket into.
Plenty of old Chicago garages have neither. Low ceilings and framing that has moved rule the conversion out, and when it will not work we say so rather than force it. Where the room does exist, converting is worth considering at the moment the extension springs are due anyway, since the labour overlaps. The pulleys, lift cables and track hardware all get inspected either way.
Other work we do in Chicago
- Torsion Springs
- Roller Repair
- Panel Replacement
- Smart Openers
- Commercial
- Custom Doors
- Maintenance
- Safety Inspection
- Lubrication
- Spring Replacement
- Opener Repair
- Installation
- Emergency Service
- Cable Repair
- Track Repair
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Questions
Chicago questions about this job
One of my springs looks noticeably longer than the other. Is that a problem?
Yes, and it is one of the clearer signs they are due. A spring that has taken a set no longer pulls its share, so the door lifts crooked and the other spring and the opener absorb the difference. The stretched one is not repairable and the pair gets replaced.
My garage has almost no room above the door. Can it still take torsion springs?
Sometimes. There are low-headroom torsion kits that mount differently and need less clearance than a standard setup, but they still need more than some older garages have. The technician measures the actual clearance on site and tells you straight whether it fits.
Can the existing pulleys and lift cables be reused?
Only if they are sound. Pulleys wear a groove and the sheave bearing seizes, and lift cables fray at the ends where they turn. Both are cheap parts that fail expensively, so when they show wear we replace them alongside the springs rather than put new springs on tired running gear.
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