Orland Park, IL · Same-day service
Extension Spring Repair for Older Orland Park Garages
Not every door in town is on a torsion shaft. Extension springs run horizontally along the tracks, one each side, and they stretch rather than twist. They turn up on older and lighter doors: single-car openings, detached garages, and any garage without enough headroom above the opening for a torsion assembly.
Serving Orland Park
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If your springs sit beside the door instead of above it, this is the system you have. It works well when it is maintained. It is also the system that most often arrives at our trucks missing a part it should have.
Where these still turn up around town
Orland Park grew in layers, and the layers had different hardware. Newer subdivisions almost all got torsion. Head into the older streets around Old Orland and the pre-1970s blocks and the picture changes: narrow single-car doors, frame detached garages, and hardware that has been patched rather than replaced. Extension springs are normal in those garages, and so is original track.
Low headroom is the other reason. Some garages simply do not have the clearance a torsion shaft and its bearing plates need above the opening. Extension springs fit where torsion will not, so a fairly modern door can still be running them.
Safety cables are the part people are missing
An extension spring under load stores real energy along its length. When it snaps, the broken half whips down the track. A safety cable is a plain steel cable threaded through the middle of the spring and anchored at both ends. It does nothing during normal operation and catches the spring when it fails.
We find doors without them regularly, usually where the springs were swapped years ago and nothing was brought up to current practice. If your springs have nothing running through them, that gets corrected as part of the job rather than sold to you afterwards.
Matched pairs, and when we suggest converting
Extension springs are rated by the weight they lift and they are fitted as a matched pair. Two springs pulling at different rates lift the door crooked, which drags one side of the track and eventually walks a roller out of it. Both get replaced together, along with the pulleys and lift cables if the sheaves are grooved or the cable has broken strands.
On some doors we will suggest converting to torsion instead. Torsion balances more evenly, wears the door more evenly, and keeps the hardware out of the space beside your car. It needs headroom and a solid header to mount to, so it is not always possible. The technician will tell you on site which way your garage can go.
Other work we do in Orland Park
- 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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More on extension spring replacement, or everything we cover in Orland Park.
Questions
Orland Park questions about this job
How do I tell extension springs from torsion springs?
Look at where they sit. Torsion springs are wound on a metal shaft above the door opening. Extension springs are long open coils running horizontally along the tracks on each side, near the ceiling, and they visibly stretch and relax as the door moves.
Only one side broke. Do both really need doing?
Yes. They are a matched pair rated together, and a new spring working against a worn one pulls unevenly. That lifts the door crooked, loads one track harder than the other, and is one of the common ways a door ends up off track.
There is no cable through my springs. Is that urgent?
Worth fixing soon. The spring may last years yet, but if it does let go there is nothing to contain it. Retrofitting safety cables is quick and is included whenever we do spring work on that door.
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