Arlington Heights, IL · Same-day service
Broken Garage Door Springs in Arlington Heights
The bang comes first. Most people hear it from inside the house and assume something fell off a shelf in the garage. The next morning the door will not lift, or it rises a few inches, groans and stops.
Serving Arlington Heights
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That is a broken spring, and it is the most common call we take in Arlington Heights. BH Garage Door replaces torsion and extension springs across the town, from the older single-car garages near downtown to the wide insulated doors in the subdivisions out toward Lake Arlington. Same-day appointments are usually available, and broken springs go to the front of the queue.
Two Spring Systems, Two Different Failures
Arlington Heights was built out over several decades and the garages tell you which decade. Streets around Scarsdale and the older blocks near downtown still run plenty of original single-car doors on extension springs, the long springs stretched along the horizontal track on either side. Newer construction uses a torsion system instead: one or two springs wound on a steel shaft above the opening.
They fail differently. A torsion spring leaves a clean gap in the coil, about the width of a finger, and the door simply becomes too heavy for the opener to lift. An extension spring releases along its whole length and can whip. That is why we check every extension spring we touch for a containment cable running through the middle of it, and fit one where it is missing.
Why Both Springs Go At Once
Springs are rated in cycles. One cycle is one open and one close, and a standard spring is built for roughly 10,000 of them. For a household that uses the garage as its main entrance, and in Arlington Heights most do, that works out at about seven to ten years.
When one spring on a two-spring door lets go, the other has done identical work and is close behind it. So we fit them as a matched pair, sized to the weight of the actual door rather than to whatever happened to be hanging there. An insulated steel door and an old wood-panel door on the same width opening are not the same load. Balanced correctly, the door will sit still halfway up with the opener disconnected, and that is the test we leave you with.
Converting an Older Extension Setup to Torsion
On the older detached garages here we are often asked whether extension springs can be swapped for a torsion shaft. Usually yes, provided there is clear headroom between the top of the opening and the ceiling joists. Torsion holds balance better, runs quieter, and keeps its stored energy contained above the door instead of stretched out along the tracks where cars and shelving live.
Where the headroom is not there, and some of the low older garages in town genuinely do not have it, we say so and rebuild the extension system properly instead: new springs in a matched pair, new pulleys, new cables and containment through both sides. The estimate is free, it is given in person, and you get the price before anything is wound.
Other work we do in Arlington Heights
- Torsion Springs
- Extension Springs
- Roller Repair
- Panel Replacement
- Smart Openers
- Commercial
- Custom Doors
- Maintenance
- Safety Inspection
- Lubrication
- Opener Repair
- Installation
- Emergency Service
- Cable Repair
- Track Repair
Spring Replacement in nearby towns
More on garage door spring replacement, or everything we cover in Arlington Heights.
Questions
Arlington Heights questions about this job
I heard a bang in the garage and now the door will not open. Is that the spring?
Almost certainly. A snapped spring is loud, and the symptom that follows is a door that will not lift at all or that rises a few inches and stops. Look at the shaft above the door. If you can see a gap in the coil, that is your answer.
Can I lift the door by hand until you arrive?
Not with a broken spring. The springs, not the opener, carry the weight, so a door that normally lifts with two fingers becomes dead weight with nothing holding it up. Leave it where it is.
There is only one spring above my door. Should there be two?
Not necessarily. Lighter single-car doors, which are common in the older parts of Arlington Heights, are often correctly set up with a single torsion spring. What matters is that the spring is sized to the door, so we weigh and measure before ordering.
Do you carry springs for older doors?
Yes. The trucks on our northwest route carry both torsion and extension stock, because Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect and Palatine all have a mix of eras. Unusual custom or very heavy doors occasionally need a spring ordered in, and the technician will tell you on the visit if that is the case.
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Emergency service available · Free on-site estimates