Evanston, IL · Same-day service
Spring Replacement for Evanston's Older Garage Doors
Most spring calls here come from a building the homeowner barely thinks about until it stops working: a brick single-car garage at the back of the lot, opening onto the alley, running the same springs it has run for a very long time.
Serving Evanston
Free on-site estimates. Emergency work available.
BH Garage Door fits both torsion and extension springs across Evanston. The spring is sized to your door, which on an older garage in this city is rarely a size the catalogue expects.
Extension springs are still common here
Newer suburbs are almost entirely torsion: one shaft above the opening with the springs wound onto it. Plenty of Evanston garages never made that change. They still use extension springs stretched along the horizontal tracks either side of the door, which is what the original hardware called for on a narrow opening with almost no headroom.
Extension springs need a safety containment cable threaded down the middle of the coil. Without one, a spring that lets go becomes a length of steel travelling the width of the garage. We find plenty of these with no cable fitted at all, and they go on as part of the job rather than as an extra.
Sizing a spring when the door is not a standard width
Wire gauge, inside diameter, length and wind direction all have to suit the weight and travel of the door. Get one of them wrong and the door either floats up on its own or drops the last foot. On a 1920s opening measuring a few inches under eight feet wide, the original door was often built to fit rather than bought off a shelf.
Where the old spring is missing or has been swapped at some point in the past, reading the wall is not good enough. We weigh the door and size from the real number. The vans carry a broad range of wire sizes, and if nothing on board matches we order the correct spring instead of fitting the nearest one.
Damp wood weighs more than the spring expects
Wood and wood-composite doors are still in service across the city, and an unheated garage a few streets from the lake takes on moisture right through spring and autumn. A soaked door gains real weight, and the springs feel every ounce of it on every cycle.
That shows up as a door which used to hold at halfway and now sinks, or one the opener suddenly labours with. Sometimes new springs are the answer. Sometimes the bottom rail has rotted and is holding water inside the panel, and re-springing a door that is drinking will put you back on the phone next autumn. We look at the door before we talk about springs.
Other work we do in Evanston
- 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 Evanston.
Questions
Evanston questions about this job
My springs have no cable running through the middle. Is that a problem?
Yes, and it is common on older garages in Evanston. Extension springs are meant to carry a containment cable through the coil so a break cannot throw the spring across the building. If yours are missing, we fit them along with the new springs.
Only one spring snapped. Why replace the pair?
They went on together and have cycled together, so the surviving one is close behind. Replacing a single spring leaves the door pulling unevenly and normally means a second visit within months.
Can a tired spring be adjusted instead of replaced?
Winding more tension into fatigued steel buys a short reprieve and takes life out of a spring that is already worn. If the coil shows gaps, rust pitting or has broken, that is a replacement. On a door still balancing correctly, a tension adjustment is reasonable.
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Emergency service available · Free on-site estimates