Garage Door Spring Repair & Replacement

A snapped torsion spring is the single most common garage door fault we see in Adelaide. The springs (one or two coils sitting horizontally above the door) wind up to store the energy needed to lift the 60-90kg door. They have a typical life of 10,000-15,000 cycles — about 7-12 years for a daily-use residential door, sometimes much shorter for a high-cycle commercial door.

When a spring fails it usually goes with a loud bang. The door becomes essentially un-liftable by the motor (the motor is sized to assist the springs, not to lift the door alone). The car can be trapped inside or outside depending on the door position.

What it costs

• Single torsion spring replacement: $220-$320
• Pair of springs replaced: $360-$480 (recommended if springs are similar age — replacing one of an aged pair just means the second one fails next year)
• Extension spring replacement (older systems, common on tilt doors): $260-$420
• Cable replacement at the same time: add $180-$340 if cables are also frayed (often the case if the door’s been operating with one snapped spring)

Why both springs at once

If your door has two torsion springs and one’s snapped at year nine, the second one is approaching the end of its cycle life. Replacing both at once means:

• Single call-out fee, single labour charge
• Matched spring tension (better door balance, longer-lived motor)
• No second failure in the next 6-18 months

Most Adelaide technicians quote both springs by default and explain the option of replacing one. The price differential is small enough that the maths almost always favours the pair.

Don’t DIY this

We say this not because we want the work — we say it because torsion-spring replacement is genuinely dangerous. The springs are wound to several hundred PSI under load. Rebound during a botched replacement has caused serious injuries (broken wrists, eye injuries, hand fractures). The job needs purpose-built spring-winding bars and a known-good technique. If you’re a confident DIYer, do the cable replacement; leave the spring tensioning to a technician.

Same-day availability

Spring replacement is the highest-priority same-day call-out in our routing. Submit by 11am for metro Adelaide and you’ll typically have a technician on-site by mid-afternoon. Outer-suburbs (Mount Barker, Aldinga) is usually next-business-day.