Heard a loud bang from the garage, and now the door won't budge? That's almost always a snapped spring — the most common garage door failure in Albuquerque, and one you should never fight past by hand.
Your garage door's springs do the actual lifting — the opener just guides it. A typical double door weighs 150–250 pounds, and when a spring breaks, that entire weight has nowhere to go. Forcing the door up by hand, or letting the opener strain against it, is how bent tracks, burned-out openers, and hand injuries happen. Leave it down and call.
Most Albuquerque homes have torsion springs — the tightly wound coil mounted on a bar above the door. Older homes, especially in the South Valley and Belen, often still run extension springs along the horizontal tracks. We stock and replace both, and we'll tell you honestly whether a conversion to torsion (smoother, safer, longer-lived) makes sense for your door.
Springs are rated in open-close cycles — usually about 10,000 for standard springs, which is 7–10 years of typical use. Albuquerque is hard on them: 30-degree temperature swings between a cold high-desert morning and a hot afternoon work the steel daily, and grit blown in during spring wind season accelerates wear. When one spring on a two-spring door breaks, we recommend replacing both — the survivor has the same mileage and rarely lasts long.
We confirm the failure, quote you a firm price before touching a wrench, replace the springs with cycle-rated parts, rebalance the door, and lube the moving hardware. Most spring jobs are done in about an hour, and the door lifts like it's new — because balanced springs are what "new" feels like.
No. The spring carries the door's full weight — 150–250 pounds on a typical double door. Forcing it up by hand or with the opener risks injury and usually causes more damage. Leave the door down and call.
On a two-spring door, both. Springs wear by cycles, and the unbroken one has the same mileage as the one that just failed. Replacing both costs little more on the same visit and saves a second service call.
Standard springs are rated around 10,000 cycles — roughly 7–10 years of normal use. Big daily temperature swings and spring-season grit tend to push Albuquerque doors toward the earlier end. High-cycle springs are available if the door gets heavy use.
Typical Albuquerque-area pricing runs $150–$350 for a single spring and $200–$500 for a pair, parts and labor, depending on spring size and type. We quote a firm number before any work starts.
Related: Cable Repair · Off-Track Repair · Repair Cost Guide
Same-day torsion and extension spring replacement across the Albuquerque metro.
