When you find yourself with a broken garage door spring, the first thing I can say is BE CAREFUL. The springs are what lift the entire weight of the garage door. So if you do have a broken spring, then the door may be under its full weight. Also do not use your automatic garage door opener with a broken spring, it could permanently damage the motor. Disconnect it using the emergency release cord as long as the door is in the closed position only, or just unplug it so that nobody accidentally uses it.
Trying to open the garage door is dangerous, but if you need to get your car out, you can try lifting the door slowly with a couple of other people and you can use the opener to help lift the door up, although this is not recommended.
Replacing a broken spring is a job that should be left to a garage door professional. There may even be a second spring that is still ok, but it is under a great amount of tension. The tension on garage door springs and the weight of the door can lead to major injury if things go wrong. So please, unless you know what you are doing, don’t mess with the springs.
Give Garage Door Kings a call at 909-440-0305 to schedule an appointment.
The tensile strength of these door springs is immense and is completely underestimated by many many homeowners. I absolutely agree that replacing these springs is a job that should be left to the professionals every time, just don’t risk it. Great article, thanks for raising this important issue.