Anyway to get the door open with a busted spring? Got to get to work tomorrow, and I can’t wait on the repairman.
Nevermind. It seems like it’s going to take too many people to hoist this bitch, and it’s too damn risky.
Lots of force on the side of the broken spring.
I’ve opened a 2-car garage door with a broken spring by myself and one other person. I used a remote to start the motor.
Garage door men should be on 24 hour call if you don’t want to deal with it.
Disassemble the door by removing screws from the hinges connecting the panels.
2 people to keep the panels from dropping to the floor.
Start at the top and remove 4 panels. The remaining ones should be light enough to lift by hand or continue disassembly.
Will there be someone/time to re-assemble door after car removed? Security isssue.
I was able to get my door open when one of my two springs broke last year. It’s a double garage door, so it’s darn heavy, but enough lifting will get it up. My wife and I did it together to get her out for work. It won’t STAY up, but you should be able to lift it. I then just held it up while she backed out. Luckily we got a repair man out in a few hours. Those things are scary…
If you want to save the money on the repairman it may be possible to fix it yourself. I’ve replaced two springs in my garage. It took a stout lever, some muscle, and some patience, but I got them on.
This. The spring on our door broke on a Sunday afternoon. That evening, my wife and I opened the door together (She was roughly in the middle, I was on the side with the broken spring). It was heavy, but manageable. Propped it open with a 2x4, pulled the cars out, and set the door back down. Repair dude showed up the next day.
I suppose some doors may be heavier than others.
There are two basic garage door opening designs. A spring on either side is no big deal to open/fix, while the single torsion spring in the center sometimes kills people.
When the spring has broken on mine, it is hard to lift, but it became lighter and lighter each mm that it was raised. And once raised it stayed raised.
If you do get the door up, just use a c-clamp or vise grips on the track to secure it so it doesn’t drop back down. Better than a 2x4 that might get knocked loose.
The door must be carved from ents or something. It was too heavy even with an assist from the opener motor. I’m letting the repair guy and landlord deal with it. I’m a renter; I ain’t fixing shit.
I’ve learned a lot about garage doors though.
The motors aren’t really designed to move the full weight of the door. When raising the door, the springs do most of the work. When lowering, the motor is mostly stretching the spring out, assisted by gravity…
Oh, I get that. Everything I found recommended attempting to lift the door in order to aid the opener.
This.
MY SO’s garage door spring broke one morning and I used a set of spring clamps to hold it up to get her vehicle out until the door repair company could get there to fix the door.
It would be better to leave this one to professionals, OP. The chances of the door slipping or jumping the tracks are too great and you might damage the door or seriously injure yourself.
I used a combination of a crowbar, blocks, and a car jack when it happened to me. Crowbar to lift it enough to shove a blocks under one at a time until you can fit the jack. By the time I had the jack fully extended, enough of the door weight was supported by the horizontal rail that I was able to push it the rest of the way myself.
I concur with those proposing a c-clamp, that would have been much safer than my blocks. And I agree that in your case, OP, letting someone else deal with it was the best choice. No sense taking the risk unless you don’t have any other options.
I was surprised to hear people saying they were able to lift theirs, until I realized they had two springs. We have a single spring, and my wife and I together couldn’t begin to budge it when ours broke.
I did not realize that some had only one spring. I remember reading about how to fix a torsion spring yourself and decided that that, similar to using a chain saw, is something that I should refrain from doing. The professional guy did use a c-clamp to hold the door in place.
I use a chainsaw all summer, and have replaced springs on our garage doors several times. But I wouldn’t fuck with a torsion set-up.