Torsion is easy but you have to know what you are doing. I did the rear door on trucks and trailers for many years.
House built in 1960 with a 2 car door door made of solid 1" thick solid wood heavy as hell single door the torsion spring eventually went sproooooooooing!
Me, Dad, the neighbor and his linebacker sized son deadlifted the weight of the door once to lift it and get the cars out. Once we got it to the 51% point it went easier. Got the cars out and put it down again with brute force and muscle without smashing the hell out of everytning.
With no tension on the closed door I replaced the broken spring and used two huge screwdrivers and wound it a few turns and screwed tight the bolt that was the set screw. At the fulcrum point of half way it went up at 100 miles an hour and smashed the shit out of the opener.
Oops.
Yeah spend the money and hire a pro unless you are really sure of what you are doing. I’m usually the dude that says screw it, and has the balls to fix it all myself, this is one instance where I’ll exercise caution and say a solid wood garage door moving at mach speed will ruin your day and squish you like a marshmallow.
Garage doors can be very heavy, but I have to ask - for those of you who absolutely could not get the door to open after the spring busted, did you first disconnect the door from the opener mechanism (chain, screw, etc)?
I did. I’ll admit I was (and still am) surprised at how heavy the door was. Mine isn’t 1 inch thick wood like someone above had, but it wasn’t going anywhere.
ETA; My torsion spring is coiled 8 times, based on the markings I can see on it. I suppose that and which spring it was could maybe tell you how much force it’s supplying. I don’t know how to get a model number for it, though.
That was me, and yes a disconnected opener, it was dead lifting all the weight of the garage door to the 51% point was fighting gravity. Why on Og’s green earth my house has a 1" thick sold wood door is the real question.
It was a great backstop playing hockey when we were kids though. I can only imagine all the dimples we would have made with a flimsy lightweight aluminium door. 