Garage door questions, answered

Service call and diagnostic policy is confirmed when you book, so there are no surprises. What is always true is that we explain what is wrong and what it costs before any work starts, and you approve it first.

No. A broken torsion or extension spring is replaced, not repaired — the steel has reached the end of its fatigue life and there is nothing to restore. On a two-spring door both springs are replaced together, because they are the same age, have done the same number of cycles, and replacing one leaves the door unbalanced.

Most spring, cable, roller and opener repairs are completed in a single visit of roughly one to two hours. Panel and section replacement is the exception: the section has to be ordered to match your door, so that is usually two visits.

No. With one spring broken the door is effectively unbalanced dead weight. The opener, the cables and the remaining spring are all carrying load they were never rated for, and continuing to operate it commonly turns a spring bill into a spring, cable and opener bill. Leave the door closed and contact us.

Pull the release cord to disconnect the opener, then lift the door by hand to about waist height. A correctly balanced door stays roughly where you put it. If it is very heavy, drops, or shoots upward, the springs are the problem. If it lifts easily and holds but the opener will not drive it, the opener is the problem. That one test settles most service calls.

Springs are rated in cycles rather than years — a standard spring is roughly 10,000 open-and-close cycles. A household opening the door twice a day gets well over a decade; one using the garage as its main entrance four or five times a day can reach that in six or seven years. Higher-cycle springs cost modestly more and last proportionally longer.

Several things compound. Cold makes spring steel more brittle, so springs near the end of their life break on the coldest mornings. Ice bonds the bottom seal to the slab and the opener reads the resistance as an obstruction. Standard lubricants thicken so hardware drags. And road salt corrodes bottom brackets and cable ends from underneath.

Almost always one of two things, and both are adjustments rather than replacements. Either the close-limit setting has drifted, so the opener thinks the door has reached the floor early; or the photo-eye sensors at the base of the tracks are misaligned or dirty, breaking the beam. A knock from a snow shovel is enough to do it.

Yes. Sectional and rolling steel commercial doors, commercial operators and scheduled maintenance for buildings with multiple bays. Commercial doors cycle far more than residential ones, so they need cycle-rated hardware — fitting residential-grade springs to a loading door is why some buildings see repeat failures.

Yes, and it is the fastest route to a real answer. The spring bar above the door, the opener unit and its label, and how the door sits when it stops are the three most useful shots. Attach them to the quote form or send them over WhatsApp.

Look at the sections. If the panels are not rusted through, split, or bent across several sections, repair is almost always the better value — everything that wears out is replaceable. Replacement makes sense when the sections have genuinely gone, when parts are no longer available, or when you want insulation an older door cannot provide.

Laval and all its sectors, the island of Montreal and its boroughs, the North Shore, the South Shore and the West Island. Coverage for a specific address is confirmed when you contact us.

Yes. A door stuck open, jammed shut or off its track is treated as a priority call rather than queued behind routine scheduling. Call or WhatsApp for those rather than using the form, so it can be prioritised immediately.

Annually is a sensible default for a door in daily use, and autumn is the right time — a pre-winter visit covering balance, rollers, hinges, cables, cold-rated lubrication, seal condition and a safety-reverse test is the single most effective way to avoid a January emergency.