Why This Fails Locally
Most houses in Black Point-Green Point went up around 1973, which puts this pocket a decade or so past the start of the broader build-out across Novato's service area that stretches back to the late 1930s. A torsion spring is rated in cycles, not years, and a spring installed when the house was framed in the early 1970s has had roughly fifty years to rack up open-and-close cycles. Even in this mild coastal-influenced climate, where springs don't rust through the way they do in wetter or harsher regions, the steel still fatigues from plain use. If nobody has swapped the springs since the house was built, what's holding the door up right now is original hardware running well past its intended life. That's the fault we expect to find on most calls out here: not corrosion, just a spring that has finally used up its coils. With 628 households in this area, a fair number of garages are still carrying the springs that came with the house.
The DIY Question
A broken torsion spring is not a safe weekend project. The spring is wound under enough tension to do real damage if it lets go while you're working on it, and the winding bars and cones needed to do the job right aren't something most homeowners have sitting in the garage. If the spring on your door is original to a 1973 build, there's also a decent chance the drums, bearings, or cable have worn alongside it, and replacing just the spring without checking those parts is how a second call gets scheduled a month later. We're honest that this is one job where the labor, not the part, is what you're paying for. If you're comfortable with hand tools and want to handle something yourself, weatherstripping or a roller swap is reasonable. Torsion spring work isn't.
What Is on the Truck
The truck comes from Novato, about 2 miles away, which makes Black Point-Green Point one of the closer stops on the route. What's loaded depends on what a 1973-era door typically needs: standard torsion springs sized for single and double doors, the winding bars and safety cables that go with them, and common drum and bearing sets, since those parts wear on the same schedule as the spring itself. What we don't carry is every spring size ever made. Older or oversized doors sometimes need a spring ordered to match wind and cycle rating, and that's a case where the first visit is a diagnosis and measurement, not a same-day fix. We'd rather tell you that up front than pretend every job wraps in one trip.
What It Costs
We don't have a fixed number to quote here without seeing the door. What we can say is that this area's median household income, at $125,875, runs a bit under the $132,115 median across the broader Novato service area, and that's worth mentioning because spring replacement cost is driven mostly by spring count and size, not by the neighborhood. A single door with one spring costs less than a double door running two. If bearings or drums are worn on top of the spring, that adds to the job. We'll give you the number after a look at the door, not before.
Other services in this area
Questions, answered
How old does a garage door spring have to be before it's likely to break?
Springs are rated in cycles, typically 10,000, which works out to several years to a couple decades depending on how often the door runs. In Black Point-Green Point, where most houses date to around 1973, a lot of doors are still on original springs, which puts them well past a normal service life even with light use.
Is it worth replacing both springs if only one broke?
On a double torsion spring setup, yes, most of the time. If one spring failed from fatigue, the other one has seen the same number of cycles and is close behind. Replacing both at once also means matching wear on both sides of the door, so it doesn't come off the track lopsided when one spring is new and one is old.
Do you carry the right spring size on the truck for older doors?
For a standard single or double door, usually yes. Some 1970s-era doors used sizes or configurations that aren't common anymore, and if that's the case we measure on site and order the correct spring rather than force a fit with the wrong wind or wire gauge.
Tell Us What the Door Is Doing
Call and we'll ask a few questions before a truck leaves, then give you a straight answer on repair versus replace.