The DIY Question
Lucas Valley-Marinwood is a small place, around 2,421 households tucked three miles from our Novato yard. A town this size doesn't throw a wide mix of door eras and hardware at us the way a bigger service area does, most of what we see here traces back to one housing generation, not five.
That's relevant to the DIY question because a torsion spring under full tension can put someone in the ER if the winding bars slip or the wrong size bar is used, and extension springs without safety cables can fire across a garage. We're not going to talk you out of changing your own oil, but a spring job is a different category of risk than most home repairs, and the tools (winding bars sized to the spring's wire diameter, a properly braced ladder, vise grips locking the track) aren't things most garages have sitting around.
If you're just trying to figure out whether it's the spring at all: a door that won't stay open on its own, a loud bang from the garage before it stopped working, or a visible gap in the coil are all spring signs, not opener signs. That part of the diagnosis you can do yourself safely from the ground.
The Complications
Housing in this part of the service area went up mostly in the early 1960s, matching the broader area's 1938 to 1996 build range with a median right around 1963. That means a lot of the doors we open in Lucas Valley-Marinwood are on original torsion hardware from a build era that predates today's standard spring winding cones and cable drums, the parts are still made, but they're not what a supply truck stocks for a house built last decade.
Median household income here runs well above the service area's overall $132,115 median. In practice, that shows up as more owners choosing to replace both springs on a double door in one visit instead of just the failed one, and more upgrades from single-spring setups to matched pairs when the second spring is close to end of life anyway. We'll tell you honestly when a matching swap isn't necessary, if the working spring still has real cycle life left, we're not going to talk you into replacing it just because we're already there.
The mild, temperate climate through here doesn't add the rust and corrosion problems a wetter or coastal town would see on cables and coil ends. When a spring fails in this area, it's almost always plain metal fatigue from cycle count, not weather damage.
What the Repair Takes
A spring repair starts with sizing: wire diameter, coil length, and inside diameter, all of which have to match the door's weight and the drum setup already on the shaft, guess wrong and the door either won't open smoothly or will slam down when it stops mid-travel. On the older torsion hardware common to houses here from the early 1960s, that sizing step matters more, since these doors were often built heavier than today's insulated panel doors and the spring has to match that weight, not a generic modern spec.
Once the right spring is on hand, the job is: unwind and remove the old spring safely, inspect the shaft, bearings, and cable drums for wear (a failed spring often takes a drum bearing with it), install the new spring, wind it to the correct number of turns, and test the door's balance by hand, a properly balanced door should stay put at waist height with the opener disconnected.
We check both springs on a double-spring setup even when only one has broken, because the second one is usually close behind on cycle count. We don't replace it unless it's actually warranted, but we'll tell you what we see.
What It Costs
We don't have a set price to publish here, the number depends on whether it's one spring or a pair, torsion or extension, standard or high-cycle, and whether the drums or bearings also need replacing after a spring failure took them out. What we can tell you is the shape of the decision: replacing both springs on a double door at once usually costs less per spring than doing them one at a time later, because the labor is the same trip either way.
Given that a fair number of doors in Lucas Valley-Marinwood are on original 1960s-era hardware, we sometimes find that the spring isn't the only thing that's aged out, worn drums, a stretched cable, or a track that's been knocked out of alignment over sixty years of use. We'll always separate what's actually broken from what's just old but still working, and price only for what the door needs.
How Long It Takes
Once we're on site with the right spring, the physical repair, removing the old spring, installing the new one, winding it, checking balance, is a job of an hour or two for most single-door setups, longer if a drum or bearing also needs replacing. Double doors with two springs and heavier panels take a bit more time to wind correctly and balance.
We travel from Novato, three miles to reach Lucas Valley-Marinwood, which is close enough that drive time isn't the bottleneck on most calls, availability is. If the spring is a standard size that's already on the truck, there's no waiting on parts. If it's an odd size that matches some of the older, heavier doors from the area's 1960s housing stock, that spring sometimes has to be ordered, and that's the one honest delay we can't shortcut.
What Is on the Truck
We stock the torsion and extension spring sizes that cover most of what we run into on this side of the service area, which, given that houses here mostly date to the early 1960s, means both older heavier-door sizes and the newer insulated-panel sizes homeowners have upgraded to over the years. We also carry cable, drums, bearings, and the safety cables that extension-spring doors should have but often don't, since those cables are what keep a broken spring from becoming a projectile.
What's not always on the truck: springs sized for unusual custom doors or very old carriage-style hardware that a homeowner may have kept instead of upgrading. Those we can identify on site, but the spring itself sometimes has to be ordered in, we won't pretend otherwise just to close the job faster.
Other services in this area
Questions, answered
How do I know if it's the spring and not the opener?
If the door won't stay open partway on its own, sags visibly to one side, or you heard a loud bang before it stopped working, that points to a broken spring. If the opener motor runs but the door doesn't move, or the opener does nothing at all, that's more likely electrical or the opener unit itself.
Can I just replace the broken spring and leave the other one?
You can, but on a double-spring door both springs usually see the same cycle count, so the second one is often close behind. We'll check its condition and tell you honestly whether it's worth doing both now or waiting, we won't push a matching pair if the second spring still has real life left in it.
Do you carry the spring size for an older 1960s-era door?
Often, yes, a lot of doors in this part of the service area date to that era and we stock accordingly. Some original or custom-width doors take a less common size that has to be ordered, which we'll confirm once we see the door and take measurements.
Is a torsion spring repair something I should try myself?
We wouldn't recommend it. A torsion spring under full tension can cause serious injury if the winding bars slip or aren't sized to the spring's wire, and the tools involved aren't typical homeowner equipment. Diagnosing the problem yourself from the ground is fine, the repair itself is a different level of risk.
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.