It will happen eventually to anyone who owns a home with a garage—the garage door springs break. Unfortunately, the springs on a garage door are key components for opening and closing the door correctly. Garage doors can become stuck shut with broken springs, trapping your vehicles inside. But what if you need to get to work? Is there a way to still open the garage door? Below, let’s examine exactly how to open a garage door with a broken spring. And once your garage door is successfully opened, contact Bluff Country Garage Door Service to take care of your garage door spring replacement.
The Role of the Spring
In a garage door, whether manual or automatic, the spring is really what does all the heavy lifting. Garage door springs come in a wide variety of lengths, widths, and tensions to lift specific garage doors. The spring works as a counter balance to pull open and gently shut a properly balanced garage door. When a garage door is open or shut, the spring is wound or unwound, carrying the majority of the garage door weight. Garage doors come in both single-spring and multi-spring variations depending on the weight, design, and overall size of the garage door.
How Can You Tell If the Spring is Damaged?
Over time, simply through regular use, garage door springs can begin to wear and eventually break. If you are lucky enough to witness the spring break, it is usually accompanied by a loud popping sound as the tension of the garage door weight is released. But what does a broken spring look like if you haven’t witnessed the break? In some cases, the spring may have a different physical appearance. The spring may appear to be stretched out or rusted, or the spring may have large gaps between the coils toward the center of the spring.
The garage door operation may appear different than usual. Automatic garage doors may not open fully or will open and close unevenly. You may even notice a loud creaking sound coming from the garage door as it is raised and lowered.
Opening a Door with a Broken Spring
If your door has a broken spring, opening the door automatically can cause damage to several garage door components. It is possible to have the garage panels cave in, have damage occur to the drive chain or belt of the garage door opener, or you can damage the motor of an automatic opener. Further, the opener rail and J-arm bracket can become damaged due to the weight of the garage door. If you absolutely must open the door to get cars out of the garage, it should only be attempted manually.
Most garage doors are made of wood and steel and are quite heavy. The best advice is to lift from the middle of the door, applying pressure to multiple panels to ensure the door opens evenly. Of course, the best advice is to call a professional garage door service to help open the door and perform the appropriate repairs.
Contact Bluff Country Garage Door Today
At Bluff Country Garage Door, LLC, we are dedicated professionals, passionate about providing ultimate customer service. We have over 15 years of experience fixing and replacing overhead garage doors. To learn more about the services we offer, contact us today!
This post first appeared on http://www.bluffcountrygaragedoor.com