One of the most dangerous parts of your garage door is the spring. These springs are designed as counterweights to the door, and they help keep the garage door balanced and stable when the door is opening or closing. When a garage door spring is broken, it is still possible to open, but only in an emergency, and only with great caution.
Please note that torsion springs, extension spring, and other components of your garage door can be extremely dangerous if not handled properly. These can cause serious injuries, or even death. Under no circumstance should you try to repair these pieces on your own. Instead, call professional garage door technicians, as professional installation and repair is strongly recommended.
Although when a spring is broken, you can still open the garage door, it is better if you did not try. However, emergencies can arrive where you absolutely need to get in or out of your garage door. The first thing is to know and identify if a garage door spring is broken. This might be the case when the garage door will not open or close, or the opener is straining to lift the door. However, a clear sign that the spring has broken is if you hear a loud pop, similar to that of a firecracker. Springs hold a lot of energy, and you will notice if that spring breaks.
With a broken spring, your garage door opening cannot lift the door. In fact, you should not even try to operate the garage door opener. Attempting to do so can crack or crumple door panels, strip gears, bend rails, burn out the motor, or even pull the garage door opener from the ceiling.
Garage doors by themselves are very heavy, weighing around 500 pounds. Lifting this weight on your own can be difficult or even harmful. The garage door is equipped with two springs that make opening it possible: the extension spring is used to counterbalance the weight, and the torsion spring does the heavy lifting.
If you absolutely must open your garage door when a spring has broken, you need to carefully follow a couple of guidelines. First, grab another person to help do the lifting. The two of you need to be aware of your surroundings and use great caution. Do not use the garage door opener, but disengage the door from the opener. Then the two of you will manually open the door completely. To close the door, pull it down slowly, and hold it all the way down so it does not fall.
The very first thing you need to do when a garage door spring breaks is to call the professionals at Environmental Door. For more information on fixing your garage door, or to install a brand new garage door, call the experts at Environmental Door today at 616-453-0164.
