Stop using the door
Broken spring in Fort Lauderdale, FL
You heard a bang, and now the door will not lift. That is almost always a broken spring. The spring is the part that carries the weight of the door, so when it snaps the opener has nothing helping it and the door either stays put, grinds, or feels impossibly heavy by hand. Look at the shaft above the opening or along the tracks at the sides. A clean gap in a coiled spring means you have your answer.
Phones answered around the clock · free estimate
Springs do not fail on a schedule. They fail on cycles. A door opened many times a day in a busy Fort Lauderdale household gets through springs faster than a door that barely moves. Add the salt air off the Atlantic and the canals, plus the humidity that hangs around all year here, and the steel takes a beating. Corrosion works on springs, cables, rollers and tracks, and on waterfront property in Fort Lauderdale that hardware often needs attention years earlier than the manufacturer's averages suggest.
While you wait — please don't
- Stop using the door. With a broken spring the door suddenly weighs what the spring was carrying, and running the opener anyway can bend panels, strip gears or pull the cables off the drums.
- Do not try to force it up by hand. This is where most people get hurt, straining backs and shoulders or losing control of a door that comes back down fast.
- Do not touch the torsion spring or the cables. Torsion springs are under extreme tension and the cables are tensioned with them, so a slip with the wrong tool can cause serious injury.
- Do not leave the door propped or half raised. A door held up by a ladder, a broom or a clamp can drop without warning, especially with kids, pets or cars underneath.
- Get the car out the safe way. If your car is shut in, leave the door alone and wait for the technician rather than improvising a lift with a second person.
What the technician does
- The door gets weighed and measuredSprings have to match the actual weight and height of your door, not just whatever was fitted last time. The technician checks that first so the replacement is sized correctly.
- Springs are replaced in pairsOn a two-spring door, both get replaced even if only one snapped. The surviving spring has the same cycle count on it and is usually not far behind.
- Cables, drums and bearings are checkedA spring failure puts a shock load through the rest of the lift system. Frayed cables, worn drums and dry or rusted bearings get looked at while the door is apart.
- The door is rebalancedOnce the new springs are wound, the door should hold its position partway up instead of sliding down or flying open. That balance is what keeps the opener from doing work it was never designed to do.
- The opener safety reverse is testedThe technician checks that the door stops and reverses as it should before calling the job finished.
- You see the price firstThe estimate is free. The technician looks at the door, gives you the price, and you approve it before any work starts.
Why this happens in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Fort Lauderdale is hard on garage door hardware in a way inland cities are not. Hundreds of miles of canals and Intracoastal frontage mean a lot of homes sit in constant salt spray, and salt air plus year-round humidity corrode springs, rollers, tracks, hinges and fasteners faster than the steel is rated for. Freezes are essentially unheard of here, so you can rule that out as a cause. What you are dealing with instead is corrosion plus cycle count, and in a two-car garage used several times a day the count adds up quickly.
The housing stock matters too. Large numbers of 1950s to 1970s concrete block and stucco homes on slab still have attached one- and two-car garages, and much of that single-family stock predates modern building codes. Newer townhomes and infill construction across the city sit alongside them. If you are in Victoria Park, Coral Ridge, Rio Vista, Imperial Point or anywhere near the water, a broken spring is often the moment the rest of the door's age shows. Demand tends to climb ahead of and during hurricane season, June 1 through November 30, and again in the November to April snowbird season when seasonal homes get opened back up and doors that sat idle for months are suddenly in daily use. Broward County falls within the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, so if a spring failure turns into a conversation about replacing the whole door, ask about Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, and confirm the exact rating required for your address with the local building department.
Questions people ask
- Can I just replace the one spring that broke?
- It is not the way most technicians handle it. Both springs have the same cycles on them, so replacing one usually means coming back for the other. Replacing in pairs keeps the door balanced and the lift even.
- Does salt air really shorten spring life in Fort Lauderdale?
- Salt air off the Atlantic and the canals markedly increases corrosion on springs, cables, rollers and steel hardware. On waterfront property in Fort Lauderdale that hardware often needs service years earlier than manufacturers' averages. Humidity year-round adds to it.
- Is One Call Garage Door the company doing the repair?
- No. We are a referral and scheduling service that arranges garage door service with independent local technicians. We are not the contractor and we do not perform the work ourselves.
- Do I need a permit for a spring replacement?
- In Florida a permit is typically required to replace a garage door, because the door is part of the building envelope and must meet Florida Building Code requirements. Permits are issued locally, so requirements vary by jurisdiction. Check with the Fort Lauderdale or Broward County building department for your specific job.
- How do I check the technician's license?
- Licensing is the technician's own, not ours. Florida contracting is regulated by the DBPR, and specialty work like this is often handled through local county or city licensing boards. Confirm current requirements with DBPR and with the licensing or building department for your address before hiring.
One call
One call to (866) 394-4210 gets service arranged with an independent technician near you in Fort Lauderdale. The estimate is free, and the price is agreed with you before any work starts.
Something else in this area
One Call Garage Door arranges the visit; the technician does the work and gives you the price.