Spring Repair for Lexington's 1960s Garage Doors

How We Fix It

Lexington's houses mostly went up around 1964, right in the window when torsion springs were taking over from the older extension-spring setup on new garage doors, but plenty of builders in this price range kept hanging extension springs on the sides of the track because they were cheaper and simpler to install. That means when we get a call from this town, we don't assume which system is on the door until we're standing in front of it. A broken torsion spring sits on a shaft above the door and winds tight; a snapped extension spring stretches along the horizontal track and usually has a safety cable running through it, if one was ever added. We measure the wire gauge, coil diameter, and length against the door weight rather than guess off the build year alone, because even houses built the same year sometimes got different hardware depending on which contractor framed the opening. Once we know what's there, we replace the spring with one rated to the actual door weight, not just a like-for-like swap of whatever failed, since original installs in this era were sometimes undersized for the door even when new.

Why This Fails Locally

Spring steel fatigues on a cycle count, not a calendar, but New England's cold snaps make that fatigue show up at the worst moments. A spring already near the end of its working life loses a little flex every time the temperature drops hard overnight, and a door that opened fine the evening before won't budge, or worse, the spring lets go while someone's standing under it. Doors from Lexington's main building era are old enough now that most original springs are well past a reasonable service life, torsion or extension. With a median household income of $219,402 in this town, we also see more owners choosing to replace both springs on a double-spring torsion setup at once rather than wait for the second one to go a few months later, which is the cheaper call in the long run but not one every household wants to make right away. Across the roughly 12,337 households here, spring failure tied to this building era is one of the more common reasons we get a call from Lexington specifically, more than newer-construction towns where the original hardware hasn't aged out yet.

The DIY Question

A broken spring is not a weekend project, and we'll say that plainly: these are under heavy tension even when the door looks still, and winding or unwinding a torsion spring without the right bars has put people in the hospital. What you can safely do yourself is look. Check whether the spring above the door is in one piece or visibly gapped, or whether the side-mounted spring along the track has gone slack. That tells you which system you have before you call, which saves time on the phone. What we won't do is talk you through winding a torsion spring yourself over the phone, and we won't pretend a patched extension spring with a worn safety cable is a long-term fix instead of a replacement. If the drum, cable, or track on a 1960s door is also worn, which is common at this age, we'll tell you that up front rather than replace just the spring and have you calling again in a few months.

How to Book

We run out of Newton, about 8 miles from Lexington, and we cover this town along with the rest of the towns on this side of the river. If you've got a broken spring, tell us whether the door is a single or double and roughly how old the house is when you call, since that's often enough for us to bring the right spring stock on the first trip instead of a second visit. See our coverage page for how Lexington fits into the rest of the area we drive, or check the Newton spring repair page for the full rundown of how we handle this job across the territory.

Frequently asked questions