Broken torsion or extension spring on a Hollis garage door? We work from Londonderry, 13 miles out, and know the late-70s builds that dominate this town.
We don't quote a number sight unseen, and anyone who does over the phone is guessing. What we can tell you is what drives the cost: whether you've got one torsion spring or two, whether it's torsion or the older extension-spring-and-pulley setup, and whether the spring is a stock size or something a previous owner swapped in. Hollis homes cluster around a 1979 median build year, which puts a lot of doors squarely in the torsion-spring era rather than the older extension setups you'll still find on pre-1970s stock elsewhere in the region. That's good news for parts availability, since torsion springs in that range are common sizes, not special orders. What pushes the price up is a worn drum, a bent shaft, or a cable that let go along with the spring, because now you're not replacing one part, you're replacing three or four. We'll tell you flat out if the hardware around the spring looks original to a 1979 install and worth upgrading while the door's open, versus if it's fine and we should just swap the spring and go.
What the Fix Involves
A torsion spring job means clamping the door down, releasing tension with winding bars, pulling the old spring off the shaft, and setting a replacement matched to your door's weight and cycle count. On a door built around 1979, we're usually dealing with a single spring over a one-piece shaft, not the dual-spring setups that came standard on wider doors built later. We check the drums and end bearing plates while we're up there, because a shaft that's been running on a dry or pitted bearing for four decades will wear out a new spring fast if we don't deal with it. We also check cable condition, since cables and springs tend to age out around the same time. If your opener's been compensating for a weak spring by straining on every open-close cycle, we'll say so, because an opener running through dead springs usually fails next.
The Symptom
The usual tell is a door that won't stay up on its own, or one that slams the last foot instead of lowering smooth. You might hear a bang from the garage, which is almost always the spring letting go, not something falling off a shelf. On older torsion setups like the ones common in Hollis's 1979-median housing, you'll sometimes get a slow failure first: the door gets harder to lift by hand over a few weeks before it finally snaps. Cold makes it worse. This region sits in a severe winter climate band, and steel springs lose some flex in low temperatures, so a spring that's been marginal all fall often picks the first hard freeze to go. If your door suddenly feels twice as heavy, don't keep running the opener through it. That's how you turn a spring job into a spring-and-opener job.
The DIY Question
Don't. A wound torsion spring holds enough stored force to break a wrist or worse if the winding bars slip, and that's true whether the door's five years old or fifty. Where we'd actually tell a Hollis homeowner to hold off calling anyone: if the door still opens and closes fine and you just noticed a spring looks worn or slightly rusted with no sag, no noise, and no struggle lifting it. That's not an emergency, and there's no need to pay for a service call before it actually fails. But once a spring has visibly unwound or snapped, or the door won't stay up past knee height, that's a two-person, specialized-tool job, and the honest move is to park the car outside and make the call rather than prop the door with a 2x4 and hope.
How it works
From “it’s stuck” to “it’s fixed”
1
Tell us what’s wrong
Describe the symptom - won’t open, loud bang, opener runs but the door won’t move.
2
On-site diagnosis
A technician tests the door under power and by hand and finds what actually failed.
3
Clear, up-front plan
You get the fix that’s needed and what drives the cost - before any work starts.
4
Repaired & tested
The repair is done, the door is set true and tested, and the work area left clean.
Next step
Not sure which repair your door needs in Londonderry, NH? Describe what it’s doing - every job starts with a diagnosis.
How old does a spring usually last on a Hollis garage door?
It comes down to cycle count more than age, but most torsion springs are rated for somewhere around 10,000 cycles, roughly 7-10 years of normal use. Homes built around Hollis's 1979 median are well past any original spring's life expectancy at this point, so if yours has never been replaced, it's due.
Do you carry springs for older Hollis homes in the truck?
Torsion springs sized for standard doors from that era are common stock, so we typically have what's needed. Unusual door widths or a spring that was non-standard to begin with can mean a short parts wait, and we'll tell you up front if that's the case rather than guess.
Is it worth replacing both springs if only one broke?
If your door has two springs and one broke, the other is usually close behind since they wear on the same schedule. We'll look at the wear on both and give you a straight answer rather than upsell a second spring you don't need yet.
Can cold weather really break a spring that was fine in summer?
Yes. Steel contracts and loses some give in hard cold, and a spring already near the end of its cycle life is more likely to snap on a freezing morning than a mild one. It's not the cause of the wear, but it's often what finishes the job.
Ready to get your garage door sorted?
Tell us what it’s doing and where you are in Londonderry - we’ll take it from there.
