The springs of your garage door are designed to provide extra lift, making it possible for you to lift the door yourself without having to move the entire weight of the door. This means that any sort of damage or malfunction to your garage door's springs can cause all sorts of problems and make it harder for you to get into your garage. Understanding a few signs of broken or damaged garage door springs can help you determine when you need to get in touch with a garage door contractor to replace them. Keep in mind that you should never work on garage door springs yourself: They are under extremely high pressure and can cause severe injury if they suddenly snap or break, so they require specialized tools and training to be worked on safely.

Stretched Appearance

One of the best ways to determine the condition of your garage door springs is to visually inspect them. Springs should be tightly wound, with little space between the individual coils. Springs that have large gaps and a visually stretched appearance are at a much higher risk of breaking or suddenly giving way, which can send your garage door crashing down. Of course, you should also look for springs that may have already broken into multiple pieces, which indicate a dire need for replacement.

Rust

Beyond inspecting the condition of your springs to determine how stretched they are, you should also keep an eye out for rust and corrosion. Rust that manages to set into springs that are still in otherwise perfect physical condition can make a break much more likely. Rusty springs require replacement immediately to ensure that breakage does not happen, as rust can move very quickly through metal objects.

Jerking and Slowness

Beyond the condition of the springs, you should also pay attention to the performance of your garage door. Properly functioning springs should ensure a smooth movement while opening and closing. Damaged or old springs will cause the door to jerk or shake while moving up and down, and can even cause the door to stop while only partway open or closed. Further, in some cases, your garage door can sit crookedly even while fully opened or closed, again pointing to spring wear — though it's likely that one spring is more worn or damaged than the other one is, causing the unevenness.

To learn more about maintaining or replacing garage door springs, talk to a garage door installation company near you today.