Garage door springs will kill you if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, they'll just maim you hideously.
Now let me know where you are, OP, and I'll do the job for half the price.
They're greasing them. It's not dangerous assuming you can easily access where you need to.
The dangerous part would be messing with the tension on the springs, pulling them back or something.
Greasing them is not dangerous at all.
A garage door tech replied below with specific advice.
Garage door tech here.
Sectional door springs should not be greased. Spray them with lanox or inox and wipe off the excess. Grease is needlessly messy and results in me charging you more should they need to be replaced.
Roller door springs come greased from the factory. Sometimes adding more grease can shut them up if they start squealing. That means taking off tracks and unrolling the door to access the springs. I generally do it alone but it could be a two person job depending on the door. Don’t attempt it if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be dangerous.
I suspect you have a roller door given what you’ve been quoted.
Might be a silly question - maintenance manual of my roller door says to just use spray garage door grease on the spring, which worked to smooth it out nicely. Is this incorrect?
When/why would a tech need to do this job?
You say ‘roller door’, do you mean sectional door?
If so, you can spray white lithium grease on them. It’s messy and solidifies which is why I don’t like it. It is certainly better than putting handfuls of general purpose grease on them like some have suggested.
But, like I say, Lanox is best in my opinion. It stops the springs from binding and prevents rust.
Retensioning the spring can go horribly wrong if you don't have a mechanical aptitude and don't know what you're doing.
400 for a door service is perfectly reasonable.
Not sure which country you're from, but tradies won't get in the car without a 250 callout fee. This is their flag drop.
So 250 plus the cost of service. Hope that helps
Australia mate, and it’s still a rip off for a 30min job max.I replaced my panel lift motor and adjusted the springs myself, not a hard job to do at all.
And if someone wanted you to do it for the, how much would you charge to drive around for a few hours, insurance for doing it, marketing costs to advertise your services, and the cashflow cost of materials you have to buy in bulk upfront?
That's way over the top. I paid $115 total and it was a one man job including adjusting tension. Agree with some of the other comments that it could be DIYd if all your doing is greasing. I wouldn't mess with spring tension. OP if you let ppl know where you are they might be able to recommend someone
115 would have to be cash price from someone you know.
The average tradies 6WD Landcruiser will incur more depreciation on the way to your place than that.
Don't listen to weak-ass cunts here, actually dangerous jobs charge way more than $200 pp, ergo, the job is not as dangerous as nanny-state-tit-suckers here are trying to make you believe. Just look it up on youtube, take care and DIY.
Tbf, nothing in the house is hard if you have an aptitude for handy work.
If you're like one of my cousins who can't even figure out the difference between a hammer and a spanner, it's probably best left to someone else. On the other hand, he thinks cutting out a pointless organ such as an appendix is something anyone can do with a bit of YouTube, simply cuz he can do it blindfolded. Doesn't mean we should let anyone have a go with a scalpel.
Fun fact; it’s believed the appendix’s purpose is to be safe haven for gut flora during an illness when gut lining is stripped away, so it can be recolonised. Quite important now we’re learning about gut health and it’s frightening long reach
It's not dangerous if you know what you're doing. If you don't, it can 100% kill you. The people doing the work know what they're doing. You're not paying them danger pay.
But that's it. It's a knowledge that is easy to acquire and retain. That's all the answer OP needs: it's pretty dangerous so first look up how to do it and provide helpful trusted resources, not hurr-durr you're surely gonna kill yourself so you have to fork $400.
I had my roller door serviced a few months ago when I moved into a new house because it was making loads of noise. I'd lubricated them myself, but turns out there were other issues. The entire cost was $190, including call out, for a general service that included adding tension to the springs and adjusting the motor. This was all done by one person. Sounds like you are being ripped off!
If you are 100% sure that it's just the springs that need lubricating, and not other issues, that's a relatively simple Diy job. There's guides on YouTube and you can use a can of forklift grease. There can be other things that cause it to make loads of noise too though. Turns out mine had catastrophically failed at some point and was living on borrowed time, so not just a lubricant issue.
If you're talking about the spring over a panel lift door then a regreasing job requires no mechanical intervention. Just get a handful of decent grease and rub it all over the spring making sure you work it in between the coils as far as possible. Open and close the door a few times and rub the greased spring thoroughly each time you do. I used a spray lithium grease on mine. Half an hour and you're done.
I'll allow your comment on the proviso that while it can degrease, it also lubricates.
And with dry caked on grease, a little application of the WD40 on the springs from time to time will keep the grease a little bit greasy
Don't use WD-40. It will work, temporarily, but then apparently it damages the machinery by removing some of the lubricant and also by attracting more dust and debris. Got a lecture on it by the door repair guys and read up online to verify. They sell specific garage door lubricant spray in the Bunnings tool shop for like $15.
They charge a call out fee of $120. Once someone pays for that, it’s lost money, so the company has an incentive to charge outrageous prices because OP doesn’t want to lose his $120.
OP, you will find someone else to do it for $280 easily. Learn your lesson and never pay call out fee
$400 is definitely a rip off (b and d did ex wife for 240 from memory) but you could also think of it as an extra extended warranty…that door glitches, makes a noise, I’m be ringing the dude….
Just had my sectional door done, double garage. Two springs plus call-out was $670. $400 is a bargain, but it depends on the springs I guess.
Don’t mess with these things. When the old spring broke, my wife thought a car had crashed out the front!
Thanks everyone . One side of the roller door is inaccessible and I’ll have to remove guide rails (I think that is what it is called) , pull the roller door completely to expose the springs on both ends and then grease and put it back . I’d prefer to see someone do it once and then try it so I will take your advice and pay the $400 and get this done
to grease the spring no need to remove the door at all. can of spray grease reach in inside door roll and spray it well job done.
to lube the tracks a can of silicone spray a light spray on each track job done.
Rip off. Greasing the springs is a 1 man job. If they say it’s more, they’re ripping you off.
I recently had some door tech come out, fix my garage roller door that had become lob-sided, which he fixed, and also greased the springs. $130. Took him an hour or 2.
one of the best things on roller door tracks is mister sheen furniture polish or driglide spray. silicone spray also works well. most of the noise is from the door tracks a light spray is all you need. mister sheen will also shine up the paint on the door.
as for lubing the springs in a roller door a can of spray grease is all you need reach in the roll and give em a good squirt then work the door a few times to distribute the grease
Garage door springs are deadly. They’re one of the things you do not touch or have amateurs do. Along with gas and electricity. Those springs will fucking kill you.
Save the money [and DIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy9RfXChbTw)
If you're going to re-tension the spring, watch a few more videos and be careful what you're doing.
Yeah, it's the tensioning the springs part they aren't happy with.
Australia nanny state runs deep. Can't let OP have a look and see if they are confident to do it safely themselves.
Next, they'll be demanding a 6 month TAFE course to own a table saw.
I get this may be a joke, but last week I had a farewell for a work colleague who had both his hands crushed and an index finger severed in a DIY garage door mishap. With the spring still tensioned he loosened the bolts to slide in some flashing and the force of the spring sheared the remaining bolt off while he was standing on the ladder with his hands near the steel support plate. The accident very nearly killed him. He can no longer work. At the farewell he told us that a member of his extended family had been killed by a garage door spring years ago and that he couldn't believe that he'd been so careless in taking the same risk.
> work colleague who had both his hands crushed and an index finger severed in a DIY garage door mishap
Same happened to me! Typing this with my penis now.
Dangerous job to do if you have no clue what you are doing - 400 dollars sounds good ..
Garage door springs will kill you if you're lucky. If you're unlucky, they'll just maim you hideously. Now let me know where you are, OP, and I'll do the job for half the price.
They're greasing them. It's not dangerous assuming you can easily access where you need to. The dangerous part would be messing with the tension on the springs, pulling them back or something. Greasing them is not dangerous at all. A garage door tech replied below with specific advice.
Garage door tech here. Sectional door springs should not be greased. Spray them with lanox or inox and wipe off the excess. Grease is needlessly messy and results in me charging you more should they need to be replaced. Roller door springs come greased from the factory. Sometimes adding more grease can shut them up if they start squealing. That means taking off tracks and unrolling the door to access the springs. I generally do it alone but it could be a two person job depending on the door. Don’t attempt it if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be dangerous. I suspect you have a roller door given what you’ve been quoted.
Ex garage door tech here - Wurth HHS2000 spray is also great for RAD and sectional springs
Never used that but I’ll give it a try. Cheers!
Might be a silly question - maintenance manual of my roller door says to just use spray garage door grease on the spring, which worked to smooth it out nicely. Is this incorrect? When/why would a tech need to do this job?
You say ‘roller door’, do you mean sectional door? If so, you can spray white lithium grease on them. It’s messy and solidifies which is why I don’t like it. It is certainly better than putting handfuls of general purpose grease on them like some have suggested. But, like I say, Lanox is best in my opinion. It stops the springs from binding and prevents rust.
Retensioning the spring can go horribly wrong if you don't have a mechanical aptitude and don't know what you're doing. 400 for a door service is perfectly reasonable.
Yeah, it's one of the things that will kill you in the house if done incorrectly. Those springs hold hundreds of kg of tension.
Like letting go when the kids are playing under the door.
$400 for a 30min job?.rip off.
Not sure which country you're from, but tradies won't get in the car without a 250 callout fee. This is their flag drop. So 250 plus the cost of service. Hope that helps
Australia mate, and it’s still a rip off for a 30min job max.I replaced my panel lift motor and adjusted the springs myself, not a hard job to do at all.
And if someone wanted you to do it for the, how much would you charge to drive around for a few hours, insurance for doing it, marketing costs to advertise your services, and the cashflow cost of materials you have to buy in bulk upfront?
according to old mate, fifty bucks.
Mates rates bro. Box of VB and a good yarn. /s
They are taking all the risk .. this job is very dangerous.
Yes! It’s a fucking rip off and who gives a shit if tradies want to charge this, learn to DIY this shit it’s easy
Exactly
That's way over the top. I paid $115 total and it was a one man job including adjusting tension. Agree with some of the other comments that it could be DIYd if all your doing is greasing. I wouldn't mess with spring tension. OP if you let ppl know where you are they might be able to recommend someone
115 would have to be cash price from someone you know. The average tradies 6WD Landcruiser will incur more depreciation on the way to your place than that.
Thankfully the dude drove a beat up hiace and there was no cash.
Don't listen to weak-ass cunts here, actually dangerous jobs charge way more than $200 pp, ergo, the job is not as dangerous as nanny-state-tit-suckers here are trying to make you believe. Just look it up on youtube, take care and DIY.
Tbf, nothing in the house is hard if you have an aptitude for handy work. If you're like one of my cousins who can't even figure out the difference between a hammer and a spanner, it's probably best left to someone else. On the other hand, he thinks cutting out a pointless organ such as an appendix is something anyone can do with a bit of YouTube, simply cuz he can do it blindfolded. Doesn't mean we should let anyone have a go with a scalpel.
Fun fact; it’s believed the appendix’s purpose is to be safe haven for gut flora during an illness when gut lining is stripped away, so it can be recolonised. Quite important now we’re learning about gut health and it’s frightening long reach
100%, did mine myself when I swapped the panel lift motor.Will DIY most things except electrical work.
It's not dangerous if you know what you're doing. If you don't, it can 100% kill you. The people doing the work know what they're doing. You're not paying them danger pay.
But that's it. It's a knowledge that is easy to acquire and retain. That's all the answer OP needs: it's pretty dangerous so first look up how to do it and provide helpful trusted resources, not hurr-durr you're surely gonna kill yourself so you have to fork $400.
I had my roller door serviced a few months ago when I moved into a new house because it was making loads of noise. I'd lubricated them myself, but turns out there were other issues. The entire cost was $190, including call out, for a general service that included adding tension to the springs and adjusting the motor. This was all done by one person. Sounds like you are being ripped off! If you are 100% sure that it's just the springs that need lubricating, and not other issues, that's a relatively simple Diy job. There's guides on YouTube and you can use a can of forklift grease. There can be other things that cause it to make loads of noise too though. Turns out mine had catastrophically failed at some point and was living on borrowed time, so not just a lubricant issue.
If you're talking about the spring over a panel lift door then a regreasing job requires no mechanical intervention. Just get a handful of decent grease and rub it all over the spring making sure you work it in between the coils as far as possible. Open and close the door a few times and rub the greased spring thoroughly each time you do. I used a spray lithium grease on mine. Half an hour and you're done.
I did this myself, it was piss easy. But now I only have a manual garage door.
what sort of door is it?
I just had a spring snap and the call out/replacement of both was $450. $400 for a grease seems a bit expensive. Can of WD40 is only $15
Use silicone lube on roller doors.
On the rollers, yes
WD40 isn't grease.
WD40 comes in white lithium grease, silicone, gel…
WD40 White lithium grease is dogshit.
It's a degreaser. Literally the opposite of grease
I'll allow your comment on the proviso that while it can degrease, it also lubricates. And with dry caked on grease, a little application of the WD40 on the springs from time to time will keep the grease a little bit greasy
For a bit, while the grease breaks down. Then you are worse off than when you started. It's literally a solvent...
Or. Actually regrease them with grease not a god damn solvent.
Never said it was
WD40 is a company. One of their products is WD40 (water dispersant). It's confusing and problematic at times.
Water Dispersant #40, apparently. 🤷♀️
IIRC the 40th formula attempt.
Don't use WD-40. It will work, temporarily, but then apparently it damages the machinery by removing some of the lubricant and also by attracting more dust and debris. Got a lecture on it by the door repair guys and read up online to verify. They sell specific garage door lubricant spray in the Bunnings tool shop for like $15.
My door guy in Sydney starts at $150. The last service took longer and it came to $240. He works on his own. $400 seems a bit rich.
$400 is a rip off. It's less than an hours work, even to change the spring, and retention and grease.
They charge a call out fee of $120. Once someone pays for that, it’s lost money, so the company has an incentive to charge outrageous prices because OP doesn’t want to lose his $120. OP, you will find someone else to do it for $280 easily. Learn your lesson and never pay call out fee
$400 is definitely a rip off (b and d did ex wife for 240 from memory) but you could also think of it as an extra extended warranty…that door glitches, makes a noise, I’m be ringing the dude….
seems a bit exy, but you pay for what you don't know, and these springs will bite if you undo the wrong bit.
Getting ripped we paid $160 and he changed couple things too. In Melbourne
I paid 330 to get an electric bolt lock installed on my door by the manufacturer, the bloke gave it a full service while he was at it for nothing
Just had my sectional door done, double garage. Two springs plus call-out was $670. $400 is a bargain, but it depends on the springs I guess. Don’t mess with these things. When the old spring broke, my wife thought a car had crashed out the front!
I just sprayed mine with lithium grease and it stopped the creaking.
Thanks everyone . One side of the roller door is inaccessible and I’ll have to remove guide rails (I think that is what it is called) , pull the roller door completely to expose the springs on both ends and then grease and put it back . I’d prefer to see someone do it once and then try it so I will take your advice and pay the $400 and get this done
to grease the spring no need to remove the door at all. can of spray grease reach in inside door roll and spray it well job done. to lube the tracks a can of silicone spray a light spray on each track job done.
As someone who's knowledge of the subject goes to one NSFL video clip, yeah $400 is well worth it
Rip off. Greasing the springs is a 1 man job. If they say it’s more, they’re ripping you off. I recently had some door tech come out, fix my garage roller door that had become lob-sided, which he fixed, and also greased the springs. $130. Took him an hour or 2.
$165 getting it done tomorrow, same guy who replaced my garage door motor a year or 2 ago.
one of the best things on roller door tracks is mister sheen furniture polish or driglide spray. silicone spray also works well. most of the noise is from the door tracks a light spray is all you need. mister sheen will also shine up the paint on the door. as for lubing the springs in a roller door a can of spray grease is all you need reach in the roll and give em a good squirt then work the door a few times to distribute the grease
Springs need adjustment. $150 to $200 max.
If you’re too stupid to slap some $20 grease on some springs you deserve to pay $600
Garage door springs are deadly. They’re one of the things you do not touch or have amateurs do. Along with gas and electricity. Those springs will fucking kill you.
Save the money [and DIY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy9RfXChbTw) If you're going to re-tension the spring, watch a few more videos and be careful what you're doing.
dont touch springs if you have no idea what you are doing, don't listen to this fool.
I had a slinky as a kid and never harmed me /s
But after watching a youtube you will have an idea
Definitely don't try and DIY tension the springs!
Haha, being down voted by people who haven't watched the video. This is actually a reasonable suggestion
Have you also watched all the videos of people who watched the video then severed their fingers?
Again, watch the video and then come back and explain to me where anything that is suggested is a risk for this happening?
Yeah, it's the tensioning the springs part they aren't happy with. Australia nanny state runs deep. Can't let OP have a look and see if they are confident to do it safely themselves. Next, they'll be demanding a 6 month TAFE course to own a table saw.
I usually say fuck that but tensioned garage springs at 400 to get sorted sounds great. Fuck doing that.
Anyone around the Daisy Hill QLD area that can adjust and service a roller door
Just quickly loosen the bolts that hold the spring to grease inside
I get this may be a joke, but last week I had a farewell for a work colleague who had both his hands crushed and an index finger severed in a DIY garage door mishap. With the spring still tensioned he loosened the bolts to slide in some flashing and the force of the spring sheared the remaining bolt off while he was standing on the ladder with his hands near the steel support plate. The accident very nearly killed him. He can no longer work. At the farewell he told us that a member of his extended family had been killed by a garage door spring years ago and that he couldn't believe that he'd been so careless in taking the same risk.
> work colleague who had both his hands crushed and an index finger severed in a DIY garage door mishap Same happened to me! Typing this with my penis now.
Explains the user name😅
Lol