Booking a Visit
We run this job out to Lantana from our shop in Hurst, about 18 miles east, so we ask for a call ahead rather than a same-day walk-in. Tell us the door make if you know it and whether one cable snapped or both look frayed, that changes what we load on the truck. Lantana sits toward the newer edge of the housing stock we cover, and across the wider service area of roughly 86,553 households the build years run from 1953 up through 2014. A house here going up closer to 2007 usually still has its original cable drums and the factory-length lift cables, since nobody's had a reason to touch them until now. We'll ask a few questions on the phone to figure out if this is a straight cable swap or something the spring is doing to the cable, because those two often get confused and treated the same way when they shouldn't be.
What the Repair Takes
A standard two-cable job on a double door means pulling the old cables off the drums, checking the drums themselves for grooove wear, and setting new cable to the same length so the door doesn't rack sideways going up. On a door original to a 2007 build, that's roughly seventeen years of cycles on cable that was never designed to last forever, galvanized aircraft cable fatigues at the drum end long before anything looks obviously wrong. We check the bottom brackets and the roller carriages while we're in there, since those wear on the same schedule. One thing we won't do: sell you a full spring-and-cable overhaul if the springs are fine. If the cable failed on its own and the spring still holds tension correctly, replacing the cable is the job, not an excuse to replace parts that aren't broken.
The Symptom
The door drops crooked, hangs at an angle, or won't move at all and one side of the bottom section sits lower than the other, that's a cable that's let go, usually on one side first. You might hear it happen: a loud snap, then the door either stops dead or slams the last foot or two. Don't run the opener again once this happens. A door held up by one working cable can jump the track or come down hard enough to bend the bottom panel, and on a household budget with a median income in the area near $200,147, that's a repair bill nobody needs to add to a cable job. If the cable frayed instead of snapping clean, you'll usually see it first, thin wire strands sticking out near the bottom bracket, weeks before it actually lets go.
The DIY Question
Garage door cable holds a garage door up against spring tension that can put someone in the hospital if it releases wrong, and we don't recommend homeowners in Lantana or anywhere else try this one themselves. Hardware stores sell replacement cable, but matching the gauge, the length, and the drum winding pattern to a door built around 2007 takes more than eyeballing it, get the length wrong and the door won't sit level even after the repair. If you're comfortable with basic tools, the one thing worth doing yourself is disconnecting the opener and manually lowering the door to a stable position, so it's not hanging on one cable while you wait for us to get out from Hurst.
Other services in this area
Questions, answered
Is Lantana in your service area?
Yes. We cover Lantana from our shop in Hurst, about 18 miles away. We don't keep a branch or crew stationed there, so we ask you to call ahead rather than expect a same-day walk-up visit.
Why would a cable snap on a door that isn't that old?
Age isn't the only factor, cycle count matters more. A door built around 2007 that's been used daily has put close to two decades of lift cycles on cable that fatigues at the drum end long before it looks worn from the outside.
Can I just replace one cable and leave the other?
We don't recommend it. Cables age in pairs since they carry the same load on the same schedule. Replacing one and leaving the other original usually means a second service call within a year when the second one goes.
Tell Us What the Door Is Doing
Call and we'll ask a few questions before a truck leaves, then give you a straight answer on repair versus replace.