2026-04-20 6 min read
Spring in Englewood is beautiful. It's also brutal on garage doors. One day you're looking at 65°F and sunshine, and two days later there's a late snowstorm dropping temperatures into the mid-20s. That temperature whiplash — 40 degrees in either direction over a matter of hours — is one of the most damaging things that can happen to a garage door system, and most homeowners don't realize it's happening until something breaks.
This isn't a hypothetical concern. Englewood sits at over 5,300 feet, and March through May regularly brings these kinds of swings. The ground freezes and thaws. Metal expands and contracts. Moisture gets into places it shouldn't. And the garage door — the largest moving mechanical system in most homes — takes the brunt of all of it.
The physics are simple. Metal expands when it heats up and contracts when it cools. For a garage door, which is made up of steel panels, metal tracks, torsion springs, lift cables, and dozens of hardware components, this constant movement adds up quickly.
Metal tracks expand in warm weather and contract in cold. During a typical Englewood spring — where the temperature might hit 60°F by afternoon and drop below freezing overnight — tracks flex repeatedly. Over time, this loosens the bolts holding them to the wall and ceiling, and throws the track alignment off. A door running on even slightly misaligned tracks will sound different: grinding, skipping, or running unevenly. If you've noticed that your door seems louder in spring than it did in the fall, this is almost certainly why.
Torsion springs — the large coiled springs mounted horizontally above your door — are under enormous tension. They're engineered to handle a specific number of open/close cycles, typically 10,000 to 15,000 for standard springs. Cold temperatures make metal more brittle, and the repeated contraction-and-expansion of a freeze-thaw cycle accelerates fatigue in the coils. This is one reason spring failures spike in late winter and early spring in Englewood and the surrounding South Metro area, including Littleton and Centennial.
If a torsion spring snaps, you'll hear it — it sounds like a gunshot. The door will become extraordinarily heavy or won't open at all. This is not a DIY repair. Springs store enough tension to cause serious injury if handled incorrectly. Our garage door spring maintenance guide covers what to watch for before it gets to that point.
The rubber seal along the bottom of your garage door is in direct contact with the ground — which freezes, thaws, and moves. Frost heave (where freezing ground literally pushes upward) can warp the bottom seal and even cause your door to stick to the ground overnight. If you've ever gone to open your garage on a cold morning and had to yank the remote twice because the door seemed frozen in place — that's exactly what's happening.
The side and top weatherstripping takes a beating too. Cold makes rubber brittle, and it can crack, compress permanently, or pull away from the door frame after repeated freeze-thaw cycles. Once it's compromised, you lose your air seal and moisture gets into the garage.
Standard lubricants thicken in cold weather and thin in heat. A grease or lubricant that worked fine in October may be sluggish by February and runny by June. This inconsistency means your rollers, hinges, and springs aren't getting consistent lubrication across Englewood's wild spring temperature swings. Dry metal on metal contact accelerates wear significantly. Always use a lithium-based or silicone-based lubricant rated for temperature extremes — and avoid using WD-40, which is a solvent, not a lubricant, and actually dries out components over time.
Spring is the ideal time for a thorough once-over of your garage door system. After the hard work of Colorado's winter, you want to catch anything that's worn or out of spec before the summer heat adds another layer of stress. Here's a practical checklist:
1. Walk the tracks. Look for gaps between the track and the wall bracket, loose bolts, or any visible bending. Minor misalignment can often be caught early before it causes a door jam. 2. Inspect the springs. Look for visible gaps in the coils, rust, or any section that looks stretched or compressed differently than the rest. If you see these signs, contact a professional — don't wait for the snap. 3. Check the cables. Lift cables run from the bottom corners of your door up to the drum. Look for fraying, kinking, or uneven tension. A cable that's partially frayed is one cycle away from failure. 4. Test the balance. Disconnect your opener using the red emergency cord, then manually lift the door to about waist height and let go. A properly balanced door should stay put. If it drops or flies up, the spring tension needs adjustment. 5. Examine the bottom seal. Run your hand along it. If it's cracked, compressed flat, or pulling away from the door in sections, replace it. A new bottom seal is inexpensive and dramatically improves weatherproofing. 6. Lubricate everything. Rollers, hinges, torsion spring, and the opener's drive chain or belt. Do it now, and plan to do it again in the fall. You can find more detail in our guide to recognizing early garage door warning signs.
Englewood's housing mix includes a significant number of homes built between 1940 and 1969, particularly in southeast Englewood and the Broadway Heights area. These homes often have original or near-original garage structures — which means older hardware, springs that may be well past their cycle life, and tracks that have experienced decades of Colorado freeze-thaw cycles.
If you're in one of those older homes and you've never had a professional inspection of your garage door system, spring is the time to do it. Garage Door Englewood can run a complete assessment and catch problems that aren't visible without knowing what to look for. See our full list of available services to understand what a tune-up covers.
Some spring maintenance tasks are genuinely DIY-friendly: lubricating hinges and rollers, replacing the bottom seal, tightening loose track bolts. Others are not. Spring replacement, cable repair, and track realignment all involve components under significant mechanical tension. Getting it wrong doesn't just mean a broken door — it means a potential safety hazard.
If your door is making new noises, running unevenly, or feels heavier than it used to, those are all signals worth taking seriously. Don't wait for a full failure. Schedule a spring inspection with our team before the issue escalates.
Q: How often do garage door springs fail in Colorado's climate? A: Standard torsion springs are rated for roughly 10,000–15,000 cycles. In Englewood, where freeze-thaw stress accelerates metal fatigue, springs on older doors often fail sooner than their rated cycle count. If your springs are more than 7–10 years old, it's worth having them inspected each spring.
Q: My garage door sticks to the ground on cold mornings. Is that normal? A: It's common, but it's a sign that your bottom weatherstrip seal is either worn out or your threshold seal needs attention. Frost can literally bond the rubber to concrete overnight. A new bottom seal typically costs $30–$80 in parts and solves the problem. Left unaddressed, forcing the door open repeatedly can damage both the seal and the door panels.
Q: Can freeze-thaw cycles affect my garage door opener too? A: Yes. Extreme cold makes plastic gears in some opener models brittle, and temperature swings can cause electronic components to behave erratically. If your opener is struggling to lift the door in cold weather, it may not be the opener itself — a spring that's lost tension makes the door heavier and forces the motor to overwork. Have the full system checked together rather than assuming the opener is the culprit.