Before the First Freeze: A Garage Door Check for Henry County

Reviewed 2026-11 · McDonough, GA

Why November is the month to look

In late January 2026, Governor Kemp declared a state of emergency for all 159 Georgia counties ahead of Winter Storm Fern, an ice storm that brought widespread power cuts across north Georgia and the Atlanta metro. A second statewide emergency followed on January 30. Henry County officials asked residents to stay home.

Searches for "garage door repair mcdonough" ran at about 1,300 that January, against about 320 in November. Roughly four times as many people were looking for help, most of them in the same few weeks.

That is the case for doing this check now. A spring near the end of its life will usually still be working in November, and replacing it is something you book for a convenient day. If it lets go during an ice storm, you are calling in the same week as everyone else whose door gave up in the cold, possibly with the car shut inside.

This guide covers prevention and timing. Diagnosing a spring that has already broken, and what to do during a storm, each have their own guide, linked at the end. Nothing below involves adjusting a spring.

Count the springs and look for a tag

Stand inside the garage with the door closed and the light on. You are only looking.

A torsion spring sits on a steel bar above the door opening

It looks like one long coil, or two coils either side of a centre bracket. Many single-car doors have one torsion spring. Wider doors often have two. If yours has one, the whole door depends on it, and when it fails the door will not lift at all.

Extension springs run along the horizontal tracks on each side

There should be one on each side, each with a safety cable running through the middle. A missing safety cable is worth mentioning to whoever services the door next.

Two springs of different ages wear unevenly

If one spring on a two-spring door was replaced on its own at some point, the older one is closer to failing. In Lake Dow Estates and Lake Dow North, many 1990s doors have already had their springs changed at least once. If you were not the owner when it happened, it is worth asking a technician whether both were done.

Look for a cycle-rating tag, but do not expect one

Some installers leave a sticker or tag on the spring, the bar or the wall nearby with the install date or the cycle rating. Many doors have nothing. Do not climb up and handle the spring to look for markings. Without a tag, the age of the house and any record of past work are the next best guide.

A cycle is one open and one close

Standard residential torsion springs are commonly sold as 10,000-cycle parts. A door used four times a day runs about 1,460 cycles a year, so a 10,000-cycle spring reaches its rating in roughly seven years, sooner if the garage is the family's main way in. The rating is an estimate, not a promise, but it tells you roughly where you stand.

Mid-2000s houses with original springs are the obvious ones to check

In the Highlands of Eagles Landing and Winslow, a builder-grade spring that has never been replaced has been working for close to twenty years, well past what it was rated for. In The Farm, Stillwater and Holly Hills, many doors are old enough that a spring quote and a full replacement quote are worth seeing side by side.

The balance test, done with the door closed

The springs, not the opener, are meant to lift the door. A balance test tells you whether they still do. Door manufacturers including Genie and LiftMaster describe the same basic test, and the International Door Association, a trade body for door dealers and installers, recommends a balance check every month.

Start with the door fully closed

Genie's instructions are blunt about this: never test balance with the door open. If a spring is weak or broken and you release the opener with the door up, the door can come down hard.

Pull the emergency release cord

It usually hangs from the opener rail on a red handle. Pulling it disconnects the door from the opener so you can move it by hand. On most chain and belt openers you pull down and back toward the door.

Lift the door by hand to about waist height and let go slowly

Genie suggests about 36 inches. Keep your hands on the flat of the panels, never between sections, and your feet clear of the bottom edge. A well-balanced door lifts with modest effort and stays roughly where you leave it. It may drift a little, but it should not close or fly up.

A heavy door, or one that drops, means stop

If it takes real effort to lift, or slides back down when you let go, lower it gently, close it, and do not run it on the opener until a technician has looked at it. Genie's guidance is the same. An opener lifting a door its springs no longer carry is under strain it was not built for.

Close the door and reconnect the opener

Run the opener once and the carriage should click back on. A door that passes gives you reasonable confidence going into the cold months. One that fails tells you to book the work now, while the calendar is quiet.

Lubricate before the cold

The International Door Association's care guidance suggests a small amount of spray lubricant on the hinges, rollers and tracks twice a year. November is a sensible time for one of those.

Use a lubricant made for garage doors

Firms generally recommend a silicone or lithium spray. A general-purpose penetrating spray cleans more than it lubricates and does not last.

Hinges and roller stems first

Spray the pivot point of each hinge between the sections and the stem where each roller meets its hinge. Wipe off anything that drips. Open and close the door a few times on the opener to work it in.

A light coat along the spring coils

Many door firms suggest a short pass of spray along a torsion spring to keep it from squealing and to slow surface rust. Do this from the floor or a step ladder without touching the spring, the cones at each end, or the set screws. Leave the bottom brackets at the floor corners alone completely. They hold the full force of the springs.

Find the manual release before the power goes

In a power cut the opener cannot move the door, and the release cord is the only way to open it by hand. That is a poor time to be finding it by phone light.

Locate the cord now and try it

With the door closed, pull it, lift the door a little, lower it, and reconnect. Everyone in the house who drives should know where it is and how it feels.

A detached garage needs a second look

Older homes around the Square and McDonough Heights are more likely to have a detached garage, and so are the larger lots out toward Ola and Highway 81 East. If the garage door is the only way in, an outage locks you out of whatever is stored there. Some firms fit an outside release, a small keyed lock that lets you reach the cord from outside.

An older opener is worth a separate question

Many in-town homes are on a second or third opener. If you are not sure parts are still made for yours, have that conversation in November rather than January.

New builds are a different first call

Homes finished in 2025 and 2026 in Kendall Grove, Walker Grove, Bowers Farm and Southern Hills have builder-installed doors and openers. If the balance test fails there, the builder or the manufacturer's warranty is usually the first call, not a repair firm.

If something fails the check

A door that is heavy to lift, has one ageing spring, or is on its original springs from the mid-2000s does not need fixing tonight, but it does need booking before the weather turns. In November you can pick a weekday that suits you. In an ice storm week you take the first slot going.

Whoever comes out, ask them to replace springs in pairs on a two-spring door, to tell you the cycle rating of the new springs, and to write the date and rating somewhere you will find it next November.

Where to go next

• Spring Replacement in McDonough
• Opener Repair in McDonough
• Is Your Garage Door Spring Broken? How to Tell and What Not to Do
• Garage Doors in a Georgia Ice Storm or Power Outage