While cleaning my desk this evening I was startled by a loud banging crash from the garage; a noise which faintly sounded like the garage door collapsing. No, it wasn’t someone sliding on the ice and crashing into the building; the garage door opener spring had broken (photo), dropping the door and unspooling the lift cables (left side, right side).
Living in a condominium means that the association (which is collectively funded by the co-owners) pays for repairs such as this, so I called the property management company’s emergency repair number and set things in motion to get it repaired. Because there’s a significant extra charge to the association (of which I’d indirectly pay for part) to have the work done at night I opted to let them come tomorrow and get Danielle’s car out of the garage myself. This took a bit of lifting, the floor jack to get things started, and then more lifting and propping things up with some spare wood before I could back out Danielle’s car.
Lowering it down was no easy task, as by the time the last panel rotated to vertical I was unable to support it myself, dropping it the remaining twelve inches with a deafening bang that gave me a bit of a headache. Regardless, her car is out, repairs are queued, and all is good. I knew this was going to happen eventually as all garage door opener springs eventually go, I’m just glad that it happened now; a rather convenient time.