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Comment by QuercusMax | Hacker News Reader

They are surprisingly heavy, which is why you need such a beefy spring. When my spring broke a decade or so ago, I wasn't able to lift the door on my own, and with the assistance of my wife we were just barely able to lift it. Looks like they can easily be 200-500 lbs depend on materials (steel isn't light, but it's lighter than wood for this application), and I guess the issue is that you have to lift hundreds of pounds straight up against gravity.

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I lifted mine but probably shouldn't have. I kept sticking stuff under it, a crate, a stool, until I was able to put two step ladders under. The higher it goes, the lighter it becomes since now the horizontal roller starts to take on some of the weight. But it's super dangerous.

When the spring broke, one of them snapped, and the quickly dropping door snapped the other one as well. Surprisingly it didn't damage the door itself. It's a double door so had two springs.

I toyed with the idea of replacing the springs myself but after asking around doing a few searches decided it's best I pay a professional to do it.

I guess it depends what you make it of, doesn't it? Growing up I had a typical corrugated roller door, it was very easy for me as a kid to open it with some of the weight supported by the roller. I think they have springs but they're not as extreme as the tilt/section doors. Apparently you can throw a motor on the end similar to roller blind kits, and they wouldn't have to deal with as much weight as a spring-based door. Of course, I do not live in an extreme weather area (yet).

Could it be made of lighter material. Ironic how the garage door is perhaps the most armoured part of a house

Lighter materials that would provide the same level of durability, security, insulation, and fire resistance would be significantly more expensive. No one wants to pay for that.

But the other 3 walls of your garage are wood?

The other three walls don't have the same demands put on them. For one, you wouldn't need to lift them by hand, so they can be practically as heavy as you want.

It’s less ironic in areas subject to hurricanes. They have a very large area. One of the most damaging possible sequences in a hurricane is when the garage door blows in, then the wind just blows the whole roof off.

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