Garage Door Cable Repair in Murfreesboro, TN
A cable that snapped, came off the drum or is hanging slack on one side gets replaced in pairs, re-wound under controlled tension and the door rebalanced, in one visit.
Garage door cable repair in Murfreesboro, TN typically costs $100 to $350 as of 2026, and the usual sign is a door that sits crooked, hangs low on one side, or stopped short with a loop of steel cable hanging near the track. Garage door cable replacement is done in pairs, because the second cable has carried the same load for the same years.
Do not lift or lower the door, and do not run the opener. The lift cables hold the full door weight against the springs, and with one gone that weight is on one side only. Leave it, keep the car and the kids out from under it, and call us. If the door is also hanging out of its track, say so and we bring parts for both.
Request a Garage Door Repair Quote
Tell us what the door is doing, whether it is a single or a double, and the part of town you are in. Weekday requests get a reply the same working day, and the price is confirmed on site before any work starts.
Cable Came Off, Snapped or Broke on One Side: What You Are Seeing
Cable came off the drum
The cable is intact but has jumped its grooves on the drum and wound loose or crossed. Often a spring let go or the door hit something on the way down. Realignment runs $75 to $200 per cable.
Cable snapped
Rust at the bottom bracket or a kink at the drum frays the strands until one gives. Both cables are replaced; parts for the pair are $12 to $50 and the job lands at $100 to $350.
Door broke on one side
A door higher on one side than the other has lost cable tension on the low side. Either the cable broke, the drum slipped, or the spring on that side failed and the cable unwound.
Cable came off the pulley
On an extension spring door the cables run over pulleys at the end of each horizontal track instead of onto drums. A worn pulley wheel or a bent bracket lets the cable slip off. We re-route the cable and replace a worn pulley.
Drums, Brackets and the Tension You Cannot See
The bottom bracket
The steel bracket at each bottom corner that the cable hooks into carries the full spring tension when the door is closed. Loosening its bolts with the door down releases that tension all at once, which is how people are hurt.
Cable drums and the torsion shaft
On a torsion door the cables wind onto grooved drums at each end of the shaft above the header. Both cables must be wound to the same tension and groove count or the door climbs crooked and jams.
Pulleys and extension springs
Extension springs stretch along the horizontal tracks and lift through cables run over pulleys. They last 4 to 12 years against 7 to 15 for torsion, and a broken one can fly unless a safety cable runs through it. We fit safety cables where they are missing and explain when a conversion to torsion at $400 to $800 or more is the better spend.
How We Put a Cable Back Right
-
Secure the door and read the damage
The door is clamped in the track so it cannot move. We find out why the cable failed: fray at the bracket, a broken spring, a bent drum, a worn pulley, or a strike.
-
Unwind the springs, release the tension
On a torsion door, winding bars take the spring tension off before any cable, drum or bottom bracket is touched.
-
Fit both cables, set the drums
New cables hook into the bottom brackets and wind onto the drums with the same number of wraps each side. Worn drums or brackets are replaced at the same time.
-
Re-tension, balance, test
The springs are wound back on and the door must hold by hand at the midpoint. Then the opener is reconnected and the contact and photo eye reversal tests are run.
Why Cables Fail in Rutherford County Garages
Rust at the bottom bracket
Murfreesboro gets 55.92 inches of rain a year and about 4.4 muggy months from mid May to late September. Water that runs under the door sits where the cable meets the bottom bracket, the lowest steel on the door, and the strands rust from the inside. A cable that looks dry and grey on the outside can be brown and brittle where it bends into the bracket.
A broken spring takes the cable with it
When a torsion spring breaks, the shaft stops holding the door and the cables go slack in an instant. The slack cable jumps the drum grooves, so a cable that came off on a cold morning is often the second half of a spring failure, and the spring is the bill. Spring steel is more brittle in the cold, and Murfreesboro has a cold season from November 28 to February 26. Spring plus cable together runs $200 to $500 a door.
Weight, cycles and the second cable
A 16 foot double door weighs 300 to 450 pounds, and every one of those pounds passes through two cables each time it moves. When one fails the other has the same age, the same corrosion and the same fatigue, which is why we replace in pairs.
Cable Repair Prices in Murfreesboro, Stated Up Front
Garage door cable repair: $100 to $350 for a pair, fitted and the door rebalanced
Ranges from 2025 and 2026 national cost guides, with a Nashville-area operator guide listing cable replacement at $100 to $200. The national average single ticket is $225.
| Scope | Typical range | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Cable off the drum or pulley, re-routed and re-tensioned | $75 to $200 per cable | No new cable needed. Both sides checked and balanced. |
| Both cables replaced, drums and brackets inspected | $100 to $350 per door | Parts for the pair $12 to $50; the rest is labor at $75 to $150 an hour. |
| Cables plus a broken torsion spring | $200 to $500 per door | Springs are also done in pairs; $150 to $350 for the springs alone on a standard door. |
What moves the price
- Cause: a slipped cable is the low end, a broken spring behind it is the high end.
- Door size and weight: a 16 foot insulated door takes heavier springs at $250 to $400.
- Drums, brackets or pulleys that are bent or worn add $5 to $40 each in parts.
A 2001 house in the Siegel area, double steel door, hanging 4 inches low on the left with a cable looped on the floor. Door clamped, springs unwound, both cables replaced, drums reset to equal wraps, door balanced at midpoint. The ticket lands in the middle of the $100 to $350 band.
What You Get When We Handle the Cable
Cause found before parts are fitted
A cable fails for a reason: rust, a spring, a strike or a bad drum. We name it on the quote so the repair holds.
Pairs, always, with the balance test
Two cables, equal wraps, the door held by hand at midpoint before the opener is reconnected. It is in the price.
An itemized written figure first
Cables, labor, any drum or bracket, any spring, each on its own line.
Cable Questions From Homeowners
My garage door is crooked. Can I straighten it myself?
No. A crooked door has lost cable tension on the low side, and the remaining cable and spring are carrying the weight unevenly. Forcing it level can pull the second cable off, bend the track or buckle a panel. Leave it where it stopped and call.
Why do you replace both cables when only one broke?
Because the second one has the same age, corrosion and cycle count as the one that failed, and the springs are already unwound to reach it. A pair of cables is $12 to $50 in parts.
Is the cable the problem or the spring?
Look at the spring over the door. A broken torsion spring shows a visible gap in the coil. If the coil is whole and the door is crooked, the cable has slipped or snapped. Either way, do not run the opener.
Do extension spring doors have cables too?
Yes, two kinds. The lift cables run from the bottom brackets over pulleys at the end of the tracks to the springs. A separate safety cable should run through the centre of each spring so a broken spring cannot fly across the garage. We add safety cables where missing.
Repairs That Travel With a Cable Job
Worn rollers that let the door bind put extra strain on cables and drums and are cheap to swap.
A car stuck behind a crooked door is the call we treat as urgent inside our working hours.
A yearly look at cables, brackets and balance catches fraying before it snaps.
Door Stuck? Tell Us What It Is Doing
A door that will not lift, hangs crooked, or stops a few inches off the floor is usually one failed part. Call during posted hours or send the symptoms and we will come out, name the part, and put an itemized price in front of you before we touch it.