Garage door cable repair: $150 to $350, snapped cable rules

National figures. A snapped cable often goes with a worn spring, and the two are usually priced together.

Do this now: garage door cable snapped or off the drum

A cable carries the spring's pull to the bottom of the door, so a loose cable means the door is no longer held evenly. Treat it as unsafe.

1. Do not touch the cable, the spring or the bottom brackets. Do not touch a snapped spring or a loose cable. DASMA, the door makers' association, says springs under tension cause injury when they break and that cables "should be replaced only by a trained technician"; HomeGuide says DIY spring work "can result in serious injury or death."
2. Do not open the door. HomeGuide: "never operate a garage door with broken or damaged cables"; Angi says that if a cable breaks while the door is raised, the door may fall suddenly.
3. Do not pull the red release unless the door is fully closed, and even then Chamberlain says a door with weak springs may fall rapidly. With a cable off, the door is unbalanced; leave it.
4. Unplug the opener if you can reach the outlet without going under the door, so nobody runs it by remote.
5. Keep children and pets out of the garage until the technician leaves.
6. Call the garage door line and say: cable off or snapped, which side, single or double door, torsion spring above the door or extension springs along the tracks.

Is it an emergency? A crooked door is, a frayed cable is not yet

A snapped cable with the door hanging crooked or stuck open is an emergency, and HomeGuide prices that visit at $250 to $350; a frayed cable on a door that still runs evenly is a this-week booking at $150 to $350.

• Call now: the door is crooked, jammed, stuck open, or fell. Angi: "opening a garage door with a broken cable is never a good idea."
• This week: frayed strands, rust spots or a cable that looks slack on one side (HomeGuide's signs), a door that feels unusually heavy or an opener that jerks and strains (Angi).
• Watch for the spring too: a loud bang followed by a loose cable is a broken spring, not a cable, and both get replaced; see garage door spring replacement.
• After-hours fees and the questions to ask are on emergency garage door repair.

Garage door cable repair cost: replacement vs putting it back on

Garage door cable repair costs $150 to $350 in HomeGuide's guide and averages $225 in Angi's July 2026 data, with most jobs $100 to $350; the cables themselves are $12 to $50 a pair (Angi) or $20 to $50 (HomeGuide), so the price is labor and tension work.

• Cable back on the drum: Angi prices untensioning, reinstalling and retensioning a misaligned cable at $75 to $200 per cable; HomeGuide lists tensioning or realignment at $100 to $200.
• Both cables replaced: $150 to $250 (HomeGuide). Fixr lists $100 to $200 and HomeAdvisor $100 to $400.
• Cables, drums and pulleys checked together: HomeGuide's full overhaul at $200 to $400.
• Labor rate: $75 to $150 an hour (Angi; HomeAdvisor) with a $50 to $75 service call for simple repairs (Angi).

Why cables snap: springs, rust and age

Garage door cables last 7 to 10 years with normal use in HomeGuide's guide, sooner in humid or coastal air where they corrode, and a cable that snaps is often reacting to a spring that is weak or broken.

• Spring tension: the spring pulls on the cable thousands of times. HomeGuide says springs last 10,000 to 20,000 cycles, and DASMA says both springs on a two-spring door get replaced together.
• Rust: DASMA's spring data sheet says rust creates corrosion pits where fatigue cracks start; the same happens on cable strands.
• Fraying: Angi says to check for fraying during routine lubrication and to call before it snaps.
• Misalignment: Angi says a cable in a torsion system can fall off the winding drum, usually when the door hit something or one spring lost tension.

Garage door off track repair cost

Putting a garage door back on its track costs $200 to $350 in HomeGuide's repair guide and $100 to $300 at Fixr, and HomeAdvisor says track damage pushes the bill closer to $400.

A door comes off its track when a roller pops out, a cable goes slack on one side, or a panel gets hit. The technician resets the cable tension, replaces bent track or rollers (Angi prices a roller set at $150 to $250 and track parts at $40 to $120) and checks the door's balance. Angi lists track repair or replacement at $125 to $400 on top of the cable work.

Torsion vs extension springs: what changes for cables

Torsion doors run the cable from a drum above the door to the bottom bracket; extension doors run it over pulleys beside the tracks, and HomeGuide says extension springs can snap with significant force and fly across the garage.

• Torsion: a broken cable makes the door "exceedingly heavy and hard to lift" (Angi). Cable and spring are usually serviced together.
• Extension: DASMA says extension springs need a safety cable run through the spring so a broken spring cannot fly. If yours has no safety cable, ask the technician to add one during the repair.
• Double doors: two springs and two cables; HomeGuide prices spring replacement at $150 to $350 and cable repair at $150 to $350, so budget for both when one fails.

What a technician does, and what to ask

The job takes a trained technician under an hour on most doors, and HomeGuide says the overhaul at $200 to $400 includes inspecting the springs, drums and pulleys, which is where a cheap fix either holds or fails.

• Ask for a balance test after the cable is set: a balanced door stays put partway open (CPSC).
• Ask for the auto-reverse test with a 2x4 flat on the floor (CPSC; DASMA).
• Ask whether the spring is near the end of its life and what both would cost today versus two visits.
• Get the price in writing. Massachusetts consumer regulators list the warning signs of a garage door scam: a name that resembles a known local business, no verifiable address, unmarked vans, an estimate far above industry prices and money up front. Get the price in writing before work starts, and never pay in advance.

More: garage door repair, panel and roller replacement, garage door tune-up. Local pages: Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tampa. Calls go to an independent garage door company that serves your area and takes this kind of job; hours vary. How calls work.