How Much Does a Two-Car Garage Door Weigh?
A typical two-car garage door weighs between 155 and 225 pounds, depending on the construction material. Wooden doors are usually heavier and absorb water when it is raining, adding up to 50 additional pounds to their weight. Aftermarket painting of a garage door also adds to the overall weight.
Garage door manufacturers include springs to provide a counterbalance of the weight of the door. Knowing the correct weight of the door is essential to choosing the correct weight. Owners are able to determine the weight by clamping the door open using a C-clamp and disconnecting the spring. After removing the spring, they lower the door onto a bathroom scale and read the weight off the scale. Large or very heavy doors sometimes require more than one set of scales and adding the values to determine the weight.
Many garage door springs use a color code to identify the weight range of the spring. However, these color codes vary by manufacturer. Since several factors affect the door weight, weighing it is the only sure way to know the correct weight range to select.
The weight of the garage door makes operating it with a broken spring hazardous. For doors with two springs, manufacturers recommend replacing both springs at the same time, even if just one breaks.