Hello Everybody!

I have a problem I was hoping someone could give me some advice on. Heres the story:

My grandmothers house was hit by a tornado. There was a lot of damage and one day after all the repairs were done the doorbell started buzzing. It was disconnected and now I'm trying to fix it. As far as I can tell its getting power all the time like someone was outside holding the button down. Even with the button disconected it still does it. I'm thinking a wire is crossed somewhere but wanted to get some advice before I started taking the doorframe apart. The firs thingI tried was a new doorbell and button but it didn't make a difference. Can someone point me in the right direction?Thanks!

 

Do you have (or have access to) an electrical multimeter with a resistance (ohms) setting?

If so, disconnect the doorbell wire from the transformer and from the switch and measure the resistance between the two wires. If it measures zero or close to zero, the wire is bad. If this is the case, I recommend you replace it with a wireless doorbell button to save yourself the hassle of tearing down the doorframe.

If the resistance measures infinity, then the wire is okay and the problem is a bad switch or bad transformer.

 

I don't have access to an electrical multimeter...

Is there another way I can tell?

 

Yes, it sounds like the wires got pinched somewhere. You could just abandon the existing doorbell (button, transformer and chimes) and replace it with a wireless doorbell. If you really want to look for the pinched wire, then start looking where the house was damaged.

 

That may be the best idea... Pretty much the whole house was damaged, much of the roof missing, ect, so I can't narrow it down by what was damaged. Thanks for all the help! I think I can take it from here.