I’ve been wanting to get rid of this horrible door bell (see picture) since I first saw it on my house but have never found a good long-term solution to correcting the uneven surface. In the original install they used silicone to fill the gap which is now dirty and looks really horrible. The button is also crumbling!
At first I purchased an attractive rectangular brushed nickel door bell button, and a square 4x4" travertine tile which I was planning on embedding in the wall where the current door bell is. Doing so would have provided a smooth, flat surface compatible with any door bell I wanted. The only doubt is whether I’d be able to cement it in place making it look like a professional job.
In the meantime, Ring and equivalent door bells have picked up in popularity. All of those products, however, need a flat surface to be mounted on so I still have the same issue. I saw on another thread that some just ground down the area covered by the new door bell but that is not something I want to do as the day I want to replace the door bell, I would need to find one that is exactly the same shape/size to cover the ugly surface that was ground down. That is partially why I felt that installing a tile would provide me with a viable long term solution.
I currently have a reed sensor inside the bell connected to an Aeon Dry Contact. This gives me the alert via ST. I also have a high definition Hikvision dome camera trained on the area in front of the door but it is not integrated into ST. I can do without smart door bells but I’d like to adopt a solution that will allow me to install one easily/nicely in the future.
The reason I am posting this is to ask for pictures of solutions adopted by others that may have had the same issue to help me, and others, figure out what options there are.
If you have a tile that you like and can drill the necessary holes through for wiring and mounting, then I would say use that.
Prep Tile - drill needed holes for cables and mounting
Mount Tile
Use expanding crack filler (available at lowes/home depot) to fill in between tile and wall. Go slow with the filling and then once dry use a knife (sharp) to clean up around the tile and then paint as needed to match the color.
The crack filler is cheap and is paintable and water proof and if you ever decide to change things up you just unscrew the tile and pull it off. Some scraping of the filler and buffing to remove all of it but doable without grinding away at the stone.
@jeubanks - I think what you are saying is what I did. I just never installed it as I am not certain it will come out nicely and it is a bit small so it may not accommodate a future Ring type doorbell. Therefore, I am still hunting for alternative solutions…
EDIT: Reading again your post I noticed that the idea would be to not make the tile permanent, but rather have it be held on the wall with the same screws that hold the doorbell and to just fill in the gap with this ‘crack filler’. I need to look into this as it may then be easier to update if a larger doorbell were ever to be installed. Tnx for the suggestion.
3D scan the surface/use your phone cam to do a photogrammetry surface. Use this geometry to form a wedge/base to fasten the doorbell on. 3D print the result and voila!
Inspiration (imagine it without the LEGO references)
