Will door bells on back doors make a comeback?

[tvguy]

Yes same here. If someone was at my back door I would call the police !

I have a utility easement across the back of my backyard so from time to time the electric company, phone company, cable company have crews in my yard or on the poles that look down into my backyard. If there is a failure of equipment, they don't have to give notice to enter the yard. If they know they will be in the yard, they will leave a hanger on the door. And about once a year they have a tree trimming contractor prune back my trees from the lines. That they give notice of without fail.

 

[Uncle Coaster]

If anyone used our front door doorbell we’d call the police. It would mean that they broke in through the locked screen porch door to get to it.


Our driveway leads to our back door, which visitors use…and has a doorbell.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Our back door would not be accessible most of the winter unless you want to wade through 2 feet of snow - if you could open the gate that is.

 

[amcnj]

I don’t think I ever lived in a house with a back doorbell. But all the houses were situated facing streets with the back doors way in the back, not off a driveway or anything.

I do recall my parents having a small door knocker on the back door. I only recall a few neighbors and sometimes relatives, especially if they were bringing food to the kitchen, using the back door. Aside from us of course.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I voted yes. - My "back" door is on the side, and it does have a separate doorbell/tone. (My house was built in the 1990s.)

 

[Suz333]

I didn’t know back door doorbells were a thing, but we have one. We had a Ring doorbell, and later got a deal on a newer version that was packaged with some other cameras. So we moved the old one to our back door (sliding glass doors on the back porch), and installed the new one on the front door. Maybe 1 out of 4 deliveries does someone actually ring the bell, so we’re very happy to have the motion sensors set the chime off.

 

[tvguy]

Our back door is not easily accessible. We have a wooden fence.

A person would be trespassing to come in our backyard.

Most homes in our region are this way.

I have a fully fenced backyard too with a gate. Like I posted, that doesn't prevent utility crews from getting in when they need to, nor would it keep delivery people out.

 

[georgina]

Our townhouse has a back alley with garages but no entry doors for people. FedEx and UPS deliver to the garage in back. Post office and Amazon deliver to the front. Mail carrier will ring the front doorbell if he leaves a package by the door (mail boxes are down the street.) I get an email from Amazon when anything is delivered so it doesn't sit too long. Out last house did not have a back doorbell and no one delivered to the garage/basement door in back.

 

[kyton]

Our whole property of an acre is fully fenced - no one can get in unless they know our code for the front gate. We do have a front doorbell which is pretty redundant but the builder included it for some reason. Deliveries go t9 our business address since we are there 5 days out of 7.

 

[NotUrsula]

Nah, but I think that the addition of a locking "package box" may resurrect a concept similar to a milk door; a small niche in the wall near the front door that can be opened with a code, and also opened from the inside. My MIL's house has a milk door.

I really don't think that the delivery services would love the idea of deliveries commonly going to the back of single-occupancy homes; that would take longer for each delivery, slowing the route time.

BTW, there are all sorts of package dropboxes available for sale right now. Some are disguised as things like planters and gateposts, others are utilitarian steel. With some, you just leave an open padlock on the hasp, and the delivery person is supposed to close it after delivery, some have combination locks where you can supply a code, and others have UPS-like chamber doors or heavy rubber flanges that allow things to go in from the top without a key, but cannot be reached into to pull anything out. I would think that after the pandemic, new homes being built will probably offer having them built-in as an option, but you can certainly add a free-standing one any time you like. Just Google "package dropbox shipping" and you'll see hundreds of choices.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Other: I need a doorbell that will tell me when the delivery driver just drops the package any old place on the property he pleases and drives away.

 

[TLSnell1981]

We have door bells at our front and one of the side doors....not the back. Only two doors are accessible for deliveries or "guests".

 

[barkley]

I have a utility easement across the back of my backyard so from time to time the electric company, phone company, cable company have crews in my yard or on the poles that look down into my backyard. If there is a failure of equipment, they don't have to give notice to enter the yard. If they know they will be in the yard, they will leave a hanger on the door.

people might not realize it b/c (in my experience) few read the entirety of their title paperwork when they purchase a home or property but even where i live in 'the sticks' where we don't even get some public utilities that doesn't mean those utilities don't have decades, close to a a century old easement on properties. it is the rule vs. the exception for easements to be on private properties-in some cases there is strictly enforced verbiage pertaining to fencing or otherwise limiting access but in others fences abound yet were the homeowner to look at the very fine print in their documents they would find that unless they provide unobstructed access through their fencing to any and every easement owner-those owners can take into their own power whatever means are necessary for access.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I never realized that houses used to have doorbells on the back doors with different sounds. But my house has a back door but no doorbell on the back door. And my house doesn't even have a doorbell but instead when you ring the doorbell it makes a buzzer sound similar to what you hear on Family Feud when a family gets a strike on the survey board. But I think when houses began getting more modern they stopped using doorbells and started using intercoms for safety reasons but I think we will begin to see more computerized doorbells being added to newer houses because I think people care about safety and want to make houses more safer as time goes by

 

[unrequited23]

I grew up in a house with a front door and a side door. Both had doorbells but did not have different sounds. The unofficial rule of the neighborhood was expected guests use the side door and unexpected guests use the front door. My current house has a front door, back slider and a door to the garage. The front door and garage door both have doorbells for some reason.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

I voted other... we DO have a back door, but it is sliding glass doors. Now that I think about it, we have a garage door too on the side. The only door (without somebody having to climb a fence) is the front door. We have a ring doorbell. Well there is a garage door, like the regular kind in the front but I don't think people use doorbells on those.

This is something that I had forgotten about. I remember being somewhere that had a back door doorbell. They had two separate rings, like one ding was front door, two dings was the back. I think the house was built in the 50's.

 

[QueenIsabella]

I never heard of a backdoor doorbell. We did own a 200 year old house that had 2 or 3 doorbells with different rings--it was a big house, you could spend several minutes trying to figure out where someone was. It had a front door, the original backdoor (now enters into a laundry room), and the door on the garage that we used 90% of the time.

Our current house doesn't have a second doorbell. Just as well--not only do we have a fenced back yard, but a sun room was added on where the original back door was, so it would be inside. We have French doors leading from the kitchen to the sun room, then another door from the family room to the sun room (it's a big sun room--40 feet long). Maybe there's a second doorbell in the garage--it, too was added on. The original garage is now a dance/game room. Luckily, we like quirky houses.

 

[mrodgers]

I have no need for a doorbell at all. Didn't have one at the house, don't have one now. If you're at my door, I already know because I've invited you. If I haven't invited you, you don't need to be at my door.

 

[mrs. magoo]

We have door bells on both my side and front door but if you try to go to my back door you will be trespassing and my dogs might lick you to death.

 

[_19disnA]

I don't see how having a doorbell in the back would prevent/deter theft of delivered items. If the delivery person rings the bell when you aren't home then no one will hear regardless of which door. My experience has been that the delivery person sometimes rings the doorbell and other times doesn't. Even if you are home, if you running a vacuum or any loud appliance, you probably wouldn't hear the bell. The layout/design of your home probably has more to do with where packages are delivered. Most newer homes I am familiar with only have one keyed entrance door along with a garage door. Having a bell on the entrance door within the garage wouldn't be accessible unless the garage door was open. Back yard is typically a patio area that isn't an entry door you can lock from the outside.