Hail on Your Doorbell Camera: Photograph the Lens First

A video doorbell sits at face height, out in the open, with its glass lens pointed at the street. After a hailstorm it is easy to walk past. The chime still rings, the light still comes on, and the camera may still show a picture, so the homeowner assumes nothing happened. A hailstone can crack the lens, chip the faceplate or loosen the mount without stopping the feed, especially on a cloudy afternoon when a small crack only looks like a smudge. Photograph the device before anyone cleans it, resets it or swaps the battery.

This page is for a St. Louis homeowner who is partway through a storm check and wants a short list of what to look at on the door and the wall beside it. Keys Roofing documents hail damage on the roof and the exterior, puts a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, and attends as the contractor while the homeowner deals with their own insurer. Keys does not handle, file or negotiate a homeowner's insurance claim, and Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) forbids a roofing contractor from doing that work. The office number is (314) 220-2333.

Why the doorbell gets missed

Most storm checklists start at the roof, then move to gutters, siding and windows. A doorbell camera is a small electronic part that sits between those items. It is not a roof part, so a roofer may not look at it closely, and it is not a window, so it may not be on the window list. The homeowner is usually the only person who walks up to it every day, which means the homeowner is also the person who notices if the picture looks odd.

Hail hits the windward side of a house first, and a porch with a roof overhang does not always shelter the wall beside the door. Wind-driven hail can angle under a small overhang and strike the lower part of a camera, the top of a mount or the cover plate. If the front of the house takes hail on one side only, the doorbell on that side deserves the same attention as the gutters on that side.

What to photograph on the device

Start with the lens. Look at it in daylight from two angles, once straight on and once with the sun low on the side of the lens so the light catches any cracks. A crack in a glass lens often shows as a thin bright line that changes when the angle changes. A fog ring that stays in the same place at every angle is usually moisture or a film, not a crack, so photograph it separately and note whether it clears after a day of dry air.

Next, photograph the faceplate or bezel. Plastic faceplates on many video doorbells show hail as small white pits, flat spots or cracks at the edge where the plate meets the body. Get one close photo of each mark, then one wider photo that shows where the mark sits on the device. The close photo proves the mark exists. The wide photo shows where it is.

Then check the mounting plate. Many doorbells use a back plate screwed to the wall, with a gasket or foam pad between the plate and the siding or brick. Hail can crack the plate, bend a corner, or push the gasket out of its seat. Photograph the plate with the device removed if the homeowner is comfortable doing that, and note the screw count. If the device slides or rotates when someone pushes it lightly, record that as well, and photograph it in that position.

The mount and the wall behind it

The wall under the doorbell is part of the same photo set. Brick, stone veneer, vinyl siding and fiber cement each show hail differently. On vinyl siding, look for small cracks at the top of a panel near the mount, or a split in the nailing hem. On brick, look for chipped mortar near the mount or a fresh chip on the brick face. On stucco, check for hairline cracks around the mounting screws, since some cracks are old settling and some come from an impact. Photograph the wall at a distance so the mount and the door frame both appear in the frame.

If the doorbell is wired into a box in the wall, look at the box and its cover. Hail can crack a plastic cover or push a box slightly out of plumb, and the wire entry can show a gap. Do not open a live electrical box to inspect it. A licensed electrician should handle any box that needs to come off the wall.

Wiring, batteries and the power side

Some doorbells run on a low-voltage transformer wired through the house. Others run on a rechargeable battery and do not need the house wiring at all. The two types fail differently after a storm. A wired unit can lose power if a wire is cut or pulled out of its terminal. A battery unit can show a low-battery warning that looks like storm damage but is only an old battery. Test the device before deciding it is damaged, and note the result in writing.

If the doorbell has stopped working, check the breaker for the doorbell circuit and the transformer, if one is in the house, before calling anyone. A tripped breaker or a dead transformer is a repair question, not a hail question. A cut or pulled wire is a hail question if the wire sits in a spot that took impact, and the photo should show the wire and the terminal together.

Lens fog is not the same as a crack

Condensation and dust can look like hail damage on a camera lens, and a crack can look like a scratch from a cleaning cloth. Wipe the lens gently with a dry microfiber cloth, then photograph it again. If the mark stays and changes with the light, it is probably a crack or a chip. If it disappears after wiping, it was dirt or fog, and the photo set should say that too. An honest file includes the marks that were not damage, because it shows the reader that the homeowner checked.

Do not use a cleaning solvent on a lens that looks cracked. Some solvents leave a film that hides the crack in later photos, and the original condition is the evidence. Keep the device as it is until the photos are done.

Keep the file

Save the original photos from the phone or camera, not screenshots or copies sent through a messaging app. Originals keep their date and location data. Screenshots lose that information and look like edited files, which makes a review harder. Name the folder with the storm date, and put the doorbell photos next to the gutter, siding and window photos so the whole exterior is in one place.

Write one line for each photo. Say what it shows, which side of the house it is on, and whether the mark was visible without wiping the lens. A short list like this makes the file easier to read for anyone who looks at it later, including a roofer, an insurer's adjuster or a lender.

What to ask before the crew arrives

If a roofing or siding crew will work near the front door, the doorbell may come off the wall for the job. Ask in writing who removes it, where it is stored, and who resets it. Ask whether the wall box and the wire entry are reset to the same spot, and whether the mounting plate is replaced if it was cracked before the job started. A doorbell that was reset by a crew without a photo before and after leaves the homeowner with no record of its condition.

Ask, too, whether the crew will photograph the doorbell before it comes off. Keys Roofing puts a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, so the homeowner has the before and after record without relying on memory. If a question about the device comes up while the crew is on site, call the office at (314) 220-2333 before the work continues.