A smoke detector makes a chirping sound when it's time to replace the battery.

Some telephone answering machines beep when a caller has left a message.

A new battery and the press of a button silence these devices that can drive you to distraction if you don't promptly pay attention to them. (Daylight-saving time, which will begin Sunday, is a good time to install batteries in smoke alarms.)

But what do you do when an intermittent buzzing sound is coming from behind a locked door to which you don't have access?

That's the problem Anthony Seeker, of Bellevue, said he has been trying to resolve for more than two years with Delta Property Management, the company that manages the three-story brick apartment building where he lives. It's one of eight properties the company manages in the borough.

One wall in Mr. Seeker's basement apartment is adjacent to a room that has a fire alarm panel. He said the panel has been malfunctioning about once a week since 2007, and that Delta has been less than prompt in silencing the sound, repairing the panel or replacing it.

In January, after again calling Delta and again getting no satisfaction, Mr. Seeker sent letters about the buzzing sound and other problems -- including frozen pipes, a sewage-like odor in the basement and emergency lights that didn't work -- to Bellevue, the Allegheny County Health Department and the county fire marshal.

When the problems persisted, he contacted the Post-Gazette.

"No one seems to care," he said when we first talked on the phone about the problems at Canterbury Arms.

Mr. Seeker, 44, who sustained a back injury in a warehouse accident in 2007, uses a cane to get around. He is the only one bothered by the buzzing sound because of the proximity of his apartment to the small room that has the fire alarm panel.

The panel is designed to sound a building-wide alarm in case of fire. Although the buzzing sound didn't affect the proper operation of the panel, it has been a constant irritation to Mr. Seeker.

He also was upset about the odor and liquid discharge coming from a black plastic drain pipe in a storage area near his apartment. He said it began in January.

"The smell is getting so bad, it's making me sick to my stomach when I'm in my apartment," he said.

I called the health department, discussed the odor and discharge problem with spokesman Guillermo Cole, and asked why the department hadn't responded to Mr. Seeker's e-mail. The e-mail apparently had been lost.

I made arrangements with Mr. Seeker to meet him at his apartment. He notified the management company that I'd be on the premises at his request. When I arrived Friday afternoon, the basement area was a busy place.

Marcello Cipriani, a registered master plumber, was using a snake to clear the lint-choked drain that serves the laundry tubs. He already had installed what is known as a check valve to prevent waste water -- it wasn't sewage -- from backing up and spilling onto the concrete floor of the storage area.

"Some tenants said the tubs took too long to empty," said Dave Wiedenhofer, a maintenance man for Delta. "We figured [Mr. Cipriani] could do that while he was here, sort of a two-for-one."

Mr. Wiedenhofer opened the locked door at the end of the laundry room to show me the new fire alarm panel.

"There shouldn't be any more buzzing sounds," he said.

He invited me to visit the company's local office on Lincoln Avenue. Building manager Jon Smith and leasing manager Lynn Smith, who aren't related, were waiting for me when I arrived about an hour later.

Mr. Smith agreed with Mr. Seeker that the buzzing sound was annoying, but disagreed that he complained about it for more than two years.

"It's only been a few months," he said. "We've gone down there several times. But when we got there, it wasn't making any sound.

"We weren't going to turn off the system because that would have put everyone in the [28-unit] apartment building in jeopardy if there was a fire. We decided to replace the panel, but it took time to do it."

Mr. Smith said he agreed with Mr. Seeker that the waste water that backed up onto the concrete floor and soaked the bottoms of cardboard boxes in nearby storage lockers was foul.

"We took care of it as soon as we heard about it," he said. "We don't let things go because they only get worse. We do the best we can to keep everyone happy."

If that was the case, Mr. Seeker said, the problems would have been resolved long ago.

Jon Smith said Lynn Smith notified every tenant in the building last month that anything they have in the basement that wasn't properly stored in their lockers would be thrown out this past Monday.

"It's about time," Mr. Seeker said as he pointed out several drawers from a chest that were stacked up in front of a locker. "These have been here for years and they're a fire hazard. And some of these lockers have stuff left by tenants who moved out long ago."

I called Lt. Jeff Wissner, of the Bellevue Fire Department. He also serves as the fire marshal.

He said the buzzing sound Mr. Seeker heard was annoying, but that it had no adverse effect on the alarm system. He said Mr. Seeker should have notified the borough about the problem long ago if Delta wasn't doing anything about it.

"I can't believe he waited that long," he said.

Lt. Wissner said he asked Delta whether he could do a fire inspection to make sure everything was up to code, and the company agreed. He noticed a few problems, including those burned-out emergency lights Mr. Seeker complained about.

"I gave [Delta] four weeks to correct the problems and they did it in one week," he said. "I inspected the building again on Monday. Everything was in order and it passed with flying colors."

When I left the building Friday, Mr. Seeker said he had seen more Delta workmen there than he had in months.

"Thanks for your help."