Home services across South Jersey
Sharpline works as a general contractor in South Jersey, covering Camden County and the towns just over the line in Gloucester and Burlington. Ten trades, one number, one company that stays responsible for the job. Almost everything people call us about down here starts the same two ways: water, or a house whose systems have outlived the decade they were built for.
Cherry Hill · Pennsauken · Merchantville · Collingswood · Haddonfield · Haddon Township · Haddon Heights
What actually breaks here
The housing stock decides the work.
South Jersey is basement country, and that one fact drives most of our call volume. Nearly every house here sits on a full basement in soil that holds water. It shows up first at the cove joint, the seam where the foundation wall meets the floor slab. Anyone who owned a Camden County house in September 2021 remembers what the remnants of Ida did to that seam.
The housing stock splits into three eras that fail in completely different ways. The river and streetcar towns came first. Gloucester City, Collingswood, Audubon, Haddon Heights, Palmyra, Merchantville and much of Haddonfield are largely pre-war: fieldstone or block foundations, plaster over lath, galvanized supply lines rusted down to a straw, cast-iron drain stacks, 60-amp fuse panels, leftover knob-and-tube, and steam or hot-water radiators in a house with no ductwork at all.
Then came the boom. Cherry Hill, Maple Shade, Cinnaminson and Pennsauken filled in through the 1950s and 60s. Those ranchers and split-levels are still running original duct layouts with undersized returns, which is why the second floor never cools. Federal Pacific Stab-Lok panels turn up constantly in this vintage, because the company was based in Newark and New Jersey got more of them than anywhere else.
Voorhees, Gloucester Township, Blackwood, Deptford and Mount Laurel are mostly 1970s through 1990s: poured walls with shrinkage cracks, aluminum branch wiring in the earliest ones, and first-generation heat pumps reaching end of life together. Out toward Medford the soil turns sandy, gas mains thin out, and oil, propane and well pumps come back into the picture.
Winter finishes the job. Hard freezes split hose bibs that nobody finds until April, sump discharge lines ice over in January, and freeze-thaw cycling pops mortar joints and heaves walkways.
We came out of commercial and multifamily property maintenance. Keeping apartment buildings running means carrying every trade on one schedule, so a plumbing call that turns out to be a roof problem never becomes the owner's job to coordinate. That's the part we brought to homeowners.
Below is what actually breaks in South Jersey houses, which services run here, and the towns we cover.
What we run here
Services available in South Jersey
Our service mix differs by market, partly because the housing itself is different.
Plumbing
Galvanized supply and cast-iron stacks in the pre-war towns, plus hose bibs that split every freeze.
See plumbing →Electrical
Federal Pacific panels, 60-amp fuse boxes, knob-and-tube and two-prong outlets. Your insurer asks about all four.
See electrical →Heating & Cooling
Radiators in the old towns, 1960s ductwork in Cherry Hill, and 1990s heat pumps out in the newer developments.
See heating & cooling →Handyman
Resale and certificate-of-occupancy punch lists, detector certificates, and garage doors that stopped opening.
See handyman →Roofing
Nor'easters, summer downbursts and ice dams. Slate and cedar in Haddonfield and Moorestown don't patch like asphalt.
See roofing →Painting & Drywall
Plaster over lath behaves nothing like drywall, and nearly every house here was built before 1978.
See painting & drywall →Windows & Doors
Rope-and-weight wood sashes, storm windows, and doors that stopped latching after something moved.
See windows & doors →Basement Waterproofing
A real service here, not a footnote. Cove joint seepage, dead sump pumps, and downspouts dumping at the corner.
See basement waterproofing →Tile & Flooring
Hardwood hiding under carpet in the pre-war stock. A spongy floor by the toilet is a leak.
See tile & flooring →What needs someone today?
Four things in South Jersey don't wait. Water coming into the basement while it's still raining. No heat during a hard freeze. An active roof leak after a nor'easter. A supply line that split and is running.
Call 610-550-3248 and describe what's happening. We'll tell you straight whether it needs someone now or whether it can safely wait for morning. If you smell gas or a CO alarm is sounding, leave the house and call the utility or 911 first, then call us.
Why do so many South Jersey basements leak?
Because the water usually starts above the ground, not below it. A blocked gutter or a downspout dumping at the corner soaks the soil against the foundation, and pressure pushes it through the cove joint. High groundwater makes it worse, but it's rarely the whole story.
So we look at gutters, downspout extensions and grading before anyone mentions excavation. A few hundred dollars of drainage work solves a real share of the wet basements we get called to. When it doesn't, an interior French drain with a correctly sized sump pump and a battery backup is the honest next step. The battery matters, because the storm that floods your basement is the storm that takes the power out.
If we do dig outside, New Jersey requires an NJ811 markout first. It's free and mandatory, and it takes a few business days, so it shapes your schedule.
Selling or renting out a South Jersey house?
Two deadlines show up here that don't exist everywhere. Most towns run a municipal resale or certificate-of-occupancy inspection before a house changes hands, and New Jersey requires a smoke alarm, carbon monoxide and fire extinguisher certificate from the local fire official on every sale.
Both produce the same kind of list: a loose handrail, a missing GFCI at the kitchen counter, an open junction box, a detector in the wrong spot. No single item is worth a truck roll, which is exactly why they're hard to get done. Handyman covers the list, and if the inspector also flagged the panel or the main drain, that doesn't turn into a second search.
This might actually be a different problem
The trade you search for and the trade that fixes it often aren't the same. Four we see constantly here.
A brown stain spreading across a ceiling is a Roofing or Plumbing call, not a Painting & Drywall call. Painting over a live leak just hides it until the drywall gives up.
A door that suddenly stopped latching, in a house where it latched for twenty years, is usually Foundation Repair rather than Windows & Doors. Something moved.
A soft floor near a toilet or dishwasher is Plumbing wearing a Tile & Flooring costume. There's water under there.
An air conditioner that runs all afternoon and never catches up is often Windows & Doors, not Heating & Cooling.
Whichever one you call, you get the same company. Nobody hands you a different number.
Where we work in South Jersey
Camden County is the core, from Cherry Hill and Voorhees through Collingswood, Haddonfield and the Haddon towns out to Gloucester Township. We also cover Deptford and West Deptford in Gloucester County, and Moorestown, Mount Laurel, Maple Shade, Cinnaminson, Palmyra and Medford in Burlington County.
The full list is below. If your town isn't on it, call 610-550-3248 anyway and we'll tell you honestly whether we can get there.
What New Jersey requires us to tell you
New Jersey regulates this work more tightly than most states, and some of it is worth knowing before you hire anyone. Home improvement contractors register with the Division of Consumer Affairs, and the registration number has to appear in advertising. Plumbing, electrical and HVACR sit with separate New Jersey boards, and a home improvement registration doesn't cover any of them. Nearly every house in Camden County predates 1978, which puts paint and renovation work under the federal lead-safe rules. Ask any contractor about that before they start sanding.
Towns we cover
Everywhere we work in South Jersey
Merchantville · Collingswood · Haddonfield · Haddon Township · Haddon Heights · Audubon · Oaklyn · Barrington · Lawnside · Magnolia · Somerdale · Stratford · Lindenwold · Gloucester Township · Blackwood · Bellmawr · Runnemede · Mount Ephraim · Gloucester City · Deptford · West Deptford · Maple Shade · Palmyra
Common questions
Straight answers.
Why does my basement only leak in heavy rain?
Because the water is almost always arriving from above. A blocked gutter or a downspout emptying at the corner soaks the soil against the wall, and pressure pushes it through the cove joint. Fix the drainage first. It's cheaper, and it works more often than people expect.
Can one company handle plumbing, electrical and heating in New Jersey?
Those three sit with separate New Jersey boards, and a home improvement registration covers none of them. Ask us who is carrying the credential for your specific job and we will tell you before work starts. You still call one number and deal with one company that stays responsible.
My house is from the 1920s. Do you work on plaster, radiators and knob-and-tube?
Yes, and each one needs handling a newer house doesn't. Plaster over lath patches differently from drywall. A one-pipe steam system can't just have a heat pump dropped into it. Knob-and-tube is a rewiring conversation, not a repair, and your insurer will likely ask about it.
Do you work on rental properties and turnovers?
That's where we came from. Keeping apartment portfolios running is the original business, so a single-house turnover or a resale punch list is familiar work. New Jersey also has lead-paint inspection rules for pre-1978 rentals, which is nearly all of Camden County.
Do you handle buried heating oil tanks?
Buried tanks are common here, and a tank sweep is a normal part of a South Jersey sale. Removal is separately regulated in New Jersey, so this gets a straight yes or no, never a maybe.