Home services in Havertown
One number for plumbing, electrical, heating & cooling, roofing, handyman work and more in Havertown.
Part of our Delaware County service area · median home here was built around the late 1940s
What breaks in Havertown
The age of the housing decides the work.
About a third of Haverford Township's houses were standing before 1940, another fifth went in during the 1940s, and the single busiest decade was the 1950s. Which of those your street belongs to decides what is in the wall: galvanized supply and cast iron waste in the older third, copper and a small service in the postwar blocks. On top of that the township runs a use and occupancy inspection with two plumbing requirements written into it, so a lot of Havertown work arrives with a settlement date already attached to it.
Storm water is not allowed in the sanitary sewer here
Haverford Township's settlement inspection carries two requirements that are real plumbing work rather than paperwork. One is a backwater valve, which has to be cut into a line below grade. The other is taking the sump pump and any floor drain off the sanitary system and running that discharge outside, without letting it ice up a walk or a driveway. On a full basement it is usually both, and neither is a same-week job.
The sewer inspection is ordered after you apply, not before
Thirty days is the minimum notice on a Haverford Township settlement, and the interior sewer inspection is not booked until after the paperwork is in. You cannot clear it early. That makes the calendar the risk here rather than the repair itself. Whatever the inspector finds has to be corrected inside a window that was set before anyone knew what was wrong, and a closing date does not move to accommodate a plumber.
Pipe material tracks the decade
Roughly 6,000 houses here were up before 1940 and about 4,000 more followed in the 1940s. That group is where the galvanized supply and the cast iron waste stacks are, and galvanized closes from the inside so the upstairs loses pressure first. The 1950s blocks, about 4,500 houses, generally got copper. Same township, same inspection, completely different quote, which is why we want to know the block before we price anything.
A service that has been added to but never resized
Most Havertown panels have been changed at least once. The problem is usually not the original box, it is that a house from this stock has been added to steadily and the service was never resized to match. A second bathroom, a finished basement circuit, a charger. Each one is small on its own and the panel absorbs it until it cannot, and then the next small job turns into a service conversation instead.
What we run in Havertown
What actually gets called in the most here
Plumbing
Two of Haverford Township's use and occupancy requirements are plumbing work, a backwater valve on anything below street level and a sump or floor drain taken off the sanitary sewer, and they land on a housing stock where a third of the houses predate 1940 and still carry galvanized supply and cast iron waste.
See plumbing →Electrical
About 10,000 of the township's houses were finished before 1950, so what we find is wiring four decades of owners have spliced into and a service that has been added to for seventy years without ever being resized, which is why a basement circuit or a charger here starts at the panel.
See electrical →Handyman
The rest of the Haverford Township settlement list is not trade work at all. It is detectors in the right rooms, a handrail, and house numbers big enough to read from the street. Small items, every one of them, and every one of them sitting between a family and a closing date that has already been set.
See handyman →On the ground in Havertown
Haverford Township is one government with several build eras under it. Around 6,000 of its houses were standing before 1940, close to 4,000 more went in during the 1940s, and the 1950s added about 4,500. Those groups are not spread evenly across the township. They sit in blocks. So the useful question on a Havertown job is which block you are on and what that era used, not what the township average says.
The other thing worth knowing is that a settlement list here rarely belongs to one trade. A typical use and occupancy list has a backwater valve on it, a sump line that has to come off the sewer and go outside, an alarm in the wrong room and address numbers nobody can read from the street. That is three trades and about half a day of work. Tell us the settlement date first, because everything else on the list gets scheduled backwards from it.
Havertown questions
Straight answers for Havertown.
What does Haverford Township check before it will let my house settle?
The use and occupancy inspection, and the application has to be filed at least 30 days before settlement. On the trade side it looks for a backwater valve on any plumbing fixture below street level connected to the public sanitary sewer, and for sump pumps and floor drains disconnected from that sewer. It also wants smoke alarms on every level and in sleeping areas, and carbon monoxide alarms in the hallways near bedrooms.
My sump pump empties into the basement floor drain. Does that have to change?
Yes if you are selling, and it is worth changing either way. Haverford Township requires a sump pump or floor drain connected to the sanitary sewer to be disconnected and discharged outside the property, and the discharge must not ice up a public walk or driveway. Pumping storm water into a sanitary sewer is part of why that system backs up in heavy rain, which is the same rain filling your basement.
The township wants an interior sewer inspection. What is that looking for?
Whether anything on your side is putting storm water into the sanitary sewer, or whether the drainage inside the house has a defect in it. The inspection is ordered after the use and occupancy application is filed rather than before, so it cannot be cleared in advance. Build the time in. If it comes back with a correction on it, that work has to happen inside a settlement window that was set without it.
How do I tell whether my Havertown house is on galvanized pipe or copper?
Look at the pipe coming off the water heater and at the main shutoff, and go by the era. Galvanized steel is dull gray, magnetic, and usually threaded at the fittings. Copper is copper. In this township the pre-1940 houses are where the galvanized concentrates and the 1950s blocks generally got copper, but plenty of houses have been half repiped, so what is in the basement is not always what is in the walls upstairs.
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