About
Two generations, one shop
Fairhaven started in a Kingston garage in 1979. The garage is still there. It holds the copper shop now, and the slate yard fills the lot behind it.
No. 1Our story
Our story
Walt Hagen climbed his first slate roof in 1972, on a church in Saugerties that three other roofers wanted to tear off. He saved it with a slate ripper, a box of copper nails and two summers of weekends. Seven years later he opened Fairhaven to do that work full time.
His daughter Nora runs the company today. The rule has not changed: count what is sound, fix what is not, and leave the house looking the way its builders meant it to.
- 1979
Fairhaven opens
One truck, one slate cutter and a garage on Abeel Street.
- 1988
The salvage yard
Walt starts buying slate from barns and churches coming down. The yard holds about 40,000 slates today.
- 1994
The copper shop
A brake, a seamer and a soldering bench turn the garage into a copper shop.
- 2011
Nora joins the crew
After a degree in historic preservation, Nora starts on the roof, not in the office.
- 2019
A new owner
Nora takes over. Walt still teaches the apprentices every Tuesday.
- 2026
1,100 roofs
Sixteen roofers and two coppersmiths, every one of them on our payroll.
No. 2People
The Hagens
One of them will walk your roof. Usually both, if Walt hears there is old Vermont slate involved.
Nora Hagen
Nora writes every condition report and sits in on the preservation board meetings. She holds a master's degree in historic preservation and still works on a roof most weeks.
Walt Hagen
Walt has laid slate in four counties for more than fifty years. He sorts the salvage yard by hand and teaches every apprentice to cut slate with a hammer and stake.
What we hold to
Three rules from 1979
Match what is there
Same stone, same exposure, same nail pattern. A repair should disappear from the street.
Repair before replace
If the slate is sound, the roof stays. We will tell you so even when a new roof would pay us more.
Write it down
Findings, photos and prices in writing, before the work and after it.
No. 3Service area
An hour from the shop, either side of the river
Ulster, Dutchess, Greene and Columbia counties. For a church, a landmark or a slate roof worth saving, we will drive farther.
- Licensed and insured in New York, with $2 million in general liability coverage
- Workers' compensation for every roofer on every job
- Lead-safe certified for homes built before 1978
Meet us on your roof
Book a site visit
Nora or one of our lead roofers will walk the roof with you and send the condition report within five business days.