The hardest part for me was in choosing the roofer. Only licensed contractors were considered. I checked the state contractor file to see if there were any special bonds required due to past complaints and for workmen's comp and performance insurance. Most had just the basic minimum required by the state. A couple bidders were referred by friends of my family members. There was one bid a couple thousand dollars less than the average bid...I threw that out since it seemed based upon 1600 sq ft of roof area while all others were based on 2100 to 2300 sq feet. I checked out referrals given by the three who made my final cut. All were within four hundred dollars of each other and all provided that there would be extra if the wood uncovered by removal of all old shingles and tar, to the wood, not as one said , "to the tarmac", would not hold a shingling nail. I even asked if they used special nails and waited for stainless steel as the answer since some of the existing nails were actually rusting, iron or? Then I asked what type of asbestos shingle, warranty period and mfg. would be provided. One said they could use Dow Corning but it would cost a couple hundred more and need another week delay for delivery. Since speed, given the expectation of rain starting this fall, 2016. this meant the bidder was weeded out, not for the mfg but for the delay. i emailed questions about the bids and the reactions, civility, speed, knowledge shown, was considered. My final weeding process, given the price was only a couple hundred difference in the three left after this process, one being eliminated by the state recording that it had imposed a special bond, was SAFETY. Before my retirement, my wife and I now being in our 80s most of our lifes being in this house, I had read of cases where home-owners were sued for damages caused by contractors who had only minimal insurance. Check with any attorney and I bet they tell you that they sue both the homeowner and the contractor if a neighbor or person passing by is hurt by the people working for the contractor. Another good place to check is with large firms, schools, property management experts or any govt. body to see what there requirements are for even considering a bid...I had not thought of that before asking for bids but should have and did compare liability and workmen's compensation insurance (this one covers the workers and indirectly the homeowner). My winning bidder was about three hundred dollars under the group considered AND had five million dollar personal injury and property coverage as well as five million workmen's comp. insurance. The owner assured me that he had built of a crew which he bore the expense of keeping employed because of the resulting efficiency and just because it was the right thing to do: getting a group of relatively inexperienced people on a roof where they might fall, cause damage to the building etc. was not something he or my wife and I wanted. So we went with Diamond Roofing which has a blog at [*** Link removed ***] and great people. The owner, Fred Marion was courteous and professional in his bid, explanations of things in the bid that I did not understand, like Dupede to be added. His office manager Rachelle was just as classy and nice. Even coordinating with a contractor chosen to remove solar water heating panels was not a problem for Fred. When he came down to finalize the contract, my wife mentioned that she really would like a gutter to replace the plastic make-do I had put up thirty years ago and which leaked like mad. He added it to the contract, saying that his usual price for the gutter was 500 but, as a project tied with the roofing, would reduce that by 200. So - my wife was worried that the rains might come soon despite my assurance that the drought was going to last a bit. Seems Fred Marion kept up on the weather and, to make sure my roof was not open to rain coming , forecast for 11/20. had one of his crews here on 11/18 to remove the old shingles down to the wood. That took a day and the efficient crew had heavy blue tarps spread all around the house, even up on some "cabanas" on one side and a utility building my son keeps stuff in on the back. They tossed all the old shingles and nails, that did not come loose, into the tarps. Then they used a big magnet to sweep up the nails and finally swept up all around the place, even getting oranges that dropped from the orange tree in the back by the cemented area. It was cleaner than when they came. One problem came up: the solar water heating panels had sprung a leak. Since I have developed a deadly fear of climbing ladders onto roofs, one collapsing under me when I was about 55 trying to do work for my mother in law, a g angel making sure my head fell right between the two main supports of the ladder even if it was only a step above the cement, my head did not hit that hard stuff...scared me though and the fear has increased with time. Anyway, long story short?, I had not been up top to see if things were copesetic. When a roofing employee doing work for the bid told me about it, I went to the rear of the property and standing on a ridge there with the pool pump on, noticed, finally, the fountain/s shooting from my old panels, all five years past their warranty. My point is that all the water caused some dry rot, lots of it in the wood under the shingles. Besides that last problem, the first installer of the solar water heating panels had done a lousy job, to which fact my living room ceiling bears witness to this day...ugly stains on the very high white pop-corn ceiling. Soo, my wood replacement costs, labor and material which was primed wood, was 900 as vs the 300 or so which I expected. The next day, 11/19, about 7:30 or 8 am. there was another crew, not Eddie and his group, but Fernando, Ivan and being bad on names I forget the other names, all nice, all loving our mandarin oranges but not touching them till i picked some and gave some out, were there to fix the wood and put on the shingles. They put down tile where the wood was fixed and worked as a great team so that in just TWO DAYS THE ROOF WAS RESHINGLED WITH 30 YEAR DIMENSIONAL DOWN CORNING SHINGLES. Rain..my wife was right, a torrent came down on the night of the 20th but we were snug in our water tight home. These people cared, about us. The owner and workers are a team and there is a feeling apparent as with a squad in the service...good morale. They are courteous, friendly, professional andreliable. Check with an insurance company as to what it would cost to keep the Level of insurance they have and think what it must cost for the company to keep a good expereinced crew instead of using pick-up labor. Ooops, almost forgot the gutter. It was fun to watch today, a new crew of three, manufacturing a made to measure gutter from steel sheet on a roll (tin?) to size and install it with two down-spouts, one in front and one in back while I watched. Funny how much fun work is if you are watching, not doing. Expertise is nice. It is probably why so many of us like to watch the skilled moves of professional athletes. These guys were good while the chief of the three was fantastic and a mentor to the others who were like the attendants on a surgeon, scalpel? The down-spouts were the real challenge but the chief handled it like Phillip Rivers. Good moves. My wife loves it. Warranites: Material :Owens-Corning material: apparently "lifetime" for "oakridge" shingles which is fairly complete for ten years, fifteen for wind, and 10 for algae for materials and labor and after that is prorated, like tires,with zero for labor and shingles after ten years is first 80% of the cost of replacement shingles then reduced by 2% per year for 40 years. That is my interpretation which you should check with Owens Corning because it is pretty complicated language but I do not expect to survive that long. It is partially transerable on sale so make sure, on a sale or death, the people getting it are aware when the roofing job was done and where you keep the papers on it. I keep the contract, the labor/work warranty and thematerial warrantyh together. I hope this helps people