Many homes in the Houston area suffered varying degrees of damage as a result of Hurricane Ike. One of the most common types of damage received was roof damage. My home was no different. The damage wasn't as extensive as it could have been, but it was enough to cause a leak around one of the vent pipes. The winds also broke off a few shingles and bent some of them up, potentially allowing water to blow between the shingle layers. The roof was getting old, too, so with age along with wind damage, my insurance company saw fit to approve the claim. I submitted the claim towards the end of February, and the new roof was installed over the weekend of April 4 and 5.
I considered a couple of roofers, but settled on Excel Roofing and Construction. I was a little wary of them because their BBB rating was under review the entire time I was researching roofers. However, the project manager that contacted me initially is a pretty good guy and lives in my neighborhood, so I decided what the heck. I also acted a little hastily when he first showed up and signed a contingency agreement with him. I'll know not to do that in the future, but all in all I think it worked out OK.
Excel offers GAF/ELK Timberline Prestique shingles, and I had a few options to choose from. In order to avoid the block nazis of the homeowners' association (and to avoid having to wait for the interminable improvement approval process), I chose a shingle color that was as close to the original shingles as possible (Weathered Wood). I did consider going with the charcoal color, as I think it would've looked good with the red brick and white trim of the house, but apparently it does raise attic temperatures by a couple of degrees. If you read my efficiency section on this site, you'll see that keeping the attic cool and well ventilated is a huge factor in reducing electricity consumption during the summer months. Anyway, I also had a choice between 30-year, 40-year, and limited lifetime shingles. The 30- and 40-year shingles are rated for winds up to 110 mph, while the LLT shingles are rated up to 130. I was tempted by the LLT shingles (especially after going through a hurricane) until I found out that they were a $2,500 option. The 40-year shingles were an $850 option. After weighing everything - cost, durability, Ike wind speeds this far inland, how long I might be in this house, etc. - I decided to stay with the 30-year shingles. The 40-years have the same wind rating and are only slightly thicker than the 30's, and the LLTs are a little cost prohibitive.
I was also offered the option of installing a radiant barrier between the roof decking and the shingles. I was also extremely tempted by this $2,400 option but decided against it for a couple of reasons. First was the cost. Secondly, I've already got the foil-type radiant barrier installed on the underside of the rafters in my attic. Finally, after doing some research, I found out that radiant barriers need a little air space to be effective. The air space inside the roof decking seems to be sufficient to meet the requirement, which is why spray-on radiant barriers as well as TechShield roof decking is effective. However, this radiant barrier would have been installed on the exterior side (rather than the interior, attic side) of the roof decking. While it probably would reflect some of the radiant energy, there's no air space there for maximum efficiency. Another factor is the likely heat conduction into the attic. The shingles would heat up as a result of direct radiation and the radiation being reflected back through the radiant barriers. This heat would then conduct through direct contact through the roof decking and into the attic. With the goal of trying to keep the attic as cool as possible, this didn't seem like a worthy investment, so I skipped it. Some of my foil barrier is falling down from the rafters, so at some point I will likely have the spray-on barrier put on and get rid of the foil stuff. But that process will be roughly half the cost of the option I was presented with.
I was also fortunate on that Saturday morning. I have DirecTV for television service, and my satellite dish is mounted on the roof. Another neighborhood resident, who also happens to be a DirecTV installer, was walking his dogs along the bayou behind my house and happened to see the roofing work going on. He came and rang the doorbell and said to just give him a call directly when they were done with that section of the roof. That way I wouldn't have to call into DirecTV and wait several days on their central scheduling system. So I ended up being without TV for only a few hours rather than a few days or a week - which is a good thing. I didn't have to miss Monday night's episode of 24! 
Anyway, here are a few before, during and after pictures of the process.
