Your memory serves you well. Most residential shingle roofing projects take 1-2 days. If the municipality and required inspections allow, sometimes we can start and finish a shingle roof in the same day. It's a great feeling for the homeowner to leave work and come home to a brand new roof and all materials are removed (except for the dumpster which is removed the following day). Metal roof timelines are similar to shingle roofs but may take an extra day or two depending on flashing details. Concrete tile roofs generally take anywhere from 3-7 days and even a couple weeks to complete as are multiple steps in the process including tear off, dry-in, tile delivery/loading, tile install, and mortaring the hips/ridges.
If I remember correctly mine took about 2 days. They had to rip off my old roof and replace wood as well.
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