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You can roof over old asphalt shingles, usually up to three total layers. If you already have three layers, your roof leaks, is visually sagging or the existing tiles would create an irregular surface, you will want do a tear down. After the tear down, replace sagging or rotted sheathing and/or support beams. This is also a good time to put on ice guard, if it isn't there already. Codes usually require it on new construction. [Also, if you have been thinking of putting in sunroofs, sun tunnels, vents or any other penetration, do it while the roof is bare.]
Roof tear downs create a large amount of trash, much more so if you are replacing sheathing. I doubt you will be able to keep the pile hidden while you whittle it down with the weekly garbage pickup, though I do like the idea. My father disappeared a torn up cement driveway that way, one or two chunks at a time over a decade.
You might want to schedule a dumpster. They cost around $120 and up around here. They will usually drop it and return in a a few days to a week or more. Keep an eye on it, because people will fill it with their own junk when you aren't looking.
Working on ladders or on the roof is serious business. BE VERY,VERY CAREFUL!!!!!! I was only very careful and did some serious damage.
There is a local manufacturer here in Utah, Bartile, that sells a large selection of fiber-cement roofing tiles.
A have an uncle who built a geodesic dome house east of Auburn, California. If you look carefully, you can see it through the trees, off to the right of the westbound lanes of I-80. He also used an all-weather wood foundation. It was nice, the one time I visited. He sold it about fifteen years ago, as it was too big to take care of at his age (now deceased).
It was a rather small frequency dome. There is a much higher frequency and larger diameter dome home here in Salt Lake. It is in the Holladay area, between Wasatch Blvd and I-215. I read about it in an alternative architecture book my parents gave me when I was a boy. A few years ago, it was for sale and I went on a tour of it. It was pretty nice inside. sometime in the last thirty years an owner had put up shingles over the exposed foam that covered it originally. It improved the look substantially. The house and property had nice views but too much road noise and priced too high for me.
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