I live in a house my parents bought in the late 1940's. In the back is a low-slope roof. The low-slope portion has been untouched since at least the 1960's if not the 1950's.
This summer I had a new roof installed on the rest of the house. The roofer told me he would not do the low-slope part. I told him that suited me just fine because it never gave me any trouble and had been zero maintenance.
It turned out that he sub-contracted out the entire job. He didn't watch "his guys" and they roofed the entire roof including the low- slope portion.
The manufacturer said they would not warrant the low-slope portion because of insufficient slope. Another roofer told me the roof will not last.
Problem: No one knows how to put the roof back the way it was. Everyone I have consulted about the roof says that the technology is lost and that any roof that is put there will have to be coated every three years.
Have we regressed that much? Is it impossible to construct a low-slope roof (1.75 in 12) so that it does not need to be maintained?