Pat Downey

Born into a family with a DIY mentality, Pat Downey learned he loved building things at an early age and took every trade class available to him in school. He racked up a variety of professional experiences -- including machinery, outboard motors on boats, remodeling, roofing, and natural gas utility systems – before going to work in window sales and installations for single-family homes in the Pacific Northwest in 1991. He did inside sales, outside sales and managed a team of window service techs. He was working for a different window/door manufacturer in Canada in 2006 when the company landed a large restoration/retrofit project: Three 25 story towers. After installing the first floor of windows and doors, they failed five out of six tests. “Water was coming under our sill pans. When we uninstalled the failed windows and doors, we noticed the peel-and-stick membranes and urethane sealants were not bonding to the old concrete substrate.” That’s when he first learned about a new air barrier product – a fluid-applied flashing described as a “red goop.” It was being applied around rough openings on Vancouver Island projects, with no reported leaks. The red goop was made by BEI, whose founders came out to conduct adhesion testing. “This product bonded to all substrates. It was brand new to the industry and I was able to convince my company to accept this product as their rough opening prep material. We never had a leak after using this product and I became a huge fan of it.”