James Pratt -
Basement Technologies President and Founder

James Pratt Biography: The Early Years

James Pratt was born in New York City at Saint Clare’s Hospital to Nancy Hildegard Brown Pratt and Dr. Gerald Hillary Pratt. Gerald Hillary Pratt was a prominent cardiovascular surgeon who practiced at St. Vincent’s Hospital, St. Clare’s Hospital, Poly Clinic, Doctor’s Hospital and other medical facilities in the Manhattan area. He had a busy practice with two offices in Manhattan and yet still found the time to write five books. Gerald Hillary Pratt was a very well-known surgeon and was the team surgeon for the New York Giants Football Team and the New York Yankees Baseball Team.

James’s father, Gerald Hillary Pratt, treated many prominent people including the Queen of England and other celebrities. He was a pioneer in open-heart surgery on dogs and was one of the first surgeons to perform this intricate and complex procedure. James’ mother - Nancy Hildegard Brown was born in Quincy, Illinois and became a professional trumpet player in her early years. She also attended medical school and met Gerald Hillary Pratt when she underwent surgery under his direction. They married shortly thereafter and Nancy left medical school to assist her husband in his medical practice – which she did for many years.

James started school at Public School #6 in Manhattan. When James was in the second grade, his parents made the decision to send him to private school. In the third grade, James attended the Allen Stevenson School on East 78th Street and remained there for 3 years. James loved sports and played football for the 7th and 8th grade varsity teams– after having started full contact football in the 5th grade. He played next to his brother, Dennis Gerald Pratt, as a starting right tackle.

In the 7th grade, James moved to New Jersey with his parents and attended Ranney School in northern New Jersey. From there, James went on to Christian Brothers Academy. After two years at Christian Brothers, James moved on to Blair Academy and then moved to North Carolina where he attended Southern Guilford High School in Greensboro, North Carolina.

James Pratt Biography: College and Beyond

James graduated from Southern Guilford high school and was deciding to enter the Merchant Marine Academy. With the help of his father, James organized a trip on the Austral Pilot – a ship in the Farrell Lines - to South Africa. Over 6 weeks during the summer, James spent three weeks on the deck and three weeks in the engine room to decide if he wanted to enter the Merchant Marine Academy for the “Deck” program or the “Engineer” Program. James moved on to Monmouth College in New Jersey and then the University of Colorado in Boulder and finally onto Florida Institute of Technology in Jensen Beach, Florida. Here, James earned a Bachelor of Science Degree for Applied Technology with a 2- year Associates Degree in Offshore Marine Technology and a 2-year Associates Degree in Petroleum Technology.

After graduating from college, he was unable to find legitimate work in his field in offshore petroleum related jobs. He continued to work in construction with the goal of becoming a carpenter in a short period of time. In order to do this, he worked seven days a week – year-round – often times, for free, on Saturdays and Sundays to learn the trade. The contractors he worked for were understandably thrilled to have free labor on Saturdays and Sundays and were quick to accommodate him in reaching his goal.

He explained to them that he needed to become a carpenter with the equivalent of 15 years experience in a short period of time. He worked as a carpenter during college, but did not gain the necessary expertise to command the salary necessary to support himself. After a short period of time, he started subcontracting from major contractors in new construction developments. He specialized in framing, sheathing, complicated roof rafter work and finish carpentry and worked up and down the Jersey coast and into Delaware for many years.

In the mid 1980’s, he moved to Needham, Massachusetts where he immediately started his own remodeling company. With a strong work ethic instilled in him since college, he quickly became successful in remodeling. After a short while, James branched off into basement waterproofing and then purchased a franchise operation for fire and water damage restoration and reconstruction.

Shortly after that, he bought a dealership for steel buildings. In the 1990’s, James had four companies in operation: a residential remodeling company, a basement waterproofing company, a franchise for fire and water damage restoration and a steel building installation company (that coupled with commercial construction specializing in commercial industries).

In the mid 1990’s, the realization that the endless hours and effort in the reconstruction and remodeling arena was an uphill battle (although successful) resulted in a slow-down in the residential and commercial construction and then the closing of the fire and water damage restoration franchise. He started focusing on the basement waterproofing only.

James saw a need to improve on the waterproofing designs or systems and started developing his own products for the basement waterproofing industry. He saw a niche market where he had a special proficiency and started developing and patenting his own products. After much research, analysis and scrutiny of the industry, James now moved toward a goal of forming an international chain of basement waterproofing contractors.

Basement Technologies and Boston Basement Technologies started to grow exponentially when he focused on them exclusively - without the distractions of three other companies. He set up an international network of dealers, using the franchise model that he had obtained from the previous fire and water damage franchise. James wrote manuals on the daily practices, procedures and intricacies of running a basement waterproofing business which included Sales, Marketing, Administrative and Production. He set up a template based on his local company and started to sell dealerships throughout the country, into Canada and currently has one in the Ukraine as well.

Currently, James has (8) patents, (8) patents pending, (22) trademarks and (6) trademarks pending.

In 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, Basement Technologies and Boston Basement Technologies had upwards of 100 employees. Just this year, James studied the operation carefully and down-sized to approximately 70 in the Brockton office - including salesmen, administrative assistants, managers, controller and field help. This statistic coupled with almost 100 international dealers for Basement Technologies with an average of 10-15 employees per company makes the impact of the operation quite significant.

A new company - Basement Transformation Technologies - that specializes in the selling of basement finishing products was introduced in 2009 after three years of intensive research. James has a patent-pending on the finishing system which is unique in the industry and is designed to compete against Owens-Corning. Currently, Basement Transformation Technologies has 5 new dealers signed on for this new endeavor. The same dealership network plan that made Basement Technologies successful will be applied to this latest enterprise and the number of new Dealers is expected to grow very quickly.

James Pratt Biography: Family Life

James Pratt, Jr. (James Pratt’s first-born) was born in Bricktown, New Jersey in 1988. James is currently at Kean University majoring in Physical Education and is the starting center for the Kean University Football Team. James, Jr. earned a football scholarship to Bryant University in 2008 and stayed for one season before transferring to Kean. He can bench-press nearly 400 pounds and is dedicated to physical fitness while working as a Personal Trainer at a local gym. He is working towards his Bachelor’s Degree and aspires to be a professional football coach at the high school or college level.

James’s younger son, Barrett James Pratt was born in 2001. Currently, Barrett lives with his mother in Needham and father in Canton and is attending Delphi Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. Barrett is 8 years old and spends a great deal of time with his much-loved extra-curricular activities such as ice hockey, Pop Warner tackle football, flag football, Little League baseball, karate (blue belt) and is a dedicated sports aficionado.

When James is not working, you will usually find him with his son Barrett - attending a variety of sports activities as often as possible. Despite his hectic work schedule, James prioritizes spending quality time with his children.

If you ask James what it took to climb to the top of his industry, he will tell you – hard work, creativity, dedication and the tenacity to never quit.