Growing Up and Taking on the World
By / Natalie Bruckner
Tim Pullyblank, owner of Thermec Insulation in Ottawa, is quite possibly the youngest person to have ever attended a TIAC conference. The year was 1978 and he was just four months old when his parents brought him with them to the conference in Jasper, Alberta, and gave him his first taste of the world of thermal insulation.
He didn’t know it back then, but 43 years later, Pullyblank would be helping to organize the 2022 TIAC conference being held in his home city of Ottawa—as the saying goes, what comes around, goes around.
“I didn’t exactly know at a young age that I would end up in insulation, but I watched my father spend every waking hour working on the business to get it off the ground,” he explains.
Tim’s father, Dave Pullyblank, started Thermec Insulation in Ottawa back in 1984, and over the years, he and Tim helped grow it to become one of the largest mechanical insulation contractors in Eastern Canada. Dave never twisted Tim’s arm to join him in the family business; instead, he gave him free reign to grow the business his way, supporting him in each and every venture.
At one point, I was working at a golf and go-kart track with all my high school friends,” says Tim Pullyblank. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had, but we all have to grow up sometime.”
But the pull of the insulation trade was always there, even if he didn’t know it, and after going to St. Lawrence College in Kingston to get a diploma in business administration, he decided to join his dad full-time in the family business.
“During my three-year course, I would spend the summers working for my dad, driving the van around, loading up material, setting up job sites early in the mornings, and getting experience that way,” Pullyblank says. “When I graduated in 2001 and came into the office full time, I was able to bring a lot of the tools I learned in school to the business.”
When Pullyblank joined the team, Thermec Insulation was still operating by traditional systems. “We didn’t even have a computer in the office, so I computerized the company,” he says. “I was also getting a better handle on the business, learning to estimate. Every morning, I would start at 6 am and then do clean-up at job sites at the end of the day. I managed to get a lot of experience under my belt during that time.”
Pullyblank credits his father for always supporting him and giving him enough leash to learn from his own mistakes, while still guiding him. “My dad’s patience with me was inspirational,” he says. “No matter how many questions I had, he would take the time to walk me through it, no matter how busy he was. My dad and I, during all our years of working together, have never had one disagreement, surprisingly. He invested so much time in me, and it paid off, as he was able to retire early and hand over the reins ten years ago now.”
Today, Thermec Insulation has grown organically to a team of 80 hard-working and talented individuals, and Pullyblank credits them for the company having earned the exceptional reputation of being the Gold Standard insulation contractor, both in Ottawa and Eastern Ontario. “Thermec’s success is not due to one individual,” he says. “We have such a talented, hard-working team of individuals from the top down that have made us so successful.”
Pullyblank’s passion for the industry is infectious, and it doesn’t stop with the company, either. In 2012, he was elected to the Master Insulators’ Association of Ontario (MIAO) board, and, in what he refers to as his proudest career moment so far, he was elected president in 2019, a position in which he currently serves.
Looking ahead, Tim Pullyblank is excited about the future as the company readies to be involved in the biggest energy modernization programs Ottawa has seen in 100 years: the Energy Services Acquisition Program. Thermec Insulation will be teaming up with Black & McDonald to convert all the federal government buildings, including the Parliament buildings, to use low-temperature hot water for heating and to electric chillers for cooling.
As for life outside of work, when Tim Pullyblank isn’t busy working with his team to provide A+ service, you are likely to find him coaching the local hockey team, the Dragon Slayers, and scoring goals of a different kind. Go, Dragon Slayers! ▪
