Chuck Doyle, president of C.E. Doyle L.L.C. in Slinger, Wis., began a contracting business out of his home in 1973. His start-up capital of $2,500 (equity in a life insurance policy) allowed him to acquire a mixer, used scaffolding, a finishing machine and an old truck.

Doyle had experience in both concrete and masonry. He did the usual jobs that one would expect from a small contractor: pouring patios, laying brick fireplaces, erecting barns, etc. His goal then was to train masons, form a crew and target the commercial building market in the urban areas around him.

When Doyle had trained seven masons with a total crew of 12, he broke into the commercial market in Milwaukee.

In the spring of 1983, Milwaukee started to come out of the recession and Doyle began to flourish. By 1988, his company had grown to over 50 employees. There was also rising competition among masonry contractors over the work becoming available. The circumstances made it difficult to keep a large workforce employed at profitable price levels.

Doyle was familiar with other building materials and methods of construction. He believed that doing a better job than the competition would be enough. But Doyle had to rethink his position and evaluate other possibilities to gain an edge in the Wisconsin market.

Doyle had heard of tilt-up construction as early as 1977, but tilt-up had not penetrated his local market and, therefore, posed little threat. In doing some research, he discovered the widespread growth of tilt-up in both the US and abroad and learned that an insulated sandwich wall technology had come into prominence.

This technology, which is called THERMOMASS Building System, utilizes two separate wythes of concrete with Styrofoam insulation sandwiches in between. The key, however, is in the connectors between the insulation and the two wythes of concrete. Composite Technologies of Ames, Iowa, developed a fiberglass composite tie to connect the structural wythe to the fascia wythe.

In the new Federal Energy Law enacted in November 1992, consideration was given not only to the building material properties and its mass, but also to thermal bridging whereby energy travels through a wall via steel or concrete continuation. The THERMOASS System used in tilt-up construction was found to have a zero energy loss and maintained a 99.7 percent energy efficiency.

Doyle understood the benefits of this new technology and knew he had found an excellent wall system for low-rise commercial and industrial applications. Accordingly, in 1989 he told his employees that he intended to shift his major emphasis from masonry to tilt-up construction.

In the summer of 1990, C.E. Doyle L.L.C. completed its first tilt-up job. The project was a 15,000 square foot wood veneering operation just south of Ashland, Wis. Since then, the company has completed many other projects ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 square feet, including its own two-story office/warehouse completed in August 1992.