2012 Golden Trowel Competition Sees Three World Records Set

Birdwell & Associates sets two world records and wins four awards at the 2012 Gold Trowel awards

Birdwell & Associates of Lakeland, Fla., played a key role in setting two of the three new world records that were among the winners of seven Golden Trowels presented at the annual Golden Trowel awards ceremony at the World of Concrete. In addition, four Silver Trowels were awarded for 2012.

Entries from three countries (Australia, Canada and the United States) were among the winners. The awards were presented on Thursday, February 7, 2013.

Overall, Birdwell took home four awards at this year’s ceremony, giving them a total of 23 awards over the history of the competition - second only to the 25 won by Fricks Floor Systems of Ft. Worth, Texas. All of the other 2012 awardees were first-time winners in the competition.

Presented by The Face Companies of Norfolk, Va., Golden Trowels are given annually in recognition of the flattest and most level floor slabs placed in the world.

The three world records for concrete floor flatness/levelness were awarded in the categories:

  • Somero Laser Screed wide bay (large placement)
  • Somero Laser Screed narrow bay (small placement)
  • Hand Screed Form-to-Form

Rogers Concrete of West Swan, Western Australia set a world record for levelness in its 112,612-square-foot project for Masters Ellenbrook of Ellenbrook, Western Australia. Competing in the Somero Laser Screed wide bay (large project) category, Rogers Concrete achieved overall F-Numbers of FF 101 and FL 91. In projects this large, it is quite difficult to keep the numbers high day after day. This is a world record FL Number for projects of this type.

Birdwell teamed with Carolina Floors of Rock Hill, S.C., and Skene Concrete of Cartersville, Ga., to set a world record on a project for Pharr Yarns in Clover, N.C. The 2,329-square-foot slab was entered in the Hand Screed Form-to-Form category. The F-Numbers of FF 151 / FL 127 represent World Records for both FF and overall F-Numbers for this type project.

Birdwell and Skene combined their efforts for another world record on a project for Rigby's Family Entertainment Complex in Warner Robbins, Ga. The two contractors achieved the best flatness/levelness ever achieved in a Golden Trowel entry in the Somero Laser Screed wide bay (small project) category. Their 21,708-square-foot installation measured FF 123 / FL 123, which are both the highest FL Numbers and highest combined F-Numbers ever for this type project.

The same two contractors claimed a Silver Trowel on the same project in the Wet Screed/Hand Screed category, achieving FF 90 / FL 74 on a 12,580-square-foot slab. That entry was the second-best ever received in the Wet Screed/Hand Screed category, beaten out only by this year’s Golden Trowel-winning project for Gingin Yard of Perth, Western Australia. The finishing contractor for that project was Perth’s Tuss Concrete, which achieved FF 134 / FL 101.

Tri-Con Concrete Finishing Co, LTD of North York, Ontario, Canada won a Golden Trowel for the 18,000-square-foot NFL spec ice rink slab that it placed over Styrofoam on the third floor of the Ryerson Athletic Centre at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ontario. This very challenging installation, including a dry-shake hardener, measured FF 70 / FL 50.

Smykal Construction of Wild Rose, Wis., garnered a Golden Trowel in the Narrow Strip category for its 19,500-square-foot placement for Emmi Roth in Platteville, Wis. The FF 171 / FL 95 was the second-best ever achieved in the Golden Trowel competition, just missing a world record themselves.

Messerly Concrete of West Haven, Utah’s installation at the Center for New Media at the Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City achieved FF 114 / FL 79, which won the Golden Trowel for the Somero Laser Screed narrow bay category. Messerly took home a Silver Trowel for its 109,750-square-foot Fed Ex Distribution project in Salt Lake City, achieving FF 92 / FL 51 in the Somero Laser Screed wide bay (large project) category.

A second Silver Trowel was awarded in that category. Serretta Construction of Apopka, Fla., placed a 288,660-square-foot project at the Rooms to Go Distribution Center in Lakeland, Fla., that measured FF 89 / FL 52, virtually the same F-Numbers as Messerly’s, and good enough to win a gold plate Golden Trowel only a few years ago.

Birdwell took home another Silver Trowel in the Somero Laser Screed wide bay (small project) category at the Orangeburg Assembly Hall in Orangeburg, S.C.. The F-Numbers for this 47,680-square-foot project were FF 107 / FL 60.

The 2012 Sam Award was present to Cecil Bentley for his decades of contributions to the concrete flooring industry as an award-winning contractor, flooring consultant and author of numerous technical publications. The “Sam” is a special Golden Trowel that honors outstanding accomplishments in and contributions to the art and science of high quality horizontal concrete construction. The “Sam” is named in honor of Samuel A. Face, Jr. (1923-2001), the late Chairman of The Face Companies. It has been awarded each year since 2002. Bentley who, as the owner and president of Tri-Bentley Constructors, Inc. from 1970 to 1995, worked on projects with Sam Face and was an early adopter of both the F-Number System and the placement and finishing techniques that Sam Face developed in the 1970s and 80s.

Tri-Bentley was one of the Southeast’s largest concrete construction firms specializing in multiprocessing plants, warehouses, distribution centers, office buildings, shopping centers and other facilities. Late in his career at Tri-Bentley, he was selected to participate in the concrete construction of the 1996 Olympic Aquatic Center at Georgia Tech as well as to install the Slabs on Metal Deck for the construction of the 1996 Olympic Stadium.

For the last 17 years, Bentley has served as a consultant to the concrete construction industry with Lockwood Greene Engineers and Architects and, for the last 12 years, with Structural Services, Inc.

He has co-authored technical papers for the American Concrete Institute publication Concrete International in 2006, 2007 and 2010 and for ACI’s Concrete Construction in 2007 and 2010.

Bentley has been an ACI member for 27 years. He is a member of ACI Committee C-640 “Craftsman Certification” and has been an examiner for ACI’s Concrete Flatwork Finisher/Technician Certification Program since 1997.

He has won numerous awards from the ACI state chapter in Georgia and his Tri-Bentley Constructors won a Golden Trowel Award in recognition of the Flattest & Most Level Concrete Floor Slabs of 1990 for the construction of several superflat floors in a warehouse facility for E.I. Du Pont de Nemours. That Golden Trowel was personally awarded to Bentley by Sam Face, 22 years ago.

Latest