The odds of Eric Wayne Inc., Davidson, NC, winning a Golden Trowel at World of Concrete in Las Vegas were stacked against the company. The four-story office building and parking garage structures in downtown Charlotte included a host of challenges, making it difficult to obtain high flatness measurements.

First, there were six separate concrete pours of more than 10,000 square feet on three levels of the office building. "The number of pours and floors made this project a little unique for contending for a Golden Trowel Award," mentions Eric Wayne, president/CEO of Eric Wayne, Inc. (EWI).

Pouring concrete on the unshored deck, the metal base was cambered by 2 inches over a 40-foot span. To ensure a flat floor required the proper amount of concrete to be loaded on the deck. "You can overload the deck and take it past flat or you can under load and leave a hump in it," adds Wayne. "It is what makes this one of the most difficult of all the Golden Trowel categories."

In the end, EWI's crew and equipment finished an incredibly smooth unshored deck. Independent verification of surface flatness using the F-Number (Face Floor Profile Numbering) System came back with an FF 55.5 measurement. "The average F-Number for an unshored deck today is 25," explains Jeff Rogers, director of engineering for The Face Companies and a judge for selecting Golden Trowel recipients.

Achieving a measurement of more than twice as flat as comparable projects, EWI took home the Golden Trowel for the Unshored Metal Deck - 95-Foot-Wide category for the 68,810-square-foot office building. The company just beat out a Silver Trowel recipient from Brazil. "This award represents the best in the world in 2008 for this category," adds Rogers. "The 95-foot-wide placement makes this result even more impressive, as it is harder to achieve higher numbers with large pours."