2019 Golden Trowel® Winners

Worldwide and Asia


Scroll down to see details on all the 2019 winners.

Four world records were set, and none of the new record holders had ever competed in the Golden Trowel® contest before!

Speed Skating Rink • FF 74.9 / FL 81.6 WORLD RECORD
68,344 ft2 • Hachinohe Nagane Skating Arena Hachinohe, Japan

The Shimizu Corporation from Japan built a 400-meter speed skating rink over Styrofoam insulation in Hachinohe, Japan that was 68,344 ft2, more than four times larger than an NHL-size hockey rink, and made it more flat and level than any such rink ever made before. It seems that the thickness of concrete over the cooling pipes is especially critical for speed skating rinks because the ice temperature varies with thickness and skating speeds vary directly with the ice temperature. Since concrete thickness varies with levelness, their aim was to make the concrete surface as level as possible. Because of the difficulty associated with this kind of placement, in the past no one had ever been able to produce a full-size ice rink with an FL Number (levelness) better than 71. Shimizu developed two completely new techniques specifically for this project to help them control both flatness and levelness. The result was a surface that measures FF 74.9 and FL 81.6, which is a world record, and a levelness number that is 10 points better than anything before.

Wet Screed/Hand Screed • FF 115.2 / FL 60.8 WORLD RECORD
9,777 m2 • 9.7m Wide Bay • CD Bresco Londrina Londrina, PR Brasil

Another world record was achieved by Europiso Comercio de Pisos Industriais from Brazil for their Wet-Screed/Hand Screed project at CD Bresco Londrina. This floor was over 105,000 square feet and included 4 Kg dry shake/m2, and measured FF 115.2 / FL 60.8, beating the previous world record by 10 points. Hand screeding a floor is hard and tedious work. It is an amazing fact that they were able to do this over a huge 105,000 square feet space.

Harbin Medisan Suihua, China WORLD RECORD
Fmin: LLevel 250.7 LFlat 306 TLevel 180.9 TFlat 244
5 Kg dry shake/m2 & 15 kg/m3
steel fibers • 7 Aisles, 294 linear m

Shanghai WellRock Engineering Co. set a world record at Harbin Medisan in Suihua, China. Fmin Numbers relate to how a vehicle such as a high-bay, narrow-aisle lift truck traveling over a fixed path on the floor will react to the floor. Because VNA warehouses need to be very flat and level, Fmin Numbers tend to be higher than most FF and FL Numbers. In 1999, a Golden Trowel was awarded for a floor that was Fmin 95. In the early 2000s, the winning Fmin Number was higher, but still below 120. In the last 15 years or so, the world’s best Fmin floors have risen to around Fmin 170-180. The highest Fmin Number on record until this accomplishment was Fmin 205, achieved by Keystone Concrete. This year, Shanghai WellRock produced a world record floor for a high-bay, narrow-aisle warehouse with an average Fmin Number of an incredible Fmin 245.38, 40 points higher. And by the way, this floor included 5 Kg dry shake/m2 & 15 kg/m3 steel fibers, making this achievement even more impressive.

S & C Services Laser Screed 24m Wide Bay • FF 165.5 / FL 116.96 WORLD RECORD 9,664 m2 • Fisher & Pykle Perth, Western Australia

S & C Services, an Australian company, set a world record for producing a fiber-concrete Laser Screed floor with 77-ft wide bays, measuring FF 165.5 / FL 116.9, which broke the previous world record by 80 points. There are many great concrete floor companies using laser screeds nowadays, so this category is perhaps the hardest one to win. To dominate this hotly-contested category by 80 points better than the previous world record is nothing short of fantastic.

Other 2019 Golden Trowel Winners

Vee Jay Cement 3 Ice Rinks over Styrofoam • FF 82.8 / FL 68.4 48,000 ft2 • Centene Community Ice Center Maryland Heights, Missouri

Producing concrete floor surfaces for ice rinks is a challenge. The concrete is placed over multiple layers of Styrofoam insulation and over cooling pipes that will create the ice surface above the concrete. This year, Vee-Jay Cement Contracting from St. Louis, Missouri, created a set of three ice rinks made for the same customer and did an outstanding job. Before this year, there had been only one full-sized rink with better F-Numbers. Amazingly, Vee-Jay was able to maintain the high FF and FL Numbers for not just one rink, but all three. This is Vee-Jay’s 5th Golden Trowel award.

George J Shaw Construction Co. Hand Screeded Unshored 93 ft wide Slab on Metal Deck • FF 55.2 140,000 ft2 • Papillion Data Center Springfield, NE

The George J. Shaw Company from Kansas City, Missouri, was tasked with making a very large elevated deck which was cut up into many different parts, some with different elevations. Because of the configuration of the surface, it was not practical to use a small Laser Screed like a Copperhead, so all 140,000 ft2 was hand screeded. These are excellent results for a very large hand-screeded slab on metal deck. This is George J. Shaw’s 3rd Golden Trowel award.

Alphapiso Tec. Em Pisos Inds. LTDA Somero Laser Screed 21m Wide Bay • FF 101 / FL 62.3 56,447 m2 • 4 Kg/m2 Dry Shake • GTIS CA-35 B200 Cajamar, SP Brasil

Alphapiso Tec. Em Pisos from Sao Paulo, Brazil is no stranger to the Golden Trowel contest, having won 8 trowels before this year, mainly in the Laser Screed category. This year, they produced a super-large Laser Screed floor at GTIS CA-35 Bloco 200 that was more than 600,000 ft2 and 70 ft wide that measured FF 101 and FL 62.3, which is a superior result for a floor this large, especially one that incorporated dry shake. This marks their 9th Golden Trowel award.

2019 Silver Trowel Winners - For floors that don't win Golden Trowels but are well deserving of attention, Silver Trowels are presented in a sort of “Distinguished Honorable Mention” category.

Alphapiso Tec. Em Pisos Inds. LTDA Somero Laser Screed 15-21m Wide Bay • FF 124.4 / FL 71.1 24,017 m2 • 4 Kg/m2 Dry Shake • GTIS CA-35 B300 Cajamar, SP Brasil

In addition to the Super Large Laser Screed floor described above, Alphapiso also produced another Laser Screed floor which was somewhat smaller, but still quite large – over 250,000 ft2, in bays that were 50-70 ft wide, with dry shake, resulting in a fantastic FF 124.4 and FL 71.1 and winning them a 10th award. In any other year, this floor would have been a world record; the only reason that this award is a Silver Trowel is because of the S&C (Australia) world record this year in this category.

Alphapiso Tec. Em Pisos Inds. LTDA Wet Screed/Hand Screed 9.7m Wide Bay • FF 94.6 / FL 59.8 4,874 m2 • 4 Kg/m2 Dry Shake • Assai Atacadista Sezefredo Sao Paulo Brasil

On top of being world-class with a Laser Screed, Alphapiso also knows how to hand-screed floors. They produced a hand-screeded floor that was over 50,000 ft2, again with hand-cast dry shake, that had the third highest ever FL Levelness Number. This also would have been the third highest ever combined FF + FL Number and would have won a Gold award, except that Alphapiso happened to produce the floor for the 2019 contest, the same year that Europiso produced their world record in this category..

BCI Concrete NHL Size Ice Rink over Styrofoam • FF 90.0 / FL 51.4 17,000 ft2 • Hopkins Pavilion • Hopkins, MN

BCI Concrete, from Backus, Minnesota, produced an NHL-size ice rink over Styrofoam with a great FF of 90.0 and FL 51.4. This would have won a Gold award, except for Vee-Jay’s exceptional trio of rinks this year. This is BCI’s second award, both for ice rinks.

Full-Tilt Constructors Somero Laser Screed 96 ft Wide • FF 95.6 / FL 66.9 973,000 ft2 • Wayfair - Cecil • Jacksonville, FL

Full-Tilt Constructors, of Sanford, Florida, seems to specialize in super-large and ultra-large 96-ft wide Laser Screed floors. They produced a floor that measured FF 95.6 / FL 66.9. These are great numbers for any size floor, but this floor is nearly a million square feet. It is very hard to keep making superior quality floor for day after day; this is an example of how it can be done if you are among the best in the business. This is Full-Tilt’s third Golden Trowel. It would have rated a Gold award, except for Alphapiso’s Bloco 200 floor.

The Golden Trowel® Asia

Face Construction Technologies inaugurated the Golden Trowel Asia contest in 2015.

These Golden Trowels are special awards available only to contractors in Asia, where installation techniques and corresponding measurements have just recently shown substantial improvement.

Shanghai WellRock Engineering Co., Ltd. Elevation Tolerance • >99.9% elevations within 9.8 mm • 932 m2 5 Kg/m2 dry shake & 25 Kg/m2 steel fibers • Skechers Warehouse • Taicang, Chin

Shanghai WellRock Engineering Company produced a floor at Taicang, China to a German DIN standard that was over 10,000 ft2 using concrete with both dry shake and steel fibers. This floor was measured essentially as an elevation tolerance with a narrow allowable elevation envelope, and resulted in 99.9% of the floor within 3/8 inch of the same elevation.

B.S.Y. Construction Co., Ltd. Copperhead on Elevated Piles 18m wide • FF 63.7 / FL 40.0 83,916 m2 • WHA E-Commerce Park Chachoengsao, Thailand

Because of poor soil conditions in the area, B.S.Y. Construction had a giant project (over 900,000 ft2) in Chachoengsao, a province in south-central Thailand. The job required constructing an elevated floor supported on piles. This is a type of floor that is essentially unknown in the USA. The closest thing to this type of floor that we typically see is an unshored elevated deck. ACI rules say that because the deck will deflect due to the weight of the concrete floor, only FF is reported on elevated unshored decks. However, in this case, both FF and FL were measured and reported as FF 63.7 and FL 40, which is excellent under these conditions.

Chengdu Keyixin Technology Co., Ltd. Somero Laser Screed 30m wide • FF 66.9 / FL 66.3 5 Kg/m2 dry shake • 16,846 m2 • Feirui Airlines Pinghu, China

Chengdu Keyixin Technology Company produced a large and very wide floor in Pinghu, China that measured FF66.9/FL 66.3, using a Somero Laser Screed. While these numbers are nowhere near what is being done today in the west, it is a very close second to the best that has been recorded in Asia.

Mitramas Pte Ltd Fmin LLevel 158 LFlat 138.9 TLevel 103.9 TFlat 104.2 AMCOR Singapore • 10 Aisles, 300 linear m

In Singapore, Mitramas Pte produced a narrow-aisle floor to Fmin tolerances that averaged to over Fmin 126. This is higher than the Fmin projects in the USA that won Golden Trowels as late as 2010, demonstrating that they are not far behind.

PT Multibrata Anugerah Utama Copperhead on Elevated Piles 30m wide • FF 57.0 / FL 42.2 23,490 m2 • PT Satria Piranti Perkasa Cikarang, Indonesia

PT Multibrata Anugerah Utama, also known as “MAU” is the first company from Indonesia to win a Golden Trowel Asia award for their 253,000 ft2 Copperhead-on-elevated-piles project in Cikarang, Indonesia that measured FF 57 / FL 42.2.

Somero Laser Screed 25m wide • FF 66.1 / FL 59.1
20,838 m2
• Chengdu Dongbai Logistics Park Chengdu, China

The Chengdu Yiheng Materials Company produced an 82 ft-wide 225,000 ft2 Laser Screed floor for the Chengdu Dongbai Logistics Park in Chengdu, China that measured FF 66.1 / FL 59.1. This floor used both a heavy dose of dry shake and steel fibers. The only reason this is not a Gold award for Asia is because of Chengdu Keyixin’s Laser Screed floor in Pinghu, China.

Somero Laser Screed 24m wide • FF 59.7 / FL 62.7
26,730 m2
• KRC Warehouse 2 Siracha, Thailand

Channakorn Engineering Company produced an almost 290,000 ft2 Laser Screed floor at the KRC Warehouse 2 in Siracha, Thailand that was FF 59.7 FL 62.7.