CONSTRUCTION
Bobcat excavator Masonry contractor uses an M-Series E35 to add services
For masonry contractor Florim Kabashi, America became the land of opportunity; later, Bobcat® the way to achieve ongoing success.
equipment became
“I am proud to live in a country where if you work hard you will be successful and happy,” he says. “At fi rst I did masonry jobs by hand. When I got to the point where I was able to afford equipment, I purchased a Bobcat skid-steer loader and a couple years later added an M-Series compact excavator. Both allowed me to do more work in less time. With the excavator I no longer had to turn down jobs; in fact, it gave me a chance to take my company in a new direction.”
Family in a better place
Kabashi and his family were among the 20,000 refugees who came to America after the 1998 – 99 war in Kosovo. He didn’t speak a word of English, but was able to hold down three jobs — cutting grass for a landscaper, working as a machinist in a factory and washing dishes in a restaurant — that kept him busy 17 hours a day, seven days a week.
Within two years he started his own company, F. K. Masonry in Cheshire, Conn. Trained in masonry in Germany, Kabashi built his customer base by word of mouth. After initially doing his digging by hand and moving materials with a wheelbarrow, he began renting skid-steer loaders and eventually purchased an S205.
The pictures above demonstrate the types of projects that Florim Kabashi has completed. These are just a few of the many pictures from his website. Visit
www.fkmasonry.com to see more of his fi nished projects.
“The skid-steer loader enabled me to take on more projects and get them done faster,” says Kabashi, who became a U.S. citizen in 2006. “It was especially helpful in moving materials around jobsites.”
While the loader was doing exactly what he wanted, customers were asking him to do more complicated jobs, including building stone walls. Kabashi had to borrow excavators from friends or rent them to do this type of work.
24 WorkSaver | SPRING 2011
Hard work becomes easier with a
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