Testimonials

I am absolutely delighted with every aspect of working with Habilis. I have just finished my second project with Habilis. I chose them for my second project based on the fantastic outcome of my first project.

Let me explain by starting from the beginning.

Joe Locks was initially recommended by a good friend of mine who was in the wholesale stone importing business.  He told me that Joe had an excellent reputation within the custom stone industry.  Based on this recommendation I went to the habilis.co web site.

I was incredibly impressed by two items. 

The first was the name itself.  I am somewhat of a student archaeology, and as such recognized the name Habilis and was very impressed that the person that used this name for his company was obviously well informed and of high intelligence. Let me explain.

In prehistoric times, there was an ancestor of modern man called HOMO HABILIS. This species is known as “skillful man” because stone tools were found near its fossil remains and it is assumed this species had developed the ability to modify stone into tools.

What an absolutely perfect name for a company that uses tools to work with stone.  As stated above, one does not expect to find a stone installer with a knowledge of archaeology, and specifically of homo habilis. I knew I just had to meet this guy.

The second item that equally impressed me was the following statement essentially as the first item on the web page.

“The only special products we offer are our skill, our craft, and our experience. We don’t offer anything proprietary. Our competition has access to all of the same products and tools that we do.”

Now I knew for sure that I had to meet the person who, like me, understood the difference between the raw materials and the skill and the craft to bring out the best in them.

I then arranged to have Joe Locks come out and look at my potential project.  It involved removing an existing courtyard with multiple sets of stairs and replacing it with quartzite.  He immediately recognized the multiple issues that would have to be addressed.  The special significance of this to me was that I had previously had a couple of other stone contractors out to give me bids, and none of them had raised any issues or concerns about the items that Joe raised almost immediately.  As if this combined with all of the other stuff mentioned above was not enough to guarantee that I was going to work with Joe, the next item that I am going to discuss was the proverbial icing on the cake.

I described in detail my vision of what I wanted the finished project to look like.  I was then smart enough to ask Joe if he was going to be doing this project for himself, could he please ignore what I just told him what my dream vision was, and just tell me what he would do if it was his project. He had the honesty and the desire for me to get the best possible project, to outline a totally different approach. Obviously most other contractors would have said, this guy told me what he wants and that is what I’m going to give him. Joe on the other hand took me seriously. It took me less than a minute after not only hearing how he would do it, but more importantly the reasons for that, to recognize that his was the best option and agree to it on the spot. His reasons varied from the practical to the subtly nuanced, and I agreed with each and every one of them.

The actual project itself went very well.  There were several unexpected issues that arose during the construction, and Joe and I were always able to mutually resolve them.  I was at the time and continue to be absolutely totally positively overjoyed with the look and feel of this project.

When it came time for the second project, I knew there would be no other option but Joe at Habilis.  This project has just come to as perfect an end as the first project.

Bottom line. If you want an absolutely creative, perfectly designed, perfectly executed project, hopefully you will agree after meeting and talking with Joe that he is your guy. 

Joseph Davidow