USA Construction, Inc

USA Construction Inc. (Marcus Morton license 188116 & 118128) was hired on March 24, 2019 to build a deck with wheel chair ramp using a deck design plan from Lowe’s that he gave me to provide the City with in order to obtain a Residential Building Permit. He said this project would take 2 weeks to complete, and required 50% of the contract price at the start of the project, 25% once work was started, and 25% at completion. He started the project on March 27th with demolition of existing structure. During demolition, he needed me to rent the jack hammer, because his credit card was declined. The deck plan was changed by the City Inspector to meet the International Residential Code for building. He was told by the inspector the footer depth should be 48”, joist size 2x10 16” oc, and the post size 6x6. When he created the footings for the posts/beams they were all uneven to the eye, and the inspector said they were 8” smaller than what was in the plan. Once the posts were cemented in the ground they were visibly 1) not aligned 2) all different lengths and 3) when I raised concern about these issues, he told me not to worry about it, because once it was complete I would not notice. He also removed siding from my home and the water meter, which I had to request that he put the water meter back on my house. I again raised the issue of my concern with the posts not being aligned when he began building the framing, the joist boards going from one side to the other were all cut shorter than the width of the frame. He had a strap from one side (rim joist) to the other pulling the boards on both side together in order to screw the floor joists to the sides. He had pieces of wood added to a few of the posts to make them the same length as the others (see attached photos), and he kept telling me not to worry about, everything was secure. Looking at his work, I was extremely stressed at the thought of my family standing on what looked like a very unsecure structure that was literally pieced together without measuring anything. He also removed my new storm door without permission, because he built the deck above the door frame. He did not properly measure the materials being used and he did not build the deck at a proper height based on the already existing structure (the house and door). After my insisting that he put my door back on the house, he went to my house on April 17th damaged the door (put dents in the bottom section), screws for the inner frame are missing, as well as, the part to hold the storm door open. He was sporadically working, and did not work April 15th, 16th, or 17th. The Building Dept corresponded with me on April 17th, and told me Marcus should not be adding the decking board, because the city inspector needs to inspect the frame. I sent Marcus a text message letting him know, to which he replied "you're delaying my work so I'm going to end up voiding the contract once again you're postponing my work you have all the material on the job site I think you should find somebody." I do not have all the materials, he never purchased the railings or parts for the ramp. Marcus received 75% of the contract price, plus he owed me the $100 for the jack hammer rental, and damaged my new storm door $644.74 (price of door, install, and missing parts). The building inspector in my town told me after the frame inspection that she has the following concerns: 1. no flashing at ledger 2. lateral load connectors not installed 3. No plans on site 4. no footings for ramp 5. carrying beams not permitted to be side-loaded 6. are the screws in the joist hangers Simpson strong drive? What length? He did not have a contract with me to build a new staircase on my front entryway, yet he took it upon himself to cut all the railings off my front porch.