I hired Morta Engineering & Testing (M.E.T.) to design a hillside reinforcement plan so I could meet the local building code pertaining to rebuilding a residential outside deck. Mr. Morta was my 2nd choice because my first choice literally forgot about me. I was happy to have found an engineer that was local. Things started out good but quickly went bad. He kept changing the plans without consulting me and actually had me take an unseen set to the city and paid to have them admitted to the building department, not realizing they were different than what I was informed of. I realized this when I met with prospective contractors, who pointed out some unfamiliar aspects to the plans. When I told them who the engineer was, they never came back with a bid.
When I tried to contact Mr. Morta by phone or email, on numerous occasions, he would fail to get back to me. This process went on for about 2 months. This delay, combined with the delay caused by the first engineer, caused me to loose most of the good weather for construction—about 4 months total. I was unable to complete my project until this year— rather 2009.
I then hired a 3rd engineer who was from a neighboring county. He came to my house, checked out the situation and completed his report in a very timely fashion—about 2 weeks, compared to 2 months. It was far more to my liking, more economical, sensible and doable on a limited budget. All of these factors were lacking in Mr. Morta's work. Also, his fee was half as much as Morta's. When asked to give me a refund, Mr. Morta refused. I was naive when it came to engineering and got burned by one that kept making a mountain out of a mole hill. However, my past experiences with unscrupulous individuals, on the job, finally caused me to look the situation in a different light and pull the plug.
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