Home Depot - Lexus Contracting - Nassau-Suffolk Plumbing, Sears, Whirlpool Paid for job in full, foolishly. Defective dishwasher installed-not tested. New floor flooded and destroyed. Nobody taking responsibility. Happened 12/25/08. Jericho New York

Insurance will only pay after it is determined who is liable; the insuranc company providing coverage for that entity is then liable to settle any claim against that entity. There is a chain here: Home Depot referred the job to a primary contractor who then hired various subcontractors to accomplish certain tasks involved in the remodel. Sears is liable for the defective dishwasher but maybe not the damage due to flooding since it never should have been operated with so obvious a defect -- at least that seems to be their position; which sounds logical. The d/w installer should have noticed something visibly wrong, but the real defect of his performance was failure to test upon completion of installation, or better yet, after making all connections but before completing installation; the catastrophic failure would have been instantly observed, the unit and water shut off, spilled water immediately cleaned up, the defective unit disconnected and exchanged by whoever picked it up originally (if delivered by Sears, they would handle that); and no damage to the floor would have occurred, because anything used in floor construction can handle a brief moment of local wetness. Spills happen. Major floods are another story. For example, IFF I had installed a ceramic tile floor, I would have tiled & grouted watertight to all cabinetry under the D/W, range & fridge and any water damage would only have been to any particle-board cabinetry; plywood cabinetry, on the other hand, would probably not be damaged by a brief flood assuming it was cleaned up promptly. But not all tile installers do that, a major installation flaw -- THAT may actually be the ultimate source of liability: Failure to extend water resistant floor surface under the major apliance(s). All major appliances eventually fail do to age, wear & tear, etc. A kitchen floor, where spills and minor or not-so-minor floods are occasionally normal and expectable, should never get damaged by water (unless by a major flood while nobody's home for an extended period of time). Your libility question is complicated by the number of entities involved plus the questions of why the floor that should be water-tolerant was damaged by a brief relatively small flood (about the equivalent of dropping a large pot full of water, something that EVERY kitchen floor should be able to withstand!). Contact a lawyer because probably only a judge will be able to assign liability where it belongs. THEN insurance can pay.

The odd part about your whole installation is you buy Appliances from Sears and have Home Depot install them.

This leads to a super happy install cluster %@#$ because it sounds like Sears Is blaming Home Depot for a poor installation vs Home Depot blaming sears for a defective product.

It sounds like the installer totally destroyed the Dishwasher or did something wrong. A motor doesn't just end up on the floor all by itself.

If you dealt directly with one company either Sears or Home Depot this would've all been avoided completely.