Toilet not working and contractor wants to replace it?

He's full of bull! As mentioned above, you can snake it if you want, or even run lots of water through it & it will eventually disintegrate the soap.

If you do think your toilet uses too much water....do what I did...put some bricks in the tank to displace the water. I have a vintage 20's toilet that I love, but the tank is pretty big. I stacked some bricks in there & it flushes fine & uses less than half the water.

He may simply be suggesting the idea because the toilet you have is old and does not conserve water the way newer ones do. Newer toilets use less than one third the water per flush that older models use. The bar of soap should be pretty easy to remove, but the toilet should be removed to do it. You don't want the soap to go down the waste pipe below the toilet if you can avoid it.

If the only reason you're having a problem with it is because you dropped a bar of soap in there. That's rediculous to replace the toilet. Just try using a plunger. After a while, the soap will disintegrate in the water. If you have a long rubber glove, you could put that on and stick your hand down there and try to get it out. You'd probably be able to. It's probably just in there a very shor ways.

He's ripping you off if that is the only reason why he wants to replace the toilet. You can have that cleared out with a plumbers snake, or a toilet auger. I saw the toilet auger at Home Depot for $40 the other day.

Talk to him some more and ask him for all of the reasons why you should replace the toilet. If it is just because of the soap, get a second opinion with another plumber.

If the bar of soap is stuck in the toilet and can't be freed with a snake (possible), the unit will have to be disconnected and the plumber will spend some time (possibly quite a bit of time) trying to get it out. He will then have to replace the wax seal and reinstall the toilet. He will also likely replace the gaskets between tank and bowl and maybe the "tower" because these elements are likely to be disturbed in the process and, in an older toilet, likely to leak after the toilet is reconnected.

It is very likely that the plumbers charges for time, parts and labor will exceed the cost of simply pulling the old unit and dropping in a new one. If you opt for a water conserving toilet, you will actually get your money back in a few years, assuming you are paying for water use.

If it were me, I would pay a visit to my local Costco store and pick up one of their excellent dual-flush, two-part (bowl & tank) toilets for $99.00. I would buy a new "long throat" wax seal at my friendly Ace hardware and do the job myself. If isn't difficult.

Turn off water to the toilet.

Bail out all the water you can.

Flush.

Soak up remaining water with old towels.

Undo water connection under toilet tank.

Undo two bolts holding down toilet and lug it to the curb.

Scrape of old wax seal and push new was seal into place.

Set toilet bowl in place and bolt it down.

Install tank onto bowl with fat rubber gasket in place.

Reconnect water.

Install new seat.

Hey! You'll be sitting pretty for less than half of what the contractor will charge you.

Good luck

Have fun.

Be proud.

I'm a landlord and have removed many things stuck in toilets including bars of soap. Given enough water soap will dissolve all on its own.

My advice is get a new plumber.

most toilets now are 1.6 gal flushers, a large water bill savings over the old 5 gal flushers.

So it's a good idea and would pay for itself in about 2 years. With all these idiots chiming in about what a bad person the plumber is (without knowing him) I'm surprised they haven't suggested draino yet!

Use a toilet auger.It will make soup out of that bar of soap!!

i'm not a plumber, but i don't think the whole thing would need replacing, it might just be that the soap has gotten stuck in a pipe. it might need dismantling to get to the pipe to remove it (if there is a blockage) but i'm very sceptical as to whether the whole thing would need changing, if your still unsure on what to do consult another plumber and ask them to check it, they may find an alternate solution. it

That's unacceptable and stupid. Get a different opinion.