Sure, you can get a plumber to do the entire job.

"Also, is there anything wrong with a basic $100 toilet?"

Yes, and you get what you pay for. For that price many are cheaply engineered with inferior parts. Toilets now use 1.6 gallons of water or less. It's important that they are designed correctly, or you will have problems with clogs.

Check out Toto toilets.

Here is a link that might be useful: Terry Love Plumbing

My house came with a cheap toilet. It was leaking at the seal (where it meets the floor). My plumber said cheaper toilets have no quality control, and my toilet is not level on the bottom! So yeah, there is a reason to pay more for a better toilet.

I'm sure I'm going to be the dissenting voice here. I usually agree with you get what you pay for. However, our house has had builder grade toilets for over 15 years with no problems. We have been replacing them as we remodel because my husband wants comfort height. I've given them away on freecycle because they are still perfectly functional. I can't speak specifically about $100 toilets, but I can say that we haven't found it necessary to spend $300+ on a toilet.

If your plumber is going to mark up the toilet, which I would expect he would since he is going to have to take the time to pick it up and deliver it, you might also considering ordering online. We ordered ours from faucetdirect.com and it came with free freight shipping because we ordered it along with other items that had to be shipped freight. They also have free shipping for items that can be shipped ground, but I don't know if that includes toilets or not.

There is a big difference between "builders grade toilets" and Box Store (Lowes, HD, etc) toilets. There is a reason they are sold so cheap and that is the guts are cheaper and the quality control is definitely virtually non-existent.

15 years ago, you weren't mandated to 1.2 gallons. I think you were still using 3 gallons then, which is still down from the 5-7 gallons of the old toilets.

There IS a big difference in the cheap $100 toilets and the $250 box store toilets. But, if you get one of the better names from one of the box stores, like Kohler Cimmaron or American Standard Cadet, etc., then you are getting a pretty decent toilet. IF the model numbers are the same as the plumbing showrooms.

A toilet is something that when it works well, no one gives it much thought. WHen it doesn't though, you WISH you had given more time and thought to it's selection.

We had a plumber install one of our toilets, but only because we were having to remove toilets to find a leak under the slab and decided to upgrade while we were at it. They were limited to what they carried. Their normal cost to install was more than I would have paid, but I was having to pay to have the toilet removed and reseated anyway.

I have Kohler toilets in our bathrooms and I think they replaced American Standard of 20 years (which were donated to Habitat in perfect working condition). I think I saw signs at Lowe's indicating they charge about $100 to install, and presumably they would bring the toilet with them. I would do that and put a little more into the toilet and less into the cost of having it installed and I think you'll be happy in the long run.

I have an American Standard Clean Cadet from Lowes, installed about 6 months ago. It is a skirted comfort height model, so it is easy to clean. The toilet has a small footprint so visually gives my small bathroom some breathing room, and although it replaced a round bowl toilet, this new one with an elongated bowl is less than 1/2 further from the wall than the old toilet.

It is in my primary bathroom, and has to date given us no problems. It is so easy to keep clean!! It was less then two hundred and twenty-five dollars. I am thrilled with it, and want to replace the Kohler Highline in our other bath with the American Standard Clean Cadet.

Granted, it is only 6 months old but so far it is great, so in my opinion I would not be so quick to dismiss what you can find at the big box stores.

Here is a link that might be useful: American Standard skirted toilet.

As long as the model number is the same, allot of their products look the same but the guts are not.

mabeldingeldine,

Thanks for the tip about the AS Clean Cadet. It looks very similar to the Toto Vespin I was planning on getting, and it's about $200 cheaper--$298 in Canada. I do have a concern about the seat though. I am planning on buying a washlet type seat, and many of the reviews for the AS CC comment on the unusual/unique seat. I can't find specs for it anywhere, it seems to only be available from Lowes. Do you have on online source for the specs? Specifically the shape and dimensions of the seat?

Putting in a toilet is a fairly easy DIY project if you've got a few muscles. If not, it still can be if you've got the access room to get to it from both sides where two people can lower it down.

I've purchased toilets and bathtubs and had the plumber stop and pick them up when they were on their way to do the install.

We have American Standard Cadet3, I thinnk (I'm not at that house) and they work just fine, big box or not.

millworkman "As long as the model number is the same, allot of their products look the same but the guts are not. How can the "guts" of a toilet, which consists of a spud ring and a flapper valve, be significantly different.

There is a reason you see different SKUs on the big-box products, and it is not always because thye are "different" internally. It's a bookkeeping technique, with all the product going to HD getting one SKU, all the stuff for ACE gets another. It makes reporting product sales easy. We did that with chips for car electronics ... Ford's voltage regulator got one SKU and Toyota's got another, although they were the same chip, and often off the same wafer.