Minor water leak = major remediation?

[wolf]

Overkill. Very common to have a little water damage around toilet. Patch it and move on. I would not have let the first knife go into drywall. Turned this into a huge inconvenient PITA

Agree. I think, you were taken advantaged of. Been in similar situation.
Plumber's use the "scare" technique, to get your approval.

My best advice for future issues. Sleep on it for a couple of days. And
ask for advice. This forum, friends, etc. To avoid being taken to the cleaners.

Good luck. I think you said, your toilet on 1st floor, concrete. So damage
should have been minimal.

 

[Koolau]

Agree. I think, you were taken advantaged of. Been in similar situation.
Plumber's use the "scare" technique, to get your approval.

My best advice for future issues. Sleep on it for a couple of days. And
ask for advice. This forum, friends, etc. To avoid being taken to the cleaners.

Good luck. I think you said, your toilet on 1st floor, concrete. So damage
should have been minimal.

I think we may have "stumbled" upon a good plumber. I mentioned our leak which we'll end up paying for the damage to the apt. below. I called a couple of places who went to voice mail and they never called back over a week. Called these folks and got a person! I mentioned that I was facing surgery the next day and had this problem of the unusable toilet. It was also holding up repair for our downstairs neighbor's ceiling. They said they'd rework their schedule and send someone out THAT afternoon. The kid (maybe 30?) came right when they said. He mentioned my surgery and he said he would pray for me! He installed the new toilet we had purchased elsewhere. Installed new guts in the other toilet. Cleaned up and was ready to go in less than 2 hours (including his travel time which he had to charge for.) The bill with all parts and labor AND removal of old toilet was about $300. Hope we don't need them again for a while, but I know who to call. YMMV