Hi, I need some advice please. In an empty house I’m fixing up, last time I checked the toilets was a few months ago. I had found a toilet that was constantly flushing and leaking water into the bowl so I shut off the water to that one toilet. I now hired a plumber to fix it and also asked him to inspect my other toilets. So he checks them, and calls me into the bathrooms to show me water leaking between the tank and the base whenever you flush. In all three toilets in the house. He says I need to replace all the toilets. Is this a scam or a very strange coincidence? Thanks
I vote for "scam". One thing you almost-certainly DO NOT need to do is replace the toilets.
The fact that you called him for the first problem was the tip off to him that you were vulnerable and didn't have knowledge. Most of the time, when the toilet is leaking from the tank into the bowl, all you need to do is replace a rubber part (called the "flapper") that costs less than $10 at the hardware store, and it's the easiest thing in your entire house to replace -- on par with changing a light bulb.
When you call a plumber to fix that, you'll either get an honest guy like our forum host Terry, who will take good care of you, or you will get someone who will take advantage.
I think there is a 90 percent chance that he is taking advantage because his "solution" is to replace all 3 toilets rather than fixing them, which in all 3 cases is something that a person can do themselves. I would wait and let the water dry and see if they are now all "leaking". You don't really know what he did, but they didn't just all break at once. Most likely, with our help (or the help of an HONEST plumber that you call for a second opinion, someone unimpeachable in your area that you get through a friend or neighbor or somebody on this forum), you can get back in business.
So, for starters, let's assume that he didn't affirmatively-damage anything and let's wait for all the water to dry. Then, just post some photos of the inside of the tank of Toilet Number 1, and we'll guide you through fixing that. Then, post a photo of each of the other toilets which he says are now leaking on the floor.
We're here to help. At a bare minimum, we can give you an idea of what needs to be done, so you can call a different plumber and knowledgeably access their help. (Or, you can get that real feeling of self-satisfaction that comes from learning, with our help, to do simple plumbing tasks yourself.)
Sorry you're going through this.
PS Just to give you an example, in the laundry room of our country house there is a toilet from 1927. No kidding. Doesn't get used much, isn't a great toilet as far as flushing goes, but it was manufactured the same year that my Dad was born, so I am sentimental about it. When it was not holding the water in the tank, and it made a lot of noise when refilling, I simply replaced the Rube Goldberg floating-ball fill-valve and the very-finicky flush-ball water control with a Korky 528 fill valve (15 minutes; less than $10) and a Korky flapper ($5, 5 minutes). That was nearly 10 years ago and I haven't had to touch it since, other than to replace the flush handle with a more-attractive one, which was also easy. The tank is just a porcelain vessel with standard holes in standard places that will accept modern plastic devices, even though it was made 94 years ago.