I'm not a professional plumber so I'm curious why 700 dollars sounds high for installing a new toilet. Let me share why installing toilets at my housee definitely would have cost 700 (with a 3 to 400 dollar toilet). If a plumber gives a quote on the phone, they have no idea if after they remove the toilet they discover that maybe an old lead and oakem flange has deteriorated around the edges for installing the toilet but they will have to drill out carefully all the way around the lead and remove the old lead and oakem flange from cast iron that could take an additional hour. Then, they would have to purchase a very hard to find and expensive PVC to cast iron adapter flange that costs about 40 dollars and can't be found in lowes or home depot. They must be special ordered from plumbing supply houses. Lastly, those PVC to cast iron adapter flanges have to be screwed into something and if you remove the lead and oakem flange, there's never any concrete/terrazo where the screws for the flange have to go straight down. In both of my cases, I had to either pour new concrete to join with the old terrazo or I had to buy a 40 dollar tube of construction grade anchoring epoxy in the concrete section. With the tapcons you need, especially if you go with stainless steel tapcons, you are now at 120 dollars in materials just for the flange installation, and another 2 or more hours to remove and replace the flange.
So this is probably why you got a quote for 700 to replace a toilet. At least if I had paid someone to do the last two I did for my house.
