The previous homeowners installed a basement bathroom. Rather than digging in cement they built a platform for the toilet to sit on. It's literally a throne! :D
I want to remove the platform and install the toilet, as well as a standup shower, at the ground level. There is cement under the platform. I have a new toilet - water conservation kind and want to keep it. What kind of cost am I looking at? Is this a DIY project with 2 handy people who are not plumbers? Is there equipment available that eliminates the need to dig out the cement? Thanks for your help! :)
Sitting tall in Niagara Falls

I have to comment on the throne in the house we once owned. Otherwise, I may have left this question go. The sewer in that house exited the basement about a foot above the floor. In the corner next to it, somebody had poured a concrete platform and mounted the throne 2 steps up from the floor.

It sounds to me doable. You can rent a saw and even an electric jackhammer. I think the shower drain will need a vent, but the plumbers here can tell you how to do it. If you run PVC, the plumbing itself, will be fairly easy. Posting a diagram of where you think the existing drains are and the layout you plan will help.

The cost partly depends on what you do, a plastic shower out of a box, or a ceramic tile one.

This is major surgery but can be managed if you've basic plumbing skills. Since you're going to hafta run a vent on the shower it would be silly not to add a lavatory or utility sink and wet vent the shower to the drain line, The main will have to be located under the floor and the floor jack hammered up to install the drainage. A typical basement rough in goes like this. Most basement bathroom groups are roughed in like this.
Toilet connects to sewer main or the stack vent. Lavatory/ utility sink connects to toilet drain and runs a vent off the top the stubout tee out the roof or revents back into a dry vent in the attic.. The toilet wet vents through the lavatory vent and the tub/shower connects to the lavatory drain and is wet vented by it. This is a normal rough in and is acceptable both by local and state codes and also The Standard Plumbing Code Book in 90 percent of the country. Check your local codes.to make sure you're not in the excluded 10 percent.. The vent off the lavatory may be run out the roof or revented back into a dry vent in the attic or if you're reventing back into a fixtures dry vent you must make your connection at least 6 inches over that fixtures flood rim. What type of drainage pipes does your house have? Whatever type, I would suggest converting to PVC off the main. Due to varied labor and material prices we do not give estimates or "ballpark figures".
Good luck, Tom. PS. The last time I was in Niagara Falls was over 60 years ago when I was a boy sailing the Great Lakes On the ore boats.