Kohler Rite-Temp bath & shower valve, K-T10274-4

Hi. I am not a plumber and putting in a new tub....and a new valve. My question will be stupid I assure you!! LOL!!! On the Kohler Valve, there is a plastic "housing" called a plate (looks like part number 1095944). My question is, "Do you remove this"? I know there is a Dome plastic guard that is removed. I was talking to a buddy who is a plumber and he tells me "Yeah stupid...you have to remove the plate...it is just there as a guide for the rough in and cement board" I told him I have not read or seen anything that refers to removing it....and that I screwed the plate to support 2x4's. Any help would be much appreciated!!!

Doug

http://www.terrylove.com/images/kohler/k-304-r14.jpg

If it is the rough-in guide, you can remove it, but it isn't essential. On thinwall installations, some valves use that to sandwich the thin wall of the enclosure with the trim to help hold things in place. Normally (with a tiled wall), though, you'd anchor the valve itself and remove it after the wall rough-in is done.

Mine is a thick wall install. I have the valve anchored only by means of screws into the plastic plate which is attached to the valve. Before I put the hardie board up, your telling me it's ok to leave the plastic plate on??

Per the instructions (Terry pasted part of them into your first post), the plaster guard is supposed to be flush with the FINISHED wall, so you may want to leave it on, at least until the tile is up. With Kohler, when they say it should be flush with the finished wall, they generally mean it or the trim may not fit well, if at all - some of their trim has little to no tolerance (one reason I don't like Kohler). It would probably be better to make sure the valve body is anchored to the blocking well without the guard, though.

Plastic, when it ages, can become brittle and if that's the only thing holding it in place, it won't be good! It should be okay, since that part helps hold it in a thinwall installation, but why take the chance if there are holes you can use in the valve to anchor it to the blocking.

Hi Jim,

Are we talking two different things?? I know the paster guard comes off after the install of the tile. My question is on the plate. The plate is behind the valve....it is what the plaster guard attaches to. The plate face is flush with THE BACK of the cement board. I don't see any screws to separate the plate from the valve and I have read nothing about its removal post installation of tile. To me, it looks like it is "part" of the valve and how you attach it to the support 2x4's. I am not even sure I saw any holes in the valve to be used for attaching the valve directly to support 2x4's. Again, this is all foreign to me...I am handy....but plumbing is not my strong point!!

I actually saw a step by step install on this site of this type of valve authored by Terry....in that thread, I saw no explicit instruction for removing the plate, but did see to remove the guard of course.

Thanks again,
Doug

It's likely the plate stays...it sort of looks like that has the holes to mount the trim in it.