Help! Is shower trim wrong in all 3 bathrooms?!

[ladoladi]

Hello:

As part of a whole house remodel, we reno'd 3 bathrooms. The master shower has 2 sets of trim handles--1 for the showerhead and 1 for the jets. All in all, we have 4 sets of shower handles. They are all Moen (different models) and all have the correct rough-in valve.

Our concern is that 3 of the 4 handles look "wrong." They are not flush with the wall plate. There is a metal cylinder (part #96987) that is quite visible through the gap between the handle and the wall plate. I should add that I don't even see part #12574 anywhere in the installation the plumber did. I took it apart to check after he was gone.

Diagram of Moen Shower Trim:


http://www.moen.com/shared/docs/inst...s/ins1901b.pdf



The 1 (out of 4) handle that looks correct to us:



The rest of the handles are this far away from the shower trim:


My questions:

1. Is this "normal" and acceptable?

2. If we wanted to make the handles flush with the wall plate, do we have any options as far as solutions?

BTW, we have a plumber who did the installation, and his first reaction was to think I was crazy for worrying about the gap. When I stressed the issue, he tried cutting the metal cylinder on the one that sticks out, but that had no effect on how much it sticks out. He said it's possible his partner (who did the rough in) put the valves out too far. If we were to cut a hole behind the plumbing (the tile is already in), could we "pull" the plumbing and valve further in?