Shower valves and fittings: what comes with the shower and what the choices mean

Every shower has a valve in the wall that you never see and a handful of fittings in front of it that you touch every day, and most quotes list them as model numbers without saying what any of them does. This page says what they do, which of them come with every one of our packages, and which choices actually change how the shower is used, especially by someone who sits down to wash.

Last updated September 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

The valve behind the wall

The rough-in valve is the working part: a brass body set into the wall and connected to the hot and cold supply lines, mixing the two and sending the result up to the head. It is chosen once and it stays for the life of the shower. What you see is the trim, the handle and the plate in front of it, and that is the part you choose for its look. On most conversions the valve goes where the tub's valve was, because moving it is plumbing work with the wall open, and keeping it put is the single biggest reason a conversion is measured in days rather than weeks.

What scald-safe means

Two things working together. The valve in every one of our packages is a Delta pressure-balance valve: it holds the ratio of hot to cold steady when the pressure on one side changes, so when a toilet is flushed or a washing machine fills elsewhere in the house, the valve reduces the hot side to match and the temperature holds instead of spiking. And the valve carries a limit stop that we set at installation, so the handle cannot be turned to a mix hot enough to scald even if somebody tries. For a new shower valve, anti-scald protection is a code requirement rather than an upgrade, which is why it is in every package and not on the options list.

A thermostatic valve is the other kind: it holds a set temperature rather than a set mix, adjusting the blend as the incoming supply changes. It is more precise, it lets two outlets run at once at a controlled temperature, and it costs more. For most residential showers the pressure-balance valve is the right tool, and it is what most residential showers use.

What comes with every package

A scald-safe Delta valve and a standard shower head, on every one of the six wall systems and on a custom tile shower. Those are the two fittings every package shares. Everything else is a choice, priced separately in the Estimate Builder so you see what each adds before anyone visits: How the water heater is sized, and how cold the water arrives in a Central Ohio winter, is on the hot water page.

• The trim. A choice of Delta handle and plate styles, all of them scald-safe, in matching finishes.
• A hand sprayer on a magnetic dock. The dock matters more than it sounds: the sprayer snaps back to it one-handed, with no aiming at a bracket and no reaching overhead to hang it up.
• A hand shower on a slide bar. The alternative when the height of the sprayer has to change between the people who use the shower.
• A diverter. The small lever that sends the water to the head, to the sprayer, or to both, so both are usable from a seat without standing up to change anything.
• A different shower head. A rain head, for instance, if the standard head is not the one you want.

The grab bars and the fold-down seat are priced options too, and they have a page of their own.

The hand sprayer, and why it is the fitting that matters from a seat

A seat on its own is somewhere to sit under a fixed head. What turns it into a place to wash is the hand sprayer, which lets someone seated direct the water instead of moving under it, and the diverter that puts the water in their hand. It is also the most useful fitting for a caregiver, who can rinse from outside the spray, and for cleaning the shower itself. If one person in the house stands and another sits, the fixed head and the sprayer both stay in use, and the diverter is what makes that work.

The shower head

The standard head is included. Federal rules cap a shower head's flow rate at two and a half gallons a minute, and every head sold today lives under that cap, so the differences between heads are in spray pattern and size rather than in how much water reaches you. A wide rain head at the same flow feels softer than a small head; a hand sprayer at low flow is easier to direct. Whichever head you choose, the maker of the head warrants the head, and we warrant our installation of it, which is the distinction the guarantee page spells out.

Where the valve goes for someone who sits

Within reach of the seat, and reachable from outside the spray, so the water can be turned on and adjusted before stepping under it and without standing up once seated. In a conversion that keeps the valve where the tub's was, that is often already true; where it is not, moving the valve along the wall is a decision for the walkthrough, priced in the written proposal, and far cheaper to make while the wall is open than at any time afterward. The aging-in-place page lists it among the things settled with you before the walls close.

Finishes

The trim, the shower head, the hand sprayer and the grab bars come in matching finishes, so the fittings read as one set rather than as a collection, and the choice is made in the Estimate Builder or at the consultation with the samples in front of you. The valve itself has no finish to choose. It lives inside the wall, and only the trim in front of it shows.

What the guarantee covers here

Our installation of the valve and the head: setting the valve in the wall, the connections we make, the anti-scald limit we set, and the arm and trim we fit. The products themselves are the makers' to warrant on their own terms, Delta for the valve and for the head whichever maker's head you picked. The lifetime leak-free guarantee is about the pan and the walls, and it does not extend to the valve or the head. In your first year we handle a manufacturer claim on your behalf at no charge for our labor; the guarantee page has the rest.

Common questions