SCB/Drain, 4” Square Shower Drain

For those new to this product, this 'protector is used when building a custom shower pan in your home bathroom. First you attach the Grey-PVC floor drain (called the flange) to the 1.5" ABS riser (the drain pipe) Since the flange is often made from grey-PVC and the drain pipe is always ABS, you must use Oatey's GREEN cement so the two dissimilar plastics will bond. Do NOT use ABS or "PVC" cement. If nspected, will fail if they don't see the GREEN cement so be sloppy with it!). You're ready to lay-down the rubber liner and staple it a minimum of 6" up the wall. Now cut the hole in the liner at the drain (place a little 100% silicone caulk UNDER the liner when it lays on the flange so you don't get wicking onto the sub-floor. Place the protector over the flange hole and screw the collar to the flange (no need to tighten too much, since the cement will secure everything and you want any seepage to travel under the collar and into the flange's drain hole anyway). Once attached, screw in the drain's body (the 'body' is the height-adjustable piece that the chrome grate attaches to. You're now ready to pour the cement ad pack it around and level with the grate.Purchasing a weep-hole protector is perceived as an option by most shoppers. It should not be. True, it's not required by code. But, experience and good sense calls for it.From my experience, the small drain slots in every manufacturer's shower drain I've see are just too small to do their job without this protector. Even if you're super careful when laying the mud (cement) around the floor drain, those drain slots are gonna get restricted over time just from calcium build-up due to vapor leaching-in from the drain. The consequences of water damage on the sub-flooring is so overwhelming that to try to save $10 just doesn't make sense. Get the protector and sleep well at night.

I actually had to have my shower floor done twice. Both times I had this strongly recommended device hanging on the shower gadget and reminded the respective installers that I wanted it installed. Both times, the thing was left hanging instead of being installed. Both installers assured me that it wasn't necessary since my plumbing was "deep." Bah! I smuggled the thing into a tile store that also sells them as a donation in kind. And sold the house as is.

I liked the prepitch product so I figured I would try this for the final step. Turns out, this was was two flexible and could easily be crushed by the concrete. I realized this quickly and removed it. Just use a little pea gravel instead. It is easier, cheaper and provides more passage area for moisture to make it to your weep holes. Secondly, it helps keep the concrete from sticking to your drain threads better so you can still adjust the drain after pouring your concrete. My suggestion is to use the prepitch product but save your money on this.

Great idea and makes much more sense than "sprinkling" a few pebbles around the drain. I bought this protector as we were doing a complete master bath remodel which included a new shower pan. I installed the pre-pitch and our plumber installed the 40-mil shower pan liner prior to our tile company doing the base. Oops. I had to step out for a business call and when I returned the base was in its final stage. The weep hole protector was not installed and it was too late to go back without damage to the pitch. Ahhhh! So we have a new shower pan that is excellent in every respect...but not with the weep hole protector I wanted.The purpose of a weep hole protector is to provide for proper drainage of any water that might leech through the shower tile or grout and work its way through the base (Portland cement and sand). You don't want this water to pool under the base and on top of the pan liner. This weep hole protector provides for that proper drainage and is a great idea. To compensate, and after the base set for 48-hours to fully harden, I sealed both the shower base and cement board installed on the shower walls with multiple coats of RedGard. Each seam was covered by their fabric membrane and covered with at least two coats of RedGard waterproofing. I doubt any water will penetrate the base and what slight amount of water may leech over the years through the shower floor tile will "flow" to the drain. I would have preferred the tile company used this protector, so watch your installer and don't take business calls at important times during the installation!

To anyone wondering if this or the Quick Pitch system will work with the Kohler K-9136 square shower drain, I emailed the company and it will not. Below is the response I received. I intend to make it work, somehow, as I've already purchased everything and I have the drain installed. I'll update this again once I've figured it out."Works with all other sq drains except Kohler. It is too wide by ½ inchMark E Kirby"

This product was supposed to work with a square drain to allow the drain to be set at the proper height to work with their standard slope guides. However, a standard 6" square drain would not fit into the circle - and it clearly would not work with a linear drain - despite being called "universal".

This is one of a series of un-necessary and cheaply made products from Mark E Industries. The threads of the innner spindles are poorly formed and do not lend themselves for an easy install. I tried to be gentle, but still ended up breaking this peice. I would not have been that concerned, but this is one of many cheap breakable peices in the kit. Referring to the purchases as a kit is a big overstatement. For the pre-pitch system, the minimum number of possible sticks that you could need is 8 if they all stay in tact (they did not) The kit comes with 6 sticks. Same for the quick pitch. It comes with 6 and 8 are needed. In addition to only containg 6 sticks, it is not set up for anything but a small round drain, forcing you to buy this unnecessary and expensive peice of cheap plastic. The only reason i gave this a 2-star rating is because it is necessary to complete the job. My recommendation is that you look toward another way from the start.