Yes — in England and Wales, installing an electric shower is notifiable work under Part P of the Building Regulations because it involves a new circuit from the consumer unit. The work must either be carried out by a registered competent person (such as an NICEIC or NAPIT-registered electrician) or be notified to your local building control authority before work begins. Skipping this step can cause problems when you come to sell your home, and it’s a serious safety risk.

Cracked tiles are almost always a substrate problem rather than a tile problem — if the wall or floor flexes, the tile or grout joint will eventually give way. Make sure your surface is solid and fully bonded before you start, use a flexible tile adhesive (check it’s rated for wet areas), and always leave movement joints at internal corners rather than grouting solid. In older UK homes with timber floors, consider a decoupling mat to absorb movement before laying floor tiles.

Black mould on silicone sealant is a ventilation problem as much as a cleaning one — if the room stays damp after a shower, mould will keep coming back no matter how often you regrout. Make sure your extractor fan is actually working to building regs standard (15 litres per second minimum for a bathroom) and that it runs on a timer after you leave the room. When you do need to replace the silicone, cut it all out cleanly, treat the surface with a mould killer, let it dry fully, and use a sanitary-grade silicone with a fungicide built in.

Yes, and it’s a common and cost-effective upgrade — but you need to think about water containment and the tiling or wall surface around the bath before you start. A mixer tap with a riser rail and shower handset is the simplest option and avoids any electrical work; an electric shower over a bath is more complex and must be wired correctly with an appropriate IP-rated fitting for the zone it sits in. Make sure the bath surround is fully waterproofed with tiles or a suitable panel system, and that the silicone seal between bath and wall is in good condition.

In a well-ventilated bathroom with proper waterproof grout, you can reasonably expect ten or more years before it needs replacing — but harsh cleaners, poor ventilation, and movement in the substrate can shorten that considerably. Signs it’s time to regrout include crumbling, hollow-sounding grout, persistent mould that won’t clean off, or any grout that’s missing entirely around wet areas. Don’t just grout over the top of old grout — rake it out to a decent depth first, otherwise the new grout sits too shallow and won’t last.