My ceramic tile shower is around four years old. There are ceramic shelves in two corners of the enclosure and I'm guessing the shampoo and body wash bottles on the shelves were too heavy. There's a tiny crack under one edge of one shelf, and there is now a 2 to 3 foot long crack running down from the ceiling around a foot away from the other shelf. The crack changes direction and goes diagonally a few inches toward the shelf.

The cracks are nearly invisible and I don't think they detract from the appearance of the shower, but I'm concerned about any possible additional damage. Is it all right to leave them or should I get them repaired? If they need to be repaired, how urgent is the problem?

Jeanette, October 2009

I very much doubt that a crack 3 feet long is due to the weight of shower gel bottles, Jeanette....more likely to be a slight settling of the wall that is tiled onto. Anyway, there's no real way of proving that so I wouldn't immediately worry about it. Can you access the other side of the tiled wall? Is there any deterioration of plaster or paintwork? Providing you wipe the cracks down with a squeegee or similar I don't think there will be significant water penetration. Only my opinion though!

John, October 2009