Sometimes new sealant and a coat of paint genuinely is the answer. These five signs mean it is not.
The floor feels soft near the bath or shower
A spongy floor means water has been getting into the boards, usually for months or years. New flooring over a wet subfloor fails quickly. The area needs opening up, drying, repairing and waterproofing properly before anything decorative goes back.
Grout keeps going black no matter what you do
Persistent black grout in one area normally indicates water tracking behind the tiles rather than a cleaning problem. If the tile bed is saturated, re-grouting buys a few months at best.
The shower has never been powerful enough
Weak showers are a design problem, not a fitting problem. The fix depends on whether you are on a gravity system, an unvented cylinder or a combi — swapping the shower head without addressing the supply rarely changes much.
You are working around the layout
If the door catches the basin, or the only way into the shower is sideways past the toilet, the room is fighting you. Replanning the layout during a refit usually costs less than people expect and transforms daily use.
Access is becoming difficult
If stepping over a bath edge is getting harder, plan the change before it becomes urgent. Level-access showers, grab rails and seating are far easier to design in during a planned refit than to retrofit in a hurry.