I am a new homeowner, having moved into my place 11 months ago. I'm in a 90-year old rowhome and the folks I bought the house from totally redid the whole thing, including the bathroom. The sellers moved things around in the bathroom and installed a whirlpool tub. The tub had never been used before I moved in.

I don't know if this makes a difference, but they also installed a tile in the shower/tub that was different than most tiles I've seen in showers. Instead of a glazed tile, it's a more unfinished tile so that if I tried to stick a suction on it, it wouldn't stick. However, the tiles do appear to get wet, usually by the shower head, and get darker.

The sellers grouted the tile in the shower, but also grouted the seam/join (??) b/w the tiled wall and the tub. I thought that was odd, having never seen that before, but figured it was fine. Then, a few months later, I noticed the grout along the back edge of the tub had a long crack developing in the middle of the grout seam. No water reaches there, so I wasn't too worried.

A few weeks ago, I decided to finally try out the tub. I filled it up w/ water and then got in. When I got in, I heard a wierd noise and then noticed there was a crack in the grout under the spigot in the tub. This crack was different. Instead of being in the middle of the seam, the crack was at the top of the grout where it met the tile. It freaked me out, so I got out and drained the tub. I was afraid the tub would go thru the ceiling or something! Either that, or that moisture is getting into the walls.

So, my question for the group is what should I do? Do I try to find a matching grout (it's a beige/tan color) and fill in the cracks? Do I caulk over it? Do I somehow take out the grout along the edge and either regrout or caulk?

This probably is not something I'd do myself, but it will give me an idea of who or what I need to call to address the issue.

Thanks so much for your advice on this. I really appreciate it.

Robin