You Won’t BELIEVE How The Block ERUPTS Over a Bitter Trade Deal Gone Horribly Wrong – Leaves Fans SPEECHLESS!
The Block contestants have been thrown into a frantic Family Bathroom Week, with delayed waterproofing, leaking rooms, disappearing trades and a bitter deal between Courtney and Sev and Lisa and Rosco adding to the pressure as the teams chase a potentially decisive $250,000 kitchen and laundry upgrade.
Courtney and Sev have accused rivals Lisa and Rosco of breaking a crucial trade agreement as pressure intensifies across The Block. (image – Nine)
With all five teams back on site after the previous day’s budget drama involving Chantel and Wyatt, the contestants begin Tuesday already facing a major deadline.
This season’s reduced working hours mean the traditional target of Waterproof Wednesday has been pushed forward. The teams are supposed to have their bathrooms ready for waterproofing on Tuesday, giving them less time to get framing, plumbing, electrical work and preparation completed.
It quickly becomes apparent that Waterproof Tuesday is unlikely to happen.
Chantel and Wyatt in House 2 have lost an entire day after the pair’s temporary departure from the competition, while Lisa and Rosco in House 3 are dealing with serious doubts from their waterproofer and tiler about whether their bathroom can be completed.
Things are hardly better for Courtney and Sev in House 4, who initially don’t have trades available to get their waterproofing under way.
The unusual bathroom layouts are creating another headache.
A three-door arrangement has contestants looking for alternatives, with proposed solutions ranging from deleting doors to using sliders. One layout would otherwise require somebody to walk through a separate toilet to leave the bathroom.
For Courtney and Sev, changing the layout becomes an opportunity to reduce the amount of work they need to deliver this week.
The pair successfully argue that changes to their floor plan mean a vestibule should now be considered part of the hallway rather than the family bathroom. They have removed a door and plan to continue their hallway flooring pattern through the open area, which will contain a linen cupboard.
Dan accepts the argument, meaning that section can instead be completed during Hallway Week.
It is a small victory in a week rapidly becoming much more difficult.
Along with their construction work, contestants also have a painting lesson and a mandatory trip to Cosentino, chewing through more of the limited time available on site.
By the end of Tuesday, waterproofing remains nowhere to be seen.
Waterproof Tuesday is dead.
Waterproof Wednesday is back — although even that deadline is looking optimistic.
House 1 springs a leak
The new day gets off to an alarming start for Adam and Jolene in House 1.
There is only one completed room in their home, and water is suddenly pouring through its downlights.
The problem is traced to a water valve that had been left slightly open before the system was turned on for pressure testing. Fortunately for House 1, it proves relatively straightforward to fix.
The incident also precedes the revelation that Adam has been keeping a significant piece of information from his fellow contestants.
While he has presented himself as an outback station manager, Adam admits to producers that he completed his Certificate IV Building & Construction about 20 years ago and is a qualified builder.
It is experience he has deliberately kept quiet from the other Blockheads.
Dan has already started questioning whether Adam knows more about construction than he has been letting on. Although Adam can play the role of an inexperienced contestant, his understanding of building occasionally raises suspicions.
He is not the only contestant keeping professional experience under wraps.
Courtney, who works as a commercial building project manager, has similarly chosen not to advertise the extent of her construction knowledge to her rivals.
Courtney and Sev hit another setback
Over at House 4, Courtney and Sev finally secure trades to help with waterproofing.
There is just one substantial problem: their screed is saturated.
The wet surface means the waterproofing team cannot simply get started, leaving Courtney and Sev waiting for the area to dry while precious hours disappear.
The cause becomes a point of disagreement.
Dan believes the problem stems from the decision by Courtney and Sev to change their skylight, leaving the roof exposed to rain while the Velux team carried out the work.
Courtney, however, argues the issue is connected to the external waterproof membrane not being installed until after rainfall.
Whatever the cause, the result is the same.
House 4 cannot waterproof.
Their stalled bathroom creates an unexpected opportunity for another team.
Lisa and Rosco lose their tiler
Lisa and Rosco are already trying to recover after failing to complete their family bathroom and powder room, and their latest bathroom campaign runs into another serious problem.
Their waterproofer and tiler Rhys has been viewed as an important advantage because he can perform both jobs.
But Rhys becomes increasingly doubtful that the room can be completed within the available timeframe.
An issue involving public liability insurance adds to the difficulty and he ultimately decides the job is not possible.
He walks.
Rosco is left staring at another major setback.
“What an absolute nightmare,” Rosco reacts.
With Lisa and Rosco suddenly without the specialist they were relying on, Courtney proposes a solution that appears capable of helping both houses.
Because Courtney and Sev’s own waterproofers cannot work while their screed remains wet, Courtney offers to send the waterproofing team to House 3.
In exchange, Lisa and Rosco’s carpenters can help House 4 catch up.
Rosco agrees to the arrangement, and the available audio records him telling Courtney he will send his trades to House 4at 5pm.
For a while, the deal looks like a smart piece of cooperation between two teams facing different problems.
That changes when 5pm arrives.
Trade deal turns sour
While Lisa and Rosco receive the benefit of Courtney and Sev’s waterproofing team, the promised carpenters don’t arrive at House 4.
Rosco says he did not realise what he had agreed to.
The recorded conversation indicates otherwise, with his earlier commitment to send the trades at 5pm providing Courtney with a very different understanding of the arrangement.
Instead, the chippies are expected to help the following morning.
For Courtney, that isn’t the deal she made.
The delay leaves House 4 shutting down while other teams continue working, and her frustration spills over.
“Such dogs,” she mutters.
“That was not the deal but that’s what happens in this competition.
They snaked us.
It’s good to know these things nice and early.”
In another account of the confrontation, Courtney is equally clear about how she views what has happened.
“It’s a competition, they snaked me,” Courtney fumes.
“They’re dirty players, and it’s good to know these things nice and early.”
The dispute comes at a particularly bad moment for House 4, because this week’s room result suddenly carries far more than the usual judging points.
Chantel and Wyatt race from last to first
While Courtney and Sev are stalled, Chantel and Wyatt make a remarkable recovery.
After the budget dispute that resulted in them losing a day, Wyatt jokingly describes their absence as an “RDO”.
They know they are behind and even reduce the number of carpenters working on their build in an effort to control costs.
Despite those disadvantages, House 2 manages to move ahead of the field.
By Wednesday, Chantel and Wyatt are the only team in a position to seriously consider waterproofing, although they reach that point only about an hour before the 6pm tools-down deadline.
Wyatt then approaches Dan with a proposal.
Could the waterproofers continue working beyond normal hours if they don’t use power tools?
With the shortened working days creating problems across the site, Dan and site boss Aidan agree to the extension.
The decision is welcomed by teams desperate for additional time.
Not everyone is celebrating.
For Courtney and Sev, extra waterproofing hours offer no immediate advantage because their wet screed means they still cannot begin.
Courtney responds to the announcement with sarcasm.
“Oh great, I’m so pleased everyone can have extended hours so they can get well ahead of us,” Courtneysays.
The concession means the supposedly accelerated Waterproof Tuesday deadline has effectively stretched beyond Waterproof Wednesday for parts of the site.
Rick gets caught after tools down
The extended waterproofing permission also creates trouble for Rick in House 5.
After hearing waterproofers can remain on site later, Rick allows his wider building team to continue working.
That isn’t what Dan authorised.
When Dan catches the team working beyond tools down, he confronts Rick.
“Rick, you’ve got selective hearing and I’m getting a bit over it,” he says.
“Selective hearing has got to stop.”
Rick is furious with the criticism and later responds while speaking to producers.
“F**k you, I’m not copping that,” Rick later tells producers before his daughter Tayla suggests his hearing problems may be age-related.
The clash adds another layer to a week already dominated by arguments about deadlines, working hours and what teams are permitted to complete.
But the biggest development is still to come.
$250,000 prize changes everything
Scott Cam summons the contestants to HQ, where they meet Rob Sinclair from e&s.
For the second season running, a major kitchen upgrade is being offered as a room-winning prize.
The team that wins Family Bathroom Week will receive $250,000 worth of kitchen and laundry appliances and upgrades.
The significance of the prize is immediately apparent.
Britt and Taz won the upgrade the previous year and later won The Block, giving this season’s contestants another reason to see the package as a potentially enormous advantage.
For Courtney and Sev, the timing could hardly be worse.
Their wet screed has prevented waterproofing, their trade arrangement with Lisa and Rosco has fallen apart and the extended hours granted to the other teams don’t help them while their room remains unable to progress.
Sev makes clear how damaging the timing feels.
“It’s come at the worst possible time when we know we’re not even in the running,” Sev laments.
Their frustration follows the pair’s earlier success and their determination to continue building momentum, but Family Bathroom Week is now threatening to turn into a major setback.
The one tangible concession they have secured is Dan’s approval to move their vestibule into the scope of Hallway Week.
Whether that reduced workload will be enough to help them recover remains uncertain.
The pressure keeps building
Across the site, the week has rapidly become a test of logistics as much as design.
Chantel and Wyatt, despite losing a day, have unexpectedly pushed to the front of the waterproofing race and successfully secured additional working time.
Lisa and Rosco have lost Rhys, the waterproofer and tiler they hoped would give them an edge, before accepting help from Courtney and Sev.
That assistance then triggers one of the first serious inter-house disputes of the competition when the promised return of trades doesn’t happen at the agreed time.
Courtney and Sev, meanwhile, are stuck waiting for their screed to dry and watching the other houses use extended hours they cannot take advantage of.
Adam has revealed privately that his building knowledge extends far beyond what his competitors have been told, while Dan is increasingly suspicious of how much experience the station manager actually possesses.
And Rick’s interpretation of the extended waterproofing hours has earned him a warning from Dan, followed by a furious response away from the foreman.
The contestants also have another complication approaching, with the season’s first challenge looming as their bathrooms remain under enormous time pressure.
With the $250,000 kitchen and laundry package now attached to the result, an already difficult room has suddenly become one of the most consequential battles of the competition so far.
For the teams struggling simply to reach waterproofing, however, the immediate task is considerably more basic: get the bathrooms ready before the shortened working hours take another bite out of their schedules.
Viewer Feedback
TV viewers commenting online
Viewers were quick to question whether Waterproof Tuesday was ever achievable under this season’s reduced working hours, particularly when previous contestants have struggled to reach the traditional Wednesday deadline. One viewer summed up the frustration: “So no one came anywhere near ‘waterproof Tuesday’. Seems like they’ll be lucky to be ready for EOD Wednesday. Nuts.” Another added: “They were never going to make Tuesday, half the teams struggle with Wednesday.”
The unusual bathroom layouts also came under fire, with viewers blaming the three-door design for creating additional work during an already compressed week. “So the architect did a shit design, which led the teams to change the design and now they are more behind in a short week,” one viewer wrote, before questioning whether the situation amounted to “Engineered drama anyone?” Another observed that teams were “trying to overcome the architect’s shitty three door design” while struggling to make the waterproofing deadline.
The failed trade arrangement between Courtney and Sev and Lisa and Rosco prompted an even stronger response. Viewers largely appeared unconvinced by Rosco’s suggestion that he had misunderstood the agreement. “Rosco playing the game, he knew what he agreed to,” one wrote. Another was more direct: “He didn’t know what he agreed too? Then ur just stupid. U agreed to it.”
The dispute also appeared to win Courtney and Sev some support. One viewer wrote: “I think Courtney and Sev are my favourites. Ross just went down many rungs because he played them like that, not cool.” Others recognised the confrontation as familiar The Block territory, with one remarking: “Someone calling someone else a dog – mark it off ya bingo sheets,” while another predicted: “We’ll be at a ‘Game on, moles’ soon!”
Chantel and Wyatt’s rapid recovery after losing an entire day left some viewers puzzled. “Wild that offscreen they managed to get ahead of people who had a whole day on them. seems legit,” one commented. Another offered a more practical explanation, suggesting their inability to alter the bathroom extensively may have worked in their favour: “C&W skipping the first day might actually work out for them. They couldn’t modify the design because of the delay, but they also means they will actually finish.”
The decision to extend waterproofing hours also sparked debate about how rigid this season’s 6pm tools-down rule really is. “So the work time restrictions are flexible… apparently. Good!” one viewer wrote. Others questioned the broader logic of shortening the contestants’ working days while maintaining demanding construction deadlines, with one sarcastically summarising the situation as: “Let’s give them less work time, but plan things so they have to be ready at the same rate as always.”
Adam’s secret building qualifications generated another round of discussion. Some viewers were amused by the revelation, but others questioned the competitive value of hiding professional experience. “Why do people think keeping their qualifications or job a secret will…..help them? or something?” one asked, adding that such secrets can become little more than a temporary storyline when eventually revealed. Another viewer suggested there could be a downside, writing: “When it comes out the other teams start distrusting them.”
Rick’s decision to keep his broader team working after hours did little to escape viewers’ attention either. “Rick the builder, trying it on. Letting his tradies work past 6pm. Dan is not happy!” one viewer observed as Dan confronted him. The resulting argument over “selective hearing” also drew jokes from viewers as Rick’s interpretation of the extended waterproofing permission landed him in trouble.
The announcement of the $250,000 kitchen and laundry upgrade generated some of the strongest disbelief of the night. “$43,000 for an oven?” one viewer asked, while another reacted to the cost of another appliance with: “People spend $60k on a fridge?” The styling also divided opinion, with comments including “Ugliest oven I’ve ever seen” and “Just give me a normal oven and stuff why do they need to make it so complicated simple is best.”
With such an enormous prize attached to Family Bathroom Week, viewers were already speculating about who might take it home. Some predicted Chantel and Wyatt could emerge victorious following their budget dispute and return to the competition, with one joking: “Congrats on your new kitchen, Wyatt and Chantel! The ‘Please don’t leave’ tour shall continue!” Another was looking further ahead to the impact of the shortened days, observing: “with the less hours and they struggling to finish imagine when the challenges start.”