A truck breakdown spells disaster for contestants this week, with the load of plasterboard for their enormous living and dining rooms delayed, while teams of plasterers sit around earning $80 an hour to do nothing.

That, coupled with an early surprise go-karting challenge and the following day being a public holiday meaning no power tools has everyone stressed, and Maddy in tears.

But it’s Kristian and Mimi who have real reason to be worried. They don’t even have a plastering team locked in and Kristian is reluctant to ask his neighbours Maddy and Charlotte if he can borrow their tradies after he did them dirty in week one.

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Maddy is not having the Block experience she was hoping for,

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He played hardball then, stealing the plastering team they thought had come with the house they inherited from Paige and Jesse.

He tries every plasterer in Victoria before reluctantly forcing himself to go and ask the girls to do something he would never have done for them.

“That was the hardest, having to ask them for help after the whole thing,” he says, carefully omitting the fact that “the whole thing” was him being a jerk to the two new contestants.

“It was him that took the plasterers last time, and they finished, and we didn’t,” Maddy notes.

But luckily for him the sisters are better people and agree that as soon as their plasterers are finished, he’s welcome to use them in his room.

“Relationships are much more important than competition to us. They stuffed us up with the plasterers, but we’ll be the bigger people,” Maddy says.

Kristian cries when talking about it to a producer but whether it’s out of gratitude or shame at his own behaviour is unclear.

Kristian reflecting on the sisters lending him their plastering team after he had stolen their team earlier in the season.

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There’s good news for all the teams too, with Scott Cam announcing that given the late plaster delivery wasn’t their fault, for the first time in the show’s history, they’ll be given help to paint their rooms, and the show is also going to cover the cost of their plasterers standing around not working for a day.

Maddy and Charlotte are first cabs off the rank. Their room is fully plastered first so the team of painters arrives to get started.

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Meanwhile, Scott and Shelley Craft arrive and are shocked to discover the other teams have been heading out to socialise together and not inviting the girls.

Mimi was happy to slag the sisters behind their back, but when the girls lend them a team of plasterers it’s hugs all around.

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“We lent our plasterers to Kristian and Mimi to show this is who we are in the hope they might want to get to know us little bit better. We’re trying our best to build relationships, but it is hard when you walk out and they’re all going out to tea together,” Maddy says.

Scott is poised to intervene, but the sisters wisely tell him not to confront the other teams, recalling that last time he acted on their behalf they lost their builder.

Tradies suss on lack of Block team payments

Speaking of losing trades, Ricky and Haydn’s landscaper has just informed them he’s walking off their job, three weeks before it’s due to start.

He’d already been making noises about being paid at the end of each day, and drawing up contracts to ensure he and his team were protected, telling Ricky that word on the island was that The Block didn’t pay their tradies.

It all stems from Courtney and Grant refusing to pay a bill from a local glazier, who had supplied a shower screen which Grant had measured wrong.

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Brad confirms that his builder has heard the same rumours.

“We saw the consequences of that too, not being able to get anyone local to work here,” he tells Scott.

“It’s given us a reputation,” Ricky adds. “It got worse for us because we lost our landscaper. He brought up that The Block has a reputation of not paying its bills. That’s the chat, word spreads.”

Haydn and Ricky tell Shelley and Scott that tradies are refusing to work on The Block because some contestants are slow to pay bills.

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“I’m devastated,” Scott professes. “We’re the faces of it, Shelley, you and I, and people will blame us.”

He and Shelley are pointing their own fingers of blame this week. Kristian and Mimi have won a whopping $39,000 in challenges and room wins, but are somehow only $464 ahead on their budget, and it’s all down to Mimi’s inability to reign in her spending.

And Shelley has some stern words for Ricky and Haydn, accusing them of prioritising going to the pub and working out at the gym while failing to finish rooms.

The boys don’t entirely agree, but decide to pull an all-nighter to ensure they don’t get on Shelley’s bad side again.

MISSED AN EPISODE?

EP 29: ‘Mean girl antics’: Block sisters bullied after win

EP 28: ‘Competition is rigged’: Furious Block contestant lashes out

EP 26/27: ‘They lied’: Teams turn on sisters, Block’s reputation questioned

EP 25: Why two teams are fighting over hotshot agent

EP 24: Grant, the master snitch

EP 22/23: ‘F..king brothel’: second Block builder quits

EP 21: Grant lets rip on “dog ugly” room

EP 20: ‘Can’t polish a turd’: Block judge lets rip

EP 18/19: ‘Paramount to cheating’: Scott Cam accuses Block team

EP 17: ‘Don’t give a f***’: Block team quits after producer steps in

EP 16: Abusive 1am phone call shocks entire Block

EP 14/15: “Snake… I’m not having you on site’: Block builder fired

EP 13: ‘F***ing walk off’: Block couple’s fight turns toxic

EP 12: ‘Arrogant’: Blockhead goes on a bender, cop huge judge spray

EP 10/11: ‘Rip it up’: Block’s biggest bathroom disaster ever

EP 9: ‘You never listen to me’: Block couple fall apart

EP 8: ‘This has become a joke’: Dan slams popular Block pair

EP 6/7: ‘F***ing wasting time’: Block couple set to quit

EP 5: ‘This has never happened’: Block team caught in fraud scandal

EP 4: ‘Childish, boring’: Block judges come in blazing

EP 3: Block builder already breaking rules incurs foreman’s wrath

EP 2: ‘Who the f**k wants to sleep near their kids?’ — Block couple baffled

EP 1: ‘Not good at anything’: Bathroom fireworks kick off on The Block