Channel Nine
Renovating a home on The Block is hard enough. But contestants can’t simply take the keys and renovate however they like. The Block enforces a strict set of rules that every team must follow.
Behind the frantic room reveals and last-minute styling, a strict set of rules keeps the competition fair — governing everything from who can paint the walls to how much contestants can pay their trades and when suppliers can deliver building materials.
Some make perfect sense. Others are surprisingly specific.
The Block official rulebook
- No help from any outside designer.
- All painting must be done by contestants.
- All trades must be paid the award rate.
- All trades must be inducted.
- No more than 50 per cent discount on any trades goods.
- No working ahead.
- No power tools after tools down without supervision.
- No building or material delivery on a public holiday.
- No power tools on Sunday or public holidays.
- Contestants must hire their own trades
Episode 5 of season 22, Chantel and Wyatt were caught by Foreman Dan for breaking rule number two.
“What are you doing?” Dan asked their chippy Lachie who had a paintbrush in hand, caught helping paint their guest bedroom walls.
“That’s a big no, no,” Dan urged.
The unofficial rules of The Block
According to Nine, there are also some ‘unofficial’ Block rules, like keeping your site clean and not ‘stealing’ materials from your neighbours. It also includes a saying they hammer in: ‘measure twice and cut once’.
The main aim behind that one is to avoid making unnecessary errors and wasting materials.
Another longstanding rule on The Block is ‘first in, best dressed’. We saw this in 2025 when Taz got in first and claimed all the free logs sitting around the site.
And, builders are not typically able to work on consecutive seasons.
In previous seasons Will and Karlie wanted to use Matt from Elevate on their series but because he was Caro and Kingi’s builder the year before, this couldn’t happen.
Changes to the new season
One week in, and there are already two major changes to this season that haven’t been around before. And they’re impacting the blockheads quite hard.
The first is the on-site hours have significantly changed.
Unlike previous seasons, where late-night renovations often became the norm, strict local council regulations now limit teams renovating the Mount Eliza homes to working between 7am and 6pm on weekdays, and 9am to 3pm on Saturdays, leaving far less time to complete each room.
The significantly less hours to work on-site had contestants already wanting to call a body corporate meeting to demand more time.
The second is Waterproof Wednesdays is now officially Waterproof Tuesdays, meaning all contestants will have to aim to have their waterproofing in their wet areas signed off an entire day earlier than usual.
Building a show-stopping home under the pressure of TV cameras is tough enough, but navigating the strict rulebook is what separates the true contenders from the rest. As contestants tackle fewer working hours and tighter deadlines this season, one thing is certain: winning The Block takes hard work every step of the way.
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