The Block 2025 exclusive: The biggest rookie reno blunders this year | Season 21

It’s early days on The Block 2025, but there have already been a fair few wins … and missteps too.

The brand new group of rookie renovators have a lot to learn and finishing brand new rooms every week for 12 weeks is definitely a baptism by fire!

Of course, there are bound to be plenty of blunders along the way, from missed inspections to mispronunciations.

Insulation frustration

Most of the time when Taz makes a mistake he can laugh about it, but his latest blunder cost his team both crucial time and money.

And it’s all because he got two types of tape mixed up.

House 3 were off to a “worrying start” come Wednesday morning because they were behind on their insulating – no thanks to the huge mistake their team made!

After forgetting the “crucial” step of insulating their skylight, Britt and Taz had to pull insulation down to reach the skylight shaft, install insulation and restore their ceiling.

“I think that ceiling grid has to come down for you to get up there,” Foreman Dan observed.

But that didn’t exactly go to plan …

“Have you seen what’s holding it up?” asked GMac upon inspection.

“Insulation tape,” Taz answered. “Is that not good?”

It was not good at all. You see, banding tape used for insulation is very different to ‘insulating tape’ used for electricals.

“It will just stretch in the heat,” GMac explained.

“It’s electrical tape, we can’t use that because it will expand over time,” Dan added.

Taz was disheartened.

“I’ve just got to limit the mistakes and hopefully we get a week where everything we’ve wanted to happens, happens,” he said, feeling flat.

“Every week it just seems to be massive pushbacks.”

‘I never said that!’

Taz is wearing his ‘reno rookie’ badge with honour but it seems he still has a lot to learn!

He was caught on camera, by wife Britt, saying one of his unusual yet hilarious ‘Tazisms’.

Heading into Main Bedroom and Walk-in-robe Week, Taz revealed they had plans for “a custom bedhead from Andy the upholsterist”.

“Upholsterologist, didn’t you say that the other week?” Britt teased.

He sure did – exactly two weeks ago and the producers had proof!

But that wasn’t Taz’s only blunder that day …

What’s the difference between a nail and a screw?

Taz was sourcing some crucial supplies from Bunnings. In his hand was “a nail that needs to go in the wall”.

“If you want to nail things in, you need a hammer,” said the Bunnings assistant. “Yeah that’s a screw …” he said pointing to the piece in Taz’s hand.

“I knew that, I was trying to see if you knew that,” Taz replied.

Phew, nice save!

‘What’s a 90/45?’

We love a Taz clanger and this one’s gold – but it comes with a cheeky warning.

Heading into Main Ensuite Week, Britt and Taz’s secret weapon would be a custom curved arched door. It’s a job that needs to be measured perfectly, right down to the millimetre.

Sounds like a job for Taz!

“That’s a lot of maths,” Foreman Dan warned, also feeling slightly less confident in the new Block star.

Three weeks into The Block and Taz felt like a “fully qualified chippy”. He wanted to prove it too.

Equipped with his very own snappy tape measurer, Taz embraced his new ‘Measure Man’ role.

“Measure once, cut twice,” he smiled. Err … if you say so!

“I need some 95/45, am I able to take it out of the sawmill?” Taz asked Scotty on the phone.

“Yeah sure, no worries!” Scotty replied.

Taz hung up and said: “Now I need to find out what 90/45 is.”

If you’re reading this, Taz, “09/45” A.K.A 90 x 45mm is the measurement of the timber! Now, let’s hope he gets his curved door measurements right or this could spell disaster.

‘Batten down the hinges’

A storm battered the Block site during Kids’ Bedroom Week, causing chaos as it saturated much-needed plywood and required the teams to come up with some creative solutions to keep their build sites dry.

So creative, in fact, that it stretched Mat’s use of the English language.

“We had to make sure we batten down the hinges and keep our site as dry as possible because we can’t afford to have any moisture getting in,” he recalled.

Then he realised what he’d done.

“Oh! Batten down the hatches, doll. Hatch. I only learned what a hinge was the other day, and it’s not a dating app.”

Whatever they battened down worked, as House 5’s rooms stayed dry throughout the storm.

However, the best mates had another problem to deal with – and this time, it was of their own making …

An upholstery nightmare

Week 2 featured a three-day challenge requiring teams to design, shape and upholster their very own kids’ bed head.

The catch? Their creation would be used in their kids’ bedroom for Sunday’s Room Reveal – so, ensuring it was looked great was very important.

Unfortunately for House 5’s Robby and Mat, they made their design decisions while at their Week 1 winners’ dinner.

Safe to say the victory (and a couple of champers) clouded their judgement as they selected a … “bold” red striped fabric that looked a lot like a pair of your grandpa’s pyjamas.

They had regretted the choice ever since, even more so when it came to actually making the thing and they saw Scott Cam, Shelley Craft, Darren Palmer and guest judge Adrian from Snooze’s reactions.

“I think my father had a pair of pajamas that colour,” Adrian said.

“Was your father Hugh Hefner?” Darren asked, while Scotty likened it to a scene from The Godfather.

Not what you want from something intended for a KIDS’ ROOM.

“It was like a burning plane plummeting to the ground with no pilot and no one to help,” Mat said.

Taz can’t speak the lingo

Taz’s many clangers have become a running joke on The Block, like him mislabeling villa board as ‘vanilla boards’ and speedhorses as ‘seahorses’.

During the first Open for Inspections of the year, his faux pas were on full display as he praised neighbours Han and Can’s curved skylight.

As he looked up at their ceiling, Taz was lost for words but not for the reason you might expect.

“Sunroof,” he said, pointing up.

“What’s it called, Taz? Did you say sunroof? You know that’s getting added to the Taz dictionary,” wife Britt teased.

There are even more words that the WA cop struggles to wrap his head around – and Foreman Dan is very amused by it.

“You know these … doggits, doggies, doggins?” he begins, pointing to his wall frames.

None of those words were remotely close.

“Grommets,” Dan corrects – but turns out, Taz has gotten extra confused and that’s not even what he meant to point out!

Luckily, Taz is always up for a good laugh – even if it sometimes comes at his expense!

“I won’t know what I’m doing but I’ll have a good time doing it,” he says.

House 2’s shoddy insulation

He may not know all the right words to use, but Taz can cut a damn good piece of insulation.

His neighbours in House 2, however, faced the wrath of GMac early on after taking a much more chaotic approach to insulating, simply stuffing the batts into the frames.

In an extended look at Han’s blunder, which you can watch below, we learn that wasn’t her only mistake that morning.

Foreman Dan is shocked to discover that she and her tradies have already started plastering the ceiling without an inspection.

“They’re just going ahead without inspections, there’s plastering going on the ceiling, there’s insulation up there with gaps in it – what is going on?!” Dan reacts.

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This article was originally published by Nine.com.au. Reproduced with permission.