Scott Cam the rules he believes contestants need to follow if they want to win The Block
SCOTT Cam has hosted 14 seasons of The Block. On the eve of The Gatwick Hotel makeover, the host reveals the golden rules that contestants need to follow for any hope of winning.
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IF you want to know how to win The Block, just ask Scott Cam.
Every year the Gold Logie-winning host gives contestants his set of golden rules for victory … and every year they ignore them.
It has happened again this year as five teams took on the Channel 9 renovation show’s biggest construction project: remodelling the infamous Gatwick in bayside St. Kilda.
The Gatwick opened its doors in 1937 as a luxurious residential hotel but standards dropped as the years wore on.
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By the end of its run, the Gatwick was a flophouse nicknamed the ‘hell hotel’ due to murders, drug deaths and stabbings.
Now five teams — Victoria’s Bianca and Carla, Western Australia’s Courtney and Hans, South Australia’s Kerrie and Spence, Queensland’s Norm and Jess, and Hayden and Sara from New South Wales — have the task of remodelling the building into 250-square-metre apartments.
“I’ve got a bit of a speech I give them (contestants),” Cam says. The number one rule is to be nice to the crew. They work hard, they’re going to be there every day so don’t treat them poorly. Some of them (contestants) do (treat the crew poorly) sometimes.
“The most important thing I tell them is to treat every hour like it’s your last. Your first hour should be treated like it is the final hour. They have never listened to me in 14 seasons.
“I say ‘I guarantee you that in the last two hours you’re going to be running around like idiots trying to get it done and if you did that in the first couple of hours you wouldn’t be so panicked’. It seems pretty obvious to me but they never listen.
“Budget is very important; that is part of the initial talk I give them as well. It seems pretty clear to me that if you’ve got 10 or 12 spaces to do and $220,000 and vouchers then divvy it up, do a budget and stick to it. If you win some money (winning a room reveal) that is a bonus and you can stick it into the next room.
“Again, they very rarely listen to me and they spend too much money in the first six weeks. I say to them, ‘At week seven you’ll be scratching for coin and you’ve still got another three or four weeks to go so don’t do that,’ but invariably it catches up on them.
“In this series, we’ve had a few meltdowns in week one and two because it is a bit of a nasty build. Normally the meltdowns happen in week six.”
Nasty build indeed. The Gatwick had more than 70 pokey rooms. The load-bearing masonry walls had to be ripped out and replaced with 150 tonnes of steel. All of the wooden floors were unusable and had to be replaced. Two brand new penthouses were built on top.
“From a construction point of view it is the biggest undertaking we have done,” Cam says. “The penthouses on the roof were brand new. With my building experience I would have definitely taken a penthouse because there is no demo. No walls had to come out. There is no cleaning up. No taking all the rubble down.
“But after the 48-hour challenge, when the contestants had to choose apartments, by the time the third choice was happening there were still two penthouses available. I found it crazy.
“The biggest mistake you can make is indecision. On The Block you’ve got to make quick decisions on the spot and you can’t procrastinate. If you go on a shopping expedition to find some lamps then get in and get out.
“If you know you’re going to go on The Block — because these people have had some sort of notice — then you should get a plan in place, get organised with your styles.”
Of this season’s contestants, Courtney is a flight attendant and Hans a commercial airline pilot. Neither has renovation experience. Contrast that with Spence, a prestige builder, and his wife Kerrie — they’ve had one of their houses featured on Grand Designs.
“Experienced builders or people in construction, the biggest mistake they make is that they think they can do it all by themselves — that they don’t need labourers or extra chippies,” Cam says. “They soon come unstuck, within a week.
“With the inexperienced ones, they get the builders and chippies but then they let them take over and make design decisions and construction decisions. I tell them, ‘You need to own this and do it yourself. Get these blokes to do what you want, not what they want to do’.”
Last year’s auction results show that The Block is always a roll of the dice. Elyse and Josh won a whopping $547,000 after selling their renovated 1920s house in Elsternwick for $3.067 million to comedian Dave Hughes.
Sarah and Jason pocketed $387,000, Georgia and Ronnie $161,000 after their property was initially passed in, Sticks and Wombat $130,000 and Hannah and Clint $95,000.
“Last year’s auctions, the reason that some of those contestants didn’t go as well as others is because they didn’t do as good a job and they polarised buyers,” Cam says.
“Ronnie and Georgia painted their house black on the outside and everything inside was dark and grey and there was a lot of black and white furniture and that turned half the buyers off straight away.
“Sticks and Wombat didn’t go too well because they changed the plans. They pulled out their second lounge room and put an ensuite bathroom in for their guest bedroom that was way too big and they ended up with a study nook that was the size of a wardrobe.
“If you don’t have all your planets aligned at The Block auction then you’re not going to make any money. Josh and Elise had everything aligned. They had a great real estate agent, a great house, great design and they won. You’ve got to make sure everything is spot on.”
THE BLOCK, CHANNEL 9, SUNDAY AUGUST 5 AT 7PM.
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