The Block contestant Rachel caught out lying to bestie Sarah-Jane

They’re Block besties – but Rachel was forced into an uncomfortable position by Sarah-Jane in Wednesday’s episode.

The Block contestants Rachel and Sarah-Jane have forged arguably the closest friendship the show’s seen in years – but a competition is still a competition.

And with the season down to its final few episodes, Rachel found herself in the uncomfortable position of having to lie to her Block bestie, turning down her plea for some spare materials so she and husband Tom could hastily build a staircase on their deck.

Tom and Sarah-Jane were in the final stages of finishing their home’s deck when they realised they’d forgotten to plan for a staircase down into their garden: Cue panic.

Tom and Sarah-Jane’s deck, without stairs.

With money and materials both running out, Sarah-Jane put in a call to her friend and competitor Rachel to ask if she and husband Ryan could spare some timber.

Sarah-Jane’s offer? Nothing. She insisted she and husband Tom had no money left and nothing they could trade for the materials.

Turns out, Rachel and Ryan did have some wood to spare – but their builder was planning on returning it in exchange for around $500 of credit they could then spend on something else.

Rachel's put in an awkward position.

With The Block just days away from coming to an end, every dollar counts. Rachel’s husband Ryan insisted she stand firm.

“I didn’t fall for that at all. One, [the staircase] is our design. Not only that, you have 30 landscapers in today. If you’ve got no money, send some of them home and you can buy yourself some stairs,” he told the cameras.

Relaying the message to Sarah-Jane, Rachel told a little white lie to her Block bestie – doubling the value of their spare materials, just so Sarah-Jane would be sure she wouldn’t be getting them for free.

“I asked about the timbers … but they’re like $1000,” she told a disappointed Sarah-Jane, saying she’d handballed the issue to their husbands to negotiate.

Rachel tells Sarah-Jane they can’t hand over the wood.

But Ryan was in no mood to negotiate, telling the cameras: “If we have some cans of Coke in the fridge? Sure, come and grab ‘em. But this is a staircase, our design; we wanted to have it as our own.”

And later in the episode, it was revealed Sarah-Jane had found her own solution: She’d secured some extra wood herself, and tasked one of her “17” landscapers to build the stairs.

Ryan couldn’t quite believe that result, after Sarah-Jane had cried poor.

“So they went out and bought the timber anyway, but they were trying to take our timber? You’ve clearly got money – if you’ve got that many trades on, you’ve got money,” he said.