Carla La Tella
Real Estate

Block house shut down following dangerous discovery

Monday night's tense episode of the block featured quite the worrying development, as contestants hammered into the floor and made the unwelcome discovery of what appeared to be asbestos.

Tom, the Melbourne-based plumper, and his wife Sarah-Jane were coming to the end of the demolition process for the guest bedroom with only a small section left to smash – when the descending mallet revealed the alarming discovery.

“As soon as I saw it, I’m like: Oh god, here we go, more delays,” said Tom.

The Block moved quickly once the toxic substance was spotted ,with everyone in House One dropping tools for a full day as the team moved in to assess and remove the potentially deadly substance.

“They shut our house down, and rightfully so – asbestos is very dangerous,” said Tom, who was left with little to do but visit his fellow contestants while he nervously waited to see how long his house would be out of action.

Six hours later, Keith and Dan finally returned to give the site the all-clear that work was safe to resume.

Dan offered some explanation as to why asbestos hadn’t been spotted before the houses were handed over to the contestants: “In this location, under the fireplace and used as formwork, it’s very hard to locate," he said. "That’s why we didn’t find it – Tom’s done the right thing in alerting us."

The hit reality TV home make-over series scored an impressive 984,000 viewers during Sunday's episode, making it the most popular entertainment program of the night.

Image: Channel 9 

Tags:
Channel 9, real estate, TV, The Block, renovations