Matt reveals why being a tradie isn't always a bonus on site

Before El'ise and Matt stepped onto the decrepit front of the Oslo earlier this year, they thought his skills of being a builder would be a massive advantage in the competition.

But The Block isn't just your everyday work site and Matt admits that at times being a chippie was a hindrance to their team.

"We thought we'd get an advantage by me being a chippie and El'ise being in fashion and being able to style, but once it all started the realisation of it all was this is a bit detrimental to us," he told 9Entertainment.

El'ise and Matt The Block 2019
El'ise and Matt thought they had an advantage. (Nine)

Early on they made the decision that Matt would utilise his skills and be on the tools a lot of the time to help with budget, but they found it's not that easy.

"There were times where you'd go in and start working, then all of a sudden, you're being interviewed, and then you come back and you've got more questions being thrown at you," he explained.

"Then you stop doing what you're doing and by the end of the day you realise that you've probably lost four or five hours of work there just by having to answer questions or things like that."

Matt admits there were days where it felt like you were a man down.

"You do things, but over the whole scale of The Block it's bloody difficult because you just get dragged away," said Matt.

Challenge days were the hardest to navigate because once a week it put a lot of pressure on the team and their builders, especially as budgets got tighter later in the season.

"That was the biggest day that it was detrimental to us. It wasn't as if we could just go, 'OK I'll ring a guy to come in and work that day'. We just didn't have the money to do that," he said.

"You get dragged off-site and become a man down so the work slows down."

But Matt is really grateful they had a good team working with them, and by the end they managed to navigate the times he and El'ise needed to step away and still get things done.

It wasn't just El'ise and Matt feeling this kind of pressure. He believes the same problems would have been affecting Tess and Luke in House 2.

He thinks it was harder for them because even though they were spending money on other trades, when they weren't on site it was clear their team was a man down.

Aside from pressures on site, one of Matt's biggest fears before even going on the show was how it would affect his business.

"We obviously do this for a living and you're going to be scrutinised quite heavily. Things can go right or wrong, but people just don't understand The Block circle."

For Matt, the hardest part is trying to get people to understand that The Block works differently to an average job site, but they still expect you to do things like you would everyday. It just doesn't happen like that.

"The Block is totally different, and for me going in I was really nervous about that and how it was going to pan out," said Matt.

"Sometimes it's frustrating because you're being judged on what you do as a profession in a Block scenario where people don't know the actual site that you're working on.

"I think all I could do was put my head down and work as hard as I possibly could just to create a beautiful home, and it's been the hardest thing to watch."

Matt admitted it's been difficult seeing Luke being branded as 'lazy' because he knows how hard he and everyone else was working all the time.

"That goes for the girls as well. El'ise was with me hanging plasterboard sheets for weeks leading into this week, just to try and get us across the line," he added.