26 Renovators contestants – the Jacks and Jills of all trades – arrived at the warehouse to be greeted by host Brendan Moar and judges Robyn Holt, Peter Ho and Barry Du Bois. Introduced to six houses from hell, the hopefuls learnt that the first selection would be awarded to the best performer of the first Challenge – which then arrived on the back of a truck. The contestants were given 48 hours to renovate the dilapidated house in question, inside and out. Phil adopted the role of project manager, dividing the troops into their areas of expertise and setting them to work. The house was completed on time, and spectacularly, with the judges giving special mentions to Keenan, Michael, Peter and Natalia. Joanne was judged to have contributed the most overall, giving her first pick of the houses, as she choose the Sixties Suburban.

A new day in the warehouse began with a Basic Skills Challenge – the contestants taking it in turns to hammer in nails. Those bending their nails were eliminated from the first stage of the Challenge, and subsequently whoever missed the nail and hit the wood was also sent to the sidelines. The winners went through to the second round, which involved picking a chair from the storeroom and restoring it. Bob, Christie and Luke made the final round, the White Room Challenge, in which they had to renovate a room and base it around their chair. Luke’s striking monochromatic room secured him the overall win, and he selected the keys to the Inner-City Terrace.

The contestants competed in an Off-Site Challenge, all except for Joanne and Luke, who already held house keys. Split into two Teams – Black and Gold – each worked on renovating houses that carried the same purchase price. Whichever Team was able to add the most value to their house in a day would win their captain (Kathy for the Blacks, Jason H for the Golds) pick of the keys to the remaining houses. The captain of the losing Team would sit out the following Challenge, and have to pick a fellow member to join them. Both Teams produced exceptional results, but the Golds managed to add $30,000 more value to their property. Jason H chose the keys to the Weatherboard, while Kathy selected Bob to join her on the sidelines for the next Challenge.

With another house key up for grabs, the action kicked off with a White Room ‘Car Wars’ Challenge. Teams of three were required to renovate a room based around a car obtained from the wrecker’s yard, incorporating as much of the car into their design as possible. The ideas all showed immense creativity, but it was the Formula One-inspired executive suite produced by Peter, Chris, Lisa, Laura, Tina, Christie and Samantha that won the judges' vote, sending them through to the Basic Skills Challenge. The first round was wallpapering, with Peter, Chris and Lisa the standout performers. The final round saw the trio painting walls, which had to be completed to the judges’ satisfaction. It was a closely fought battle, but Peter narrowly took the win, and selected the keys to the Half-Done House.

With keys for the last two remaining houses up for grabs, the ‘Street Appeal’ Challenge stakes were high. Contestants arrived at the warehouse to find a row full of houses with lifeless facades and dirt yards. Breaking off into pairs and picking houses, the Teams had four hours to transform their property frontage into something appealing to a buyer. With a striking black and white colour scheme, Michael and Fiona were voted the winners by the Challenge’s guest judges – 250 members of the general public. To decide who would get first pick of the remaining keys they competed in a Flat Pack Challenge, won by Michael. He decided to go with the Fibro Cottage, leaving Fiona to take The Shop.

The contestants were informed that a double elimination would be taking place. First they competed in a Basic Skills Challenge, which required estimating the correct length and sawing a replacement table leg, with Barry judging the results. The unsuccessful contestants went through to round 2, a White Room Challenge where the task was to express themselves. As the judging began Phil made a shocking announcement that he would be withdrawing from the competition for personal reasons, leaving only one elimination spot to be decided. The judges gave Christie’s room the nod over Laura's, sending her home. The Renovators’ key holders then took it in turns choosing the renovation teams for their houses.

The teams finally left the warehouse for their houses, but not before learning that when they returned they would need to present their renovation plans, and the team judged to have the most profitable blueprint would be awarded a $10k Bunnings Gift Card. Walking round their respective properties the teams realised the gargantuan task that lay ahead of them, but attacked their renovations with enthusiasm. Once the presentations were done back at the warehouse, the judges announced Jason H’s Green Team as the winner, giving them a massive early advantage in the competition.

At the Warehouse the contestants are introduced to respected Australian Interior Designer, Greg Natale who will be the guest judge for a special coffee table challenge. In their teams the contestants must design a table, using a specific material, to compliment a White Room decorated by Greg. The coffee table that is deemed most original and well suited to Greg’s room wins a working bee on their house, where all the contestants pitch in and renovate for the day. The losing team faces an elimination challenge. The teams design and construct their coffee tables in a tense five hours. Back at the Warehouse they reveal their designs and Greg decides the winner – The Shop team!

The Sixties Suburban Team find themself in a Real Estate Stress Test elimination after losing the Coffee Table Challenge. ‘Team Chris and Tina’ is up against ‘Team Nathan and Joanne’ to guess the market value of a house in Caboolture, QLD. The unfortunate losers, Nathan and Joanne go head to head in round two creating renovation plans on scale models of the same house. With one hour to complete the plans the house deemed most profitable wins. Nathan’s plans get him through and Joanne must hand back the keys to The Sixties Suburban. Back at The Shop the rest of the contestants are happy to see Chris, Tina and Nathan.

There are no challenges! The contestants have some time off so they can relax and soak up the expertise of the judges with a How To masterclass. They see a funky modern bath room, designed by Peter, become a reality with the help of Barry; Robyn takes them through a decorating session, working with the theme of romance; and Peter visits an old style Bungalow home with architecturally designed renovations, sympathetically and cleverly mixing old and new styles.

With Jo eliminated, the remaining members of the Sixties Suburban team competed in a Brick It Wall Challenge to see who would get the keys and take over as head renovator, with an overjoyed Tina taking a surprise win. Contestants then competed in a White Room Challenge, voting on a theme of French chic. They would have five hours to complete their rooms, which would then be judged by French design expert Helen Hargreaves. With a $10k prize up for grabs, the competition was fierce, but despite a valiant performance from the Fibro Cottage team they couldn’t stop Peter's Half-Done House crew taking the win and the valuable prize.

Judgement Day began with Ali announcing her decision to exit the competition, leaving her Fibro Cottage team in disarray. The judges asked her to sleep on it, then return the following day with a decision, but overnight Michael was unable to convince her to stay. The judges visited each of the houses to check on their progress, delighted by some aspects and concerned by others. Returning to the warehouse, the judges revealed that Peter’s team had blown them away with their progress on the Half-Done House, while the Fibro Cottage was bringing up the rear, meaning its team would face elimination.

The Navy Team are up for elimination in a Panic Room Challenge. One member of the team will go home. Michael, Kelly and Jarrad enter three separate rooms left in a mess. It looks like a party gone wild! There is food everywhere, holes in the walls and bright paint colour on the walls. With three hours to clean up and renovate their dining room the boys prove that they have the decorating skills needed. Kelly, described by Brendan as the “wonderful wildcard”, is the unfortunate renovator to go home.

After saying farewell to Kelly, it was back to business as usual in The Renovators warehouse. Brendan introduced the next challenge – ‘Garden Mania’ – in which teams would select a garden theme at random and have five hours to transform a 6x6 metre patch of bare earth into a landscaped wonder. Guest judging the challenge was gardening legend Don Burke and award-winning landscape designer Daniel Baffsky. After a thorough assessment of the results the judges decided that the Orange Team’s Australian Costal Garden and the Grey Team’s Australian Dessert Garden were the standouts, giving the overall win and the Working Bee prize to the Greys. The Mediterranean Garden was considered the most lacking, leaving the Khaki Team facing an Elimination Challenge.

The Khaki Team of Tina, Nathan and Chris arrived at the warehouse ready to face the Real Estate Stress Test that would result in one of them being eliminated. The first round involved the contestants having to research and valuate a house in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood, with the closest to the mark going safely through to fight another day. Meanwhile back at The Shop the remaining contestants took part in the working bee won by the Grey Team’s Garden Mania effort. Chris and Tina then contested the final round of the Elimination Challenge, planning renovations of the Collingwood house on scale models. The judges deemed Tina’s the most profitable, sending Chris home.

The contestants enjoyed a breather at the end of another hard week with a How To Masterclass. Welcoming expert cabinet maker and furniture designer Laura McCusker to the warehouse, Baz conducted a tutorial in how to make use of some of the materials the contestants had thrown away during their renovations. Tina and Nathan were treated to a private Masterclass with Chris Gray, who took them around a multi-million dollar renovation. Robyn then proved that the ‘Aussie Beach’ theme shunned by the majority of the teams in an earlier White Room Challenge has plenty of potential for inspiring results.

The contestants began a new day in the warehouse with a Build It challenge, having to hang pictures with absolute precision in order to win an advantage going into the White Room challenge. Tina and Nathan were the first to complete the task to Baz’s satisfaction, giving them first choice of the ‘hero colours’ each team would need to base its White Room on. Selecting yellow, they made their early advantage count with a beautiful end result that wowed the judges, securing them the win over second-placed Weatherboard’s green room. Tina and Nathan’s prize: $10,000 towards their renovation.

Judgement Day began with the contestants learning that a big prize was on the line for the teams impressing the judges most with their progress - the Top 3 going on to compete in a challenge for a prize of up to $40,000. The judges visited the six houses to check on the status of the renovations, before returning to the warehouse to deliver their verdict. The Fibro Cottage, Sixties Suburban and Weatherboard were selected as the three best performers, with one representative from each team going forward to compete in the Panic Room Reward Challenge for a massive financial advantage.

The Panic Room Reward Challenge began by each team nominating a member to compete: Keenan, Michael and Nathan stepping forward. The prize was revealed to be a pool package, which would boost the worth of the lucky house considerably. The challengers stepped into their rooms, which were offices that looked as if they’d been tipped upside down. In three hours they each had to clear the mess and transform the room into an impressive working space. Michael took the win, giving the Fibro Cottage the pool its team had craved from the beginning. Brendan also revealed that the Sky Blue Team had finally been granted DA approval, freeing them to begin work on the actual Inner City Terrace house itself.

Working within their teams, it's a fun and environmentally friendly challenge for the contestants as they head off to Reverse Garbage in Sydney's Marrickville to create masterpieces from the shops discarded treasures. Each piece, made of recycled materials, is auctioned for charity. The highest bid goes to The Weatherboard team's film negative chandelier winning them a highly valued working bee day. And The Sixties Suburban find themselves in another Stress Test elimination when their recycled wood coffee table is bought for the lowest price.

It's working bee day at The Weatherboard and the contestants arrive at the house in rain to start renovating. The Green Team want to try and progress with their plans as best they can in the conditions. Back at the Warehouse Tina and Nathan from the Sixties Suburban find themselves in a Ground Hog day situation, facing for the third time, a Stress Test elimination. They value a property in NSW and Tina finds herself more than $2K from the market value, meaning Nathan wins the round and gets a 10 minute advantage in the sudden death challenge. Tina loses when her scale model renovations for the property fail to provide a large enough bathroom for the residence.

Before the week’s How To began Fiona dropped a bombshell by withdrawing from the competition due to medical reasons, handing the keys to The Shop over to new team leader August. Peter Ho then took the remaining Grey Team members to an offsite house inspection, while in the warehouse Baz and Brendan led a Masterclass on how to build a stud wall. Robyn then welcomed Taubmans paint representative Shaynna, who helped her explain colour theory to the group.

Peter Ho made a dramatic entrance into the warehouse on a train carrying a cargo of Lego blocks. One member from each team had to compete to see who could build the highest Lego tower in three hours – the winner would get the power to choose which contestant moved across to join Nathan on the Khaki Team. Natalia, Luke, Jarrad, Lisa, Jason H and Nathan fought for the prize, with Nathan taking the win and choosing Suzanne to join him. Robyn then revealed the White Room Challenge and the prize on offer: $10,000 from Taubmans to be spent on painters and painting. Nathan chose the theme – Retro – and the teams got to work recreating the past. The Orange Team took another win, thanks to some impressive styling from Lisa, giving them a serious leg up on the competition.

Judgement Day arrived with the teams all encountering their own stumbling blocks. Suzanne began work at the Sixties Suburban and found it a struggle integrating herself into the new look Khaki Team. The Inner-City Terrace suffered another permit-related setback, while cracks began to show at The Half-Done House, with Kim taking the blame for the deck needing to be rebuilt. Back at the warehouse the judges revealed The Weatherboard to be the week’s standout renovation, winning them two tradies from the Yellow Pages. The Orange Team were not so fortunate, sent through to face an Elimination Challenge.

The Orange Team faced a Panic Room Challenge more punishing than any before it. Entering their rooms they were presented with kitchens from hell, with dirt and debris everywhere. Each of the contestants selected someone to assist them with the ardous tasks at hand. Peter and Lisa demonstrated impressive skills throughout the challenge, while despite her best efforts Kim struggled constructing flat-pack furniture, meaning she wasn't able to fully complete her kitchen within the four-hour time limit. The judges declared Peter’s black and white kitchen with red features to be the most impressive, with Kim falling just short against Bob and being sent home.