Pinex board in NZ: what is it, and does it contain asbestos?

What is Pinex board?

Pinex was the brand N.Z. Forest Products used for boards made from pine wood fibre at its Penrose plant. The best-known is softboard: a light, soft, insulating sheet, usually around 12 mm thick, that takes a drawing pin with no effort. It went up as ceiling tiles, often with a bevelled edge or a pattern of small holes, and as wall linings in bedrooms, sleepouts, school rooms and offices. The company later made hardboards under the same family of brands. Today "Pinex" is used loosely for any soft board or soft ceiling tile, and the name itself is now on CHH Woodproducts' outdoor timber range, which is a different product altogether.

Does Pinex contain asbestos?

The board itself, no: Pinex is pine wood fibre, not an asbestos-cement sheet. The catch is that the name gets applied to anything soft-looking on a ceiling. WorkSafe lists ceiling tiles and textured ceilings among the places asbestos is commonly found in New Zealand homes, so test a tile or coating before you remove it.

Three things can carry asbestos where people expect Pinex. First, ceiling tiles that look similar but are a different material: WorkSafe's list of common asbestos locations includes "ceiling tiles" and "textured ceiling" (WorkSafe, Where asbestos can be found). Second, a textured or sprayed finish applied over the softboard, which is a separate material from the board under it. Third, fibre-cement sheet used in the same house, in wet areas, eaves and hot water cupboards, which can look similar once painted. For those, see asbestos in soffits, cladding and wallboard and asbestos in ceilings.

How do you tell Pinex from asbestos-cement sheet?

Feel, weight and the edge. Pinex softboard is light, slightly springy and soft enough to dent with a fingernail; a drawing pin pushes in by hand. The edge, where you can see one at a manhole or a light fitting, is brown and fibrous like compressed cardboard. Fibre-cement is heavy, hard, and grey right through, with no fibrous brown core; a pin will not go in, and a knuckle tap sounds hard rather than dull. Plasterboard is a third option, with paper faces and a chalky white core: see does GIB board contain asbestos?.

Don't break a piece off to check. Look at an edge that already exists, and leave sampling to a surveyor if the answer matters for the job.

How much does Pinex softboard cost in NZ now?

New softboard is still sold in New Zealand, just not under the Pinex name. The prices below were checked on 1 November 2026 and include GST.

Worked example: lining a 3 × 3 m ceiling (9 m²) with new softboard takes four 2440 × 1220 sheets (2.98 m² each, so three is just short), about $231 at the PlaceMakers price. Patching a damaged ceiling with matching recycled 1200 × 600 tiles costs $6 a tile, which is why recycled yards are the usual first stop when an old Pinex ceiling has a water stain. Mitre 10 lists IBS softboard and pegboard too, but showed no price for plain softboard sheet when we checked.

Can I remove or replace a Pinex ceiling myself?

If a test shows no asbestos in the tiles or any coating on them, softboard is ordinary building waste and pulling it down is a dusty, ordinary job. If anything tests positive, the rules change: removing asbestos is licensed work when anyone is paid to do it, and a homeowner working on their own house still has to handle and dispose of it safely. See can I remove asbestos myself? and where to dispose of asbestos.

One $249 test covers a surveyor visit and one sample, with extra samples at $85 each at the same visit (how that compares with other asbestos testing costs in NZ). A ceiling tile and the coating on it are two samples. If the result is positive and you want it gone, ask for a fixed removal quote.