InexBoards

Bad Experience & Poor Customer Service – Installed UBIQ MAXIDECK boards in 2017. Since then boards cracked and also de-laminated and failed to the extent that there was a high risk of falling through. Sent enquiry to UBIQ along with photos - no response at all. Same experience as others! Very disappointed as product is no longer available and has to be replaced with another high BAL rated product. How can we get recompense?

Decomposing deck- Went to DoFT – Not sure why this company is allowed to continue making money with other products but will not abide by their warranty or claims on their web site. “ UBIQ’s innovative technology has been developed with the aim of producing a 'world’s best' building board. This aim is now complete.” I don’t think that it is fair to just remove this faulty… Read more

product from their range without being accountable to the warranty claims stated in their documents.

I purchased this product in November 2017. My builder installed it to the product installation manual (including first coat painting all sides of each board and cuts).

Deck looked great for 4 years until noticeable cracks at screw locations. In October 2021 I noticed 2 boards failing and contacted the company for replacement as per the conditions stated on their 10 year warranty document.

They said that - ————————————————————- UBIQ Pty Limited was placed into Voluntary Administration on the 21st December 2018 and warranty claims arising from actions of the Company prior to that date should be referred to the Voluntary Administrators, BCR Advisory. And

Notwithstanding the completion of the DOCA, you may still have the possibility of making a claim of any product fault with your retailer, if the problem has arisen within the conditions provided by that retailer. ————————————————————

The company I bought the materials from has since closed down.

I contacted Department of Fair Trading who said that they were unable to get a result from the supplier (they called to discuss rather then replying in email).

Not sure what to do next..

I think I have been the only person to complain to the Department of Fair trading. Maybe more complaints might get a result?

We don’t use the deck anymore due to fear of falling through. Currently try to source funds to have the deck replaced…

Product FAILED AGAIN and lots of time and money wasted – We bought our house in late September 2016. One of the features of the house being in a bushfire prone area in the Northern Rivers of NSW was the Ubiq Inex Decking boards used over 2 large decks, one smaller deck and a set of front entry feature stairs. The selling agent told us that the boards were fireproof as they were made from a fiber cement… Read more

product. They also would require less maintenance then a timber deck.

About two and a half months latter I fell straight through the deck when one of the decking boards just snapped. A few weeks latter I did the same. At the time I was only 6 months post serious back surgery and I was lucky not to have broken a leg or re injured my back.

We managed to get the Queensland Sales Manager (at the time) and an other company representative look at our deck in January 2017 and in a long way around it was acknowledge that the product had failed and they would replace it.

After almost 6 months of constantly pestering the company we finally managed to get 4 packs of boards (432 individual boards) sent to use free of charge.

Over the following 6 months, when weather permitted, through a team effort we replaced the decking boards. My wife took responsibility for staining and sealing the boards. The first process was to wash off any dust and powder from each board then after they had dried she brushed each board down. Then each board was enveloped with greywash paint, purchased from a supplier recommended by Ubiq. She then individually stained the boards and then each board was coated with a deck protect sealer. In the meantime I worked with a builder to remove all the old boards, check and level all the joists and add additional joists at 300mm intervals on high traffic areas and on all stairways. We then laid down and secured the boards as per the Ubiq specifications. After the boards were down my wife gave all the decks an additional coat of an anti slip sealer. As much as we got free boards the process to redo the decks took a huge amount of our time and the expense of a builder and about $3,000 worth of greywash, stains and sealers.

Fast forward to the 31st of August, 2021 and the photos below are pretty self explanatory. My Grandson, all 71 kilos of him fell through the deck. Could of broken a leg, could have done all sorts of damage and now we have unusable and dangerous deck again!! To me it is as if the board has just dried out and has become brittle and weak. It certainly appears on our decks that the boards exposed to more direct weather deteriorate faster then boards that are under cover. The product obviously is not suitable for an outside deck and that’s what decks are all about.

Looking at Ubiq’s current product range I see that the boards are gone. I had tried on quite a few occasions to get in touch with people at Ubiq but have got nowhere. I wonder what would happen if someone fell through one of their decks and was rendered a quadriplegic? They do/did guarantee their products for 10 years but how can you make a claim when no one will return a call or answer an email? They certainly can’t replace the product with like for like as this product has now been removed from their product range. I guess this says it all !!! Anyone got any ideas or made any progress in making a claim?

This material is rubbish - dangerous due to the continual breakage – Installed 5 years ago around my pool and general decks. Interesting to read the other reviews here, that show it lasts a couple of years at best. Extremely disappointed in this rubbish and too frightened to walk on it, so we dont use the deck. Was recommended to use this by the licensed builder, who had installed it himself. He carefully kept to… Read more

the specifications published, including coating all sides and edges prior to installation. Was swayed by the level of recycled material in its construction, this may be part of the problem. I have recoated the deck every year with the recommended coating, which is expensive. It looked great for about 2 years, now has gone granular and powdery - the reinforcing mesh is exposed in many places. Cement based material has washed out the sides of the boards leaving voids and lowering the strength. It obviously does not suit being exposed to weather, which is the point of a deck really. Boards I have removed show transverse cracking across the underside surface, which logically is in tensile force when weight is applied between the joists. I can conclude that one failure mode results from the mesh not providing sufficient resistance to prevent the cement-based material going into tension at its surface, thus allowing crack propagation and the board matrix separating at relatively low forces. My engineering background should have alerted me to this potential and logical failure mode, but I was guided by the information sheet and the builder that it would work well. Frankly, composite materials are always risky, unless they are produced to aircraft industry standards of engineering and testing. Due to the lack of substance and strength, it has broken across most of the installed areas, cracking at the joists and randomly mid way between the joists. My wife and I have numerous injuries from falling through the decking - it has become a very dangerous situation. The decking I have pulled out and thrown into the garbage comes apart in my fingers. Foolishly, I replaced broken boards with the same product, increasing the supports. No more will be installed. Will have to bite the bullet and replace all of it with proper decking material. But will have to be more careful this time in the selection. This experience has made me unwilling to be the product tester for any composite materials. I am installing extra supports in many locations to try to hold it together in the meantime. Effectively reducing the joist spacing from 450mm, as recommended, down to 225 mm. I am not seeing any decent contact point for Inex product and it appears to be discontinued, so we must conclude this is a failed and dangerous product, not suited to Australia or indeed, anywhere it is exposed to weather. I feel robbed frankly, but unsure of where to go for remediation.

Please - don't use it. Or if you have, please install extra supports for your safety.