TIMBERCRETE (SAWDUST BRICK)

Abstract

The majority of abandoned wood sawdust wastes is accumulated from the countries all over the world and causes certain serious environmental problems and health hazards. According to Taylor and Warnken (2008), disposal of timber products creates various environmental impacts especially in urban area. Commercial and industrial wastes, construction and demolition activities, pallets and packaging; and utilities are the main sources of urban wood wastes. Hence, to reduce to waste of sawdust, this project will recycle the sawdust wastes to produce timbercrete. This is a parametric experimental study which investigates the potential use of sawdust brick suitable for the production of lightweight bricks and low-cost composite as a building material. The ingredients used in the mix were cement, sawdust, lime, water-proofing compound, sand and water. Physical and mechanical properties of concrete mixes having different ratio of sawdust wastes. The obtained strength test and water absorption test values the relevant international standards. The reduces of the unit weight dramatically and introduces smother surface compared to the current sand bricks in the market. The finding of the research is the experiments that will be made achieve what we want and the product can use as commercial industrial material to build buildings in Malaysia. It shows a potential to be used for walls, wooden board substitute, economically alternative to concrete blocks, ceiling panels, sound barrier panels. We suggested that the equipment for the project is sufficient so that we can finish our project earlier than the due date.