Strength and dimensional stability of cement-bonded wood waste-sand bricks

Conservation of trees which belong to renewable natural resources in developing countries through judicious utilization in building industry has been seriously left unattended to over the years. The utilization of this unprocessed wealth materials which could serve as one of the alternative constituents in construction materials is now a global concern. Therefore, the needs to investigate the strength and water sorption property of wood waste as a partial replacing material in brick production for building construction arise. Sawdust, sand and cement were mixed together at three different mixing ratios of 1 : 1 : 1, 1 : 1 : 2 and 1 : 1 : 3. The brick samples were replicated three times and subjected to water absorption, density and compressive strength tests. The results show that the effect of the equal volume of sand and sawdust with a subsequent increase in the cement portion at each mixing ratio level gave compact bricks without sudden fracture, reduced unit weight of bricks and subsequent lower water sorption properties of the bricks. The bricks show potentials to be used for wall partitioning. The introduction of sawdust also serves as partial sand replacement in concrete brick making.