Physical and Mechanical Properties of Composite Fiber Boards for Wall Surface Finishing

The housing deficit situation in Ghana keeps worsening each day, this is partly due to the rise in cost of construction materials like cement, sand, roofing sheets etc. The development of alternative local construction materials that will cut down the quantities of these components needs much attention. Two different composite boards made from the combination of cement, sand, sawdust and coconut fibers on one hand and cement, sand, sawdust and rubber fibers on the other hand. Physical properties of the boards such as density, water absorption, scrubbing, fire resistance and retaining of moisture were evaluated after the boards were made. Mechanical properties like the dropping (impact) and flexural bending were also investigated into. The physical properties that were obtained from the boards were consistent with the ASTM C1186-08 2012 standards. The boards made from the rubber fibers performed better with respect to the Flexural Bending test and the drop test.