The sand was dried and sieved to obtain appropriate sizes (
2.0 mm) and as for the coconut fiber, it
was treated by washing treatment. It was firstly immersed
in water and then washed repeatedly in running
tap water until the color of the water changes from darke
r to lighter color. Then the fiber was dried in
solar radiation. The washing
treatment was done for several times to
make sure that all of the impurities
in the fiber were removed. Treated and untreated fibe
rs the were crushed using the crushing machine to
obtain an average length of fiber (20
mm). Cement, coconut fiber (treated and untreated), water and sand
were weighed according to the ratio tabulated in Table 1.