Abstract
The rising cost of building materials in Nigeria has made it necessary to source for cheaper and locally available materials to be used in construction. Palm kernel shell (PKS) obtained from the seed of oil palm tree in the western and southern part of the country is in great abundance in such quantity that it possesses environmental threat in waste management. In this paper, the behavior of floor finish made with PKS (termed Kernelrazzo) as a replacement for coarse aggregate was studied for thermal conductivity, water absorption and impact resistance by varying the percentages of PKS, marble chippings and granite dust. The concrete floor finish was exposed to 2.5–5.0% concentration of NaCl (Sodium Chloride) solution for seven days to simulate the expected service conditions of houses built along the coastline of the country. It was revealed that the thermal conductivity decreased as the percentage of PKS increases, the water absorption increased with increasing percentage of PKS while the impact resistance decreased with increasing percentage of PKS. The optimum replacement level of PKS was found to be 20% in combination with 30% granite dust and 50% marble chippings.