Shelter is a basic human need. Unfortunately, decent shelter for the masses; the poor have not materialized over the years. The cost of concrete materials in building and civil engineering project has been a concern to the society. These and other things led to the research on biological local materials that are dumped as waste in our environment, causing pollution and congestion as substitute materials. Therefore, this research work was carried out in respect to that and the research work was carried out to determine the use of palm kernel shell as a partial replacement for coarse aggregate in concrete taking into consideration the compressive strength and water absorption capacity. The following tests were carried out; visual test, sieve analysis, specific gravity test, slump test, water absorption test and compressive strength test. The result of water absorption and compressive strength shows that the water absorption capacity of palm kernel shell is normal compared to plain concrete and a replacement of 10% and 25% gave 4.78 N/mm 2 and 4.44 N/mm 2 compressive strengths respectively which cannot be used for light weight structure.

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Nowadays, the natural material as agriculture waste in concrete has been long discussed. Coconut shell is a major agricultural waste that is readily available and can be easily assessed in many countries that are tropical. Coconut shell properties and properties of coconut shell concrete were thoroughly examined and the application as a construction material was evaluated. The linchpin of this study was on the mechanical and physical performance of concrete properties incorporated with coconut shell as a partial replacement for fine aggregate. Concrete incorporated with 10%, 20% and 30% volume fraction replacements for fine aggregate was designed for target strength of 35 MPa to note percentage replacement effects on the structural properties and behavior of the concrete. In total, the compressive and flexural strengths for 72 cubes samples were evaluated in addition to the rate at which cube samples absorbed water. The data obtained were analyzed and discussed. The replacement of coconut shell in volume fractions as fine aggregate in concrete lead to decrease in density, compressive strength and flexural strength with corresponding increase in the absorption properties of concrete as the coconut shell replacement increased. The financial requirement for concrete production decreased as the replacement of coconut shell increased.

Granite Powder (GP) is industrial byproducts generated from the granite polishing and milling industry in powder form. The byproduct is left largely unused and is hazardous materials to human health because they are airborne and can be easily inhaled. GP was used as an additive to the concrete to explore the possibility of increasing the mechanical properties (compressive strength) of the concrete. The slump, compressive strength and water absorption test were performed on fresh and hardened concrete. The addition of GP to concrete to serve as an additive shows an improvement in the compressive strength of the concrete. The highest 3-day compressive strength (23.03 N/mm2) was recorded at 10% GP addition level while the lowest 3-day compressive strength (20.47 N/mm2) was recorded at 2.5% GP addition level.  The highest 28-day compressive strength (28.29 N/mm2) was recorded at 10% GP addition level while the lowest 28 days compressive strength (27.40 N/mm2) was recorded at 2.5% GP addition level. Peak compressive strength of 33.40 N/mm2 was obtained at 56 days when 10% GP was added in the concrete production. The workability of the concrete decreased with increase in GP replacements. Therefore a higher water to cement ratio will be required to maintain a certain level of workability. In conclusion, employing GP as an additive in concrete helped in boosting the mechanical properties of concrete. The GP at 10% addition is the best choice among other concrete mixtures as it is equivalent to grade 30 concrete suitable for producing post tensioned concrete.