Steel is one of the main materials that are often used for reinforced concrete,
but lately, steel has had an expensive price. Also, the use of steel is very limited in
the construction industry. Therefore, the selection of alternative materials was
carried out. One of the interesting materials to use is bamboo. Bamboo is one of the
natural materials that is often used as a construction material in developing
countries. With low prices and the availability of bamboo which is easily found in
Indonesia, bamboo can be an alternative to reinforced concrete.
For make bamboo stronger, admixture or special treatment for bamboo can be
done. One of the methods used in this research is to apply a surface coating to
bamboo. The surface coating that is used for this research consists of araldite, coal
tar, and epoxy resin. In this research, a flexural strength test was carried out for each
bamboo reinforced beam.
From the test, the result obtained for the deflection and the loads up to the first
crack, for bamboo reinforced beams without surface coating or plain can withstand
43.145 kN with a deflection of 165 mm, for bamboo reinforced beams with araldite
surface coating can withstand 54.912 kN with a deflection of 192 mm, for bamboo
reinforced beams with epoxy resin coating can withstand 49.028 kN with a
deflection of 165 mm, and for bamboo reinforced beams with coal tar coating it can
only withstand 25.495 kN with a deflection of 64 mm.