Cheap pistes?

[Greg]

Our start-up club is considering using rubber mat runners for strips. Metal ones are just out of the question due to cost and we need something. I found some retailers selling 50'L x 3-4'W of rubber matting at about $180 and up depending on quality. Anyone use these for fencing with or without problems or injuries?

[fencerbill]

Our start-up club is considering using rubber mat runners for strips. Metal ones are just out of the question due to cost and we need something. I found some retailers selling 50'L x 3-4'W of rubber matting at about $180 and up depending on quality. Anyone use these for fencing with or without problems or injuries?

The problem is the width. Anything less than 1.5 meters (~59 inches) means that that the fencing is significantly different than on a full size strip.

Something that I have thought of but never really tried is to use a rubber backed carpet but use it upside down. Thin industrial carpet with rubber backing would do. Second hand carpet would be be useable. Perhaps contacting a company that rents carpet for conventions, etc. If you could find the company and the type of carpet you want, they might even give it to you or sell it real cheap. What would you be putting it over?

[larkmaj]

Our start-up club is considering using rubber mat runners for strips. Metal ones are just out of the question due to cost and we need something. I found some retailers selling 50'L x 3-4'W of rubber matting at about $180 and up depending on quality. Anyone use these for fencing with or without problems or injuries?

We have some carpet strips that we are looking to get rid of. We are considering selling them. Not sure what condition they are in though as I've never actually seen them rolled out. I'm going to take a look at them next week when we do inventory.

[hpfencing]

We have some carpet strips that we are looking to get rid of. We are considering selling them. Not sure what condition they are in though as I've never actually seen them rolled out. I'm going to take a look at them next week when we do inventory.

What size (width) are they and were are you located

[larkmaj]

What size (width) are they and were are you located

From what I understand they are full length and 2m wide. We're in Troy, NY (near Albany) which is a little far. I'm going to take a look at them next week when we'll also figure out what to do with them. I think we'll try and sell them. Our main problem is we don't really have an accessible place to store them, from what I hear they had enough trouble putting them where they are now.

[larkmaj]

Just letting you know that I looked at the carpets today. Check out the Trading Post for information.

[Dax]

Try Plywood. We use plywood pressboard strips at our club, they have great traction.

[darius]

$180? Didn't somebody around here figure out how to make metal strips for about $300?

darius

[Joe biebel]

Our start-up club is considering using rubber mat runners for strips. Metal ones are just out of the question due to cost and we need something. I found some retailers selling 50'L x 3-4'W of rubber matting at about $180 and up depending on quality. Anyone use these for fencing with or without problems or injuries?

Are you planning on using them and leaving them in place (dedicated facility) at your club? What is the floor like (made of) under the mats? The reason I ask is that I bought some new "Olefin" carpeting from Menard's in 6' widths that has tremendous wearability. The texture is great for fencing and the carpet is very light because it has no backing on it. What I did was: Screw one end down into our wood floor, tension it, then screw down the other end. The cost for this carpeting was $0.37 per square foot on sale. The regular price was $0.45 per square foot. This translates to about $105.00-$130.00 each for a 6' X 48' strip. I can post pictures if you are interested.

[Mergs]

$180? Didn't somebody around here figure out how to make metal strips for about $300?

darius

Yup. The information is all over the forum, but basically it is stainless steel mesh, .017" dia wire. Schlager7 has two at Clear Lake Fencing Club.