Permanently affixing copper strips to floor - best practices?

[campb1pr]

Ok - we are looking for the best way to permanently affix our two copper strips to the floor of our fencing gym. The facility is an old high school gym that had a worn out wood floor (the floor guys wouldn't refinish it any more because the sanding would have worn through parts of it) that has a 3/8 inch rubber sport floor glued on top of it (Kiefer Floors Tuff-Roll). The university bought the high school, and the fencing club ended up with the old auxiliary gym, at which point the rubber was put down. We have two medium old copper strips (ca. 1996), and have been trying to keep them down with duct and gaff tape for a year, but the design of the gym means a lot of traffic back and forth across the strips, and the edges have started to buckle, and fold like little accordians! Each time the strip is restretched laterally across the width, and tape applied, it compacts back in a couple of weeks.

So, what is the best way to get these things to stay permanently? (or I guess I should say semi-permanently, since I will need to take them up periodically to fix holes) There is no need to worry about harming the floor beneath, so we can screw/nail/staple things into it.

I was thinking 3 or 4 inch wood screws with 1 inch washers, countersunk into the rubber floor a bit, and then taped over with gaff or duct tape. Any thoughts?

ps - yes, I did search the fora, and found nothing.
pps - yes, I know that copper strips are old school and old tech, and we should get nice new tech strips, but we have these, and they are paid for, and there is no $$$ for new strips.

[CvilleFencer]

The first thing that would come to mind for me is to get some metal stripping/edging. Maybe even something like an upside down carpet strip to grip the edges of the piste better. Lay that around the corners of each strip and sink the edging into the floor similar to what you describe.

The catches/issues that come immediately to mind would be getting the screws close enough to spread out the pressure to keep the copper from tearing and to keep the strips taunt as you put the stripping down. If that is the way you decide to go give me a call as I may have a couple of ideas for materials and implementation.

[brtech]

I have no experience with this: all I've ever had to deal with is gaff tape edge.

I don't think screws with washers are going to work. The holes will elongate I think, and the screw head will stick up through the tape.

Instead, consider purchasing some ply/strand/MDF boards, cut them narrower than the strip, wrap the edges around the boards, and then screw down with countersunk screws. You still may get some elongation of the holes, but it might be much less of a problem if the copper is wrapped under the board edge.

[SJCFU#2]

You might consider reinforcing both ends and using turnbuckles to tension the strips lengthwise, then putting metal stripping down along each side as CvilleFencer suggested. That way the turnbuckles help to stretch the strip out flat and the strips merely serve to keep the edges from curling up.

The downside is that you would probably have to fit eye-bolts or anchor D-rings to the floor for the turnbuckles to connect with and those could become a tripping hazard (especially if you have a lot of traffic through the room).