*Advice needed for poential business idea*

[Toppy]

Hi Guys/girls
I'm currently running a reasonably successful flooring company supplying and fitting carpets/vinyls etc.
I get a lot of enquiries from people wanting inexpensive solutions for factory/warehouse flooring, this needs to be really tough at a cost effective price, I saw a Facebook reel where a guy split the tread off of a car tyre and used a number of them laid flat side by side in the back of his pick up...... this got the cogs turning!!
I've split the rubber rim off the tyre and just have the tread, my problem is that uk tyres have the wire mesh running through them.
Here's my problem! I would need the tread to lay completely flat, as it is at the moment it does lay flat but it's kinked all the way down as its natural memory has always being circular.
My idea is to heat it up (using steam) and send it through a mangle or something simular to hopefully flatten the rubber as well as the steel mesh. Has anyone got any other ideas that could potentially be better? I've tried putting weight on them but they won't have none of it! I'll attach a picture to give a better understanding, I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to get them to lay completely flat to a floor. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Chris

 

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[Oso]

Hey.

My knowledge here is limited to next to 0 in this field. Having said that, this reminded me of a FB video I saw a few months ago. There's a woman in Kenya (I believe) who started a huge tire recycling facility. They use the recycled material to do exactly what you're describing: flooring. Specifically, they use theirs in parks, playgrounds, driveways, etc. so I imagine you could use them for something like this.

If you haven't already, could you potentially call around to any facilities such as these (I know they're everywhere as at one point I had considered this type of business) and see if you can strike up a bulk deal? It'd cut out a tremendous amount of labor on your end, and again, if memory serves, the "bricks" they were creating cost next to nothing, but were good for 10+ years, despite being in high traffic/"abused" areas.

Cheers.