Pool tables

Upstatemax · April 1

Anyone else here have a pool table?

When we purchased our house, a pool table was one of the first things we purchased to put in the house.

We loved the table and enjoyed the heck out of it.

The kids came and life took its course, and the table ended up being sold.

Now that the kids are a bit older and other changes, we decided we wanted one again.

We have a larger room off our kitchen that’s intended as a “formal living room”, but it was the original pool table room. It has also been a play room, office, my 2ch room and most recently, a dining room.

After our kitchen remodel and expansion last year, we realized that we literally didn’t use the “dining room” a single time, as most people just congregate around the 11’ island in the new kitchen at this point.

We decided on a 8’ Brunswick Glenwood table, with tapered legs and the black/coffee finish with “regatta blue” felt.

The table is larger than the original 7’ table we had and my wife wanted the ping pong topper as well, so I started looking at the system weight…

The table is about 700lbs, the topper is another 140lbs (I have no idea how the topper is so damn heavy!)

With a system weight of about 840lbs I decided to call a friend that’s an architect. My concern, my house was built with 2x8 joists, and the room has about a 12’ span.

My friend agreed, we needed more support.

The issue, my 2ch room is directly below the future pool table room…

Long story short, I had to rip out the 3’ish year old ceiling in the 2ch room to sister the joists.

Naturally, the nearly 50 year old 2x8’s are also undersized…

I had to rip down all the new 2x8’s to match the existing joist it was being sistered to, then it was glued and used the framing nailer to send roughly 1 million nails into each joist.

Joists are now all sistered and re-did all the blocking. The floor is super solid now!

Now I’m anxiously awaiting the calm from the installer…

…

Toolfan66 · April 2

I would have had a table years ago if our house had the room.

Congrats!!

Tony M · April 2

Nice Pool Table.

Upstatemax · April 2

Yeah, a pool table is pretty large real estate commitment.

It's why we ended up selling our first one when the kids were really little. It took up a lot of room that could have been used for the kids to play and our available time to play as parents of young kids was pretty minimal.

Now that the kids are bigger and we discussed that the only time that room has been consistently used, was when it had a pool table in it, and my wife knew I missed having it.

Can't wait to have one back in the house!

muncybob · April 2

When we put the "game room" addition on our old farmhouse the contractor rightly stated we better reinforce the floor if a table was in the plan...glad he did as we wound up with a Brunswick 9' table with 1" slate bed...talk about heavy! A perk with the sturdy floor is have yet to experience a skip on the turntable when the kids are bouncing around around.
Over the years interest in shooting pool waned as nobody wanted to play me

Anyhow, sold it and replaced with a 18' shuffleboard that levels out the playing field I guess.

Enjoy your table!

motorstereo · April 2

We had one for many years and I just lost interest in it as the years went by. Shortly after I got rid of it I replaced it with another space hog; a pair of khorns. The k's didn't last near as long as the pool table did. Now I have a full size centipedes-millipedes game that I do play occasionally.

Upstatemax · April 4

Heard from the installer today.

The shipping company cracked the slate…

A new set is supposed to deliver this coming week. However, the installer is cautiously optimistic they might be able to install this coming week.

If not, then the week after.

Naturally, it all hinges on the next set arriving safe and sound.

polrbehr · April 4

I always loved playing, but never had the funds or a place to put a table. That changed in 2013, I finished most of a 2 1/2 car garage that was basically a junk room anyway. After the walls/floors/ceiling was done, I ended up getting an 8' table; just could not make a 9' fit (damn lally column

). Also settled for a Spencer Marston, at about $2100 with installation it was top of my budget at the time. It's been a reliable playing table and for the money I can't complain. Had the cloth changed once, it's due again and this time getting new rails too.

And though mine is on a concrete slab, I get the determination to make the floor as solid as possible; last thing you want is any movement. And it's not just the table, you could have 4 - 6 people in the room too, it all adds up.

Upstatemax · April 4

Yeah, the dead load of 850lbs for the table with the live load of people being in the room was a big part of our consideration.

We didn’t want the room to bounce from someone simply walking across the room.

Or worse yet, we all end up on top of the 2ch system below the table!

polrbehr · April 5

Sorry to hear about the slate damage, it sucks waiting but at least it's moving forward. I was unable to use my table for 2 months awhile back so I feel your pain!

Upstatemax · April 6

polrbehr wrote: »

Had the cloth changed once, it's due again and this time getting new rails too.

Are you going to replace the cloth/rails yourself, or having it done professionally?

I replaced the cloth on my first table myself, it wasn't too bad. The rails were time consuming, and it took some time to get them all done Thankfully they were in good shape and I didn't have to full on replace them, just fresh felt.

polrbehr · April 6

I might have tried once upon a time, esp with YouTube help, but I watched the tech when he re-did the existing cloth after fixing a popped seam, and that was the end of any DIY aspirations I might have had. This new cloth is similar in color but it's different enough and so the rails need to be done. And since they're getting done anyway, I went ahead and bought new cushions (I think of the old days of changing the water pump when you do a timing belt LOL). The installer actually takes the rails to his shop to glue them, he said trust him, so I'll do what he thinks is best. He quoted me $450 for the whole job, not including the cloth/cushions I bought already.

invalid · April 6

Upstatemax wrote: »

Yeah, the dead load of 850lbs for the table with the live load of people being in the room was a big part of our consideration.

We didn’t want the room to bounce from someone simply walking across the room.

Or worse yet, we all end up on top of the 2ch system below the table!

Dam, I thought my foosball table at 355lbs was heavy.

Upstatemax · April 7

polrbehr wrote: »

I might have tried once upon a time, esp with YouTube help, but I watched the tech when he re-did the existing cloth after fixing a popped seam, and that was the end of any DIY aspirations I might have had. This new cloth is similar in color but it's different enough and so the rails need to be done. And since they're getting done anyway, I went ahead and bought new cushions (I think of the old days of changing the water pump when you do a timing belt LOL). The installer actually takes the rails to his shop to glue them, he said trust him, so I'll do what he thinks is best. He quoted me $450 for the whole job, not including the cloth/cushions I bought already.

That's a pretty reasonable cost for what has to be done.

My expected issue, the closest tech that's Brunswick certified is about 2hrs away, so I'm probably going to be hit extra fees to travel out to me if I need something. Hopefully I can coordinate a day that they will be somewhere in my area already.

It's part of the reason I went with the tougher, stain resistant "Centennial" cloth, the other part is that I have teenagers in the house.

When I had my first table, I reused the original cloth from the first owner. My thought was that if I'm going to learn, I don't want to learn on new cloth. It also meant that I didn't have to touch the rail cloth, making it a lot easier. After a year, I fully re-felted the table, and changed the cloth color (green cloth to camel cloth). The rails are a bit tricky and cloth is held in place a few different ways, had to take one apart to figure out how mine was done. Once you start wrapping the rail, then you have to be careful that it's tight and smooth, but not too tight and distorting the rail cushion...

At the time, I couldn't really afford to have it done professionally, so I had to learn to do it myself.

Now, I would absolutely just pay the price and have it done professionally. One; it's a lot quicker, and two, if I want to keep my Brunswick warranty in place, all service and setup has to be done by a certified Brunswick tech.

What color cloth is your table sporting?

polrbehr · April 7

Good thinking asking about service calls; I tried to use the company that did the original install/assembly (from NJ) and they told me $700 just to recover the table, and that was 9 years ago. Like WTF, I paid $499 for the entire assembly job, I was told that was subsidized by the table mfr. So I went with another local company - who I also asked about the cloth and rails this time, and the guy never returned my call. Go figure.

I decided to go with Arena cloth (hybrid from Pooldawg) since the cloth I used 9 years ago wasn't available at the time in the color I wanted. The Arena got good reviews and was budget-friendly so I went with In The Money (Tournament) Green. I was this close to getting the blue but they only had 9' and yes it will fit an 8' table but why waste the money? The cloth it's replacing is also green so I'm OK with keeping in the same ballpark - I also use Taom green chalk exclusively so that worked out too.

Hope you post up some pics when the job is done.

Pool tables

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