How to Choose a 7 Foot Pool Table

Choosing the wrong seven-foot pool tablealso known as tournament tablefor your home or bar, can create an unlevel playing surface or have a cheap, unsteady feel. A quality seven-foot table can provide you the opportunity to improve your professional or casual game, or it can help grow your pool-tournament business. Learn to identify a quality tournament table, and you can satisfy yourself as well as your customers.

Instructions

1

Evaluate the legs and rails, and select a table that offers solid-wood construction. Solid wood legs offer stability whereas folding legs or plastic legs might dent, bend and set the table at an uneven angle. Solid wood rails ensure a standard rebound distance during game play.

2

Compare leather, plastic or rubber pockets. Pockets do not affect play, but tournament tables in commercial businesses often have similar pockets regardless of the style whereas leather pockets provide homeowners the highest quality.

3

Compare the thickness and number of the table's slate partitions, and select a mininum thickness of one inch and a three-panel partition model that allows the most precise leveling. The slate partitions make up the entire surface of the pool table, and 2-panel partition models do not offer precise leveling ability. Although 3/4 inch slate offers functional play, it does not offer the stablity and solidity of a standard tournament or high-quality home table.

4

Examine the frame and look for solid-wood construction and a solid-wood center beam with two crossbeams to support the slate. Solid wood provides a solid feel and will affect the stability of the rails that ultimately affect how balls bounce. A center beam and crossbeam construction evenly distributes the weight of the slate and creates a sturdy table.

5

Compare costs. A solid-wood seven-foot pool table costs $1,400 to $3,200.