After a number of years without a table at all, my wife and I may have agreed on a path forward. To work, we need to get a table that realistically converts to a dining table, and must look like nice furniture. For me it must be a nice table as well, 8' or preferably 9'.
After a lot of web surfing, Canada Billiard's La Condo Louts looks like a possibility. If we have it made without the curved board under the table, it has an acceptably thin profile (about 7.25"), and if we drop it one inch from standard (which puts it up about 1-2" from a dining table and add slightly taller chairs, sitting at it is comfortable. If I can talk her into the plain La Condo it's just slightly under 7" (and a lot cheaper but plain looking).
We visited a dealer and my wife was surprisingly happy with how it looked and felt. Hurdle one passed. We are rearranging furniture and putting outlines on the floor in tape to see if that works; more work on that hurdle.
Let's assume for the moment that as a dining table it can work for us, some questions:
1) How is Canada Billiards in terms of pool table quality? Do they play well? Do they age well and stay square and true?
2) Has anyone specifically tried a La Condo Lotus, or plain La Condo? Opinions/experience?
3) How is Canada Billiards to deal with if something later goes wrong, or we need a replacement part, etc? I am particularly concerned as I started by asking for a dealer contact on their web site and never heard anything back; just found dealers online. Weird for a company depending on sales.
4) Hoping it is OK to ask about specific retailers: We are considering two roughly equally distant retailers, Robertson Billiards in Tampa and Boynton Billiards in Boynton Beach. Both are CB dealers, but seem to have substance and duration, both say they use their own staff for installs and regularly install in this area. Does anyone have feedback on them, especially with regard to the quality of installation and setup?
And finally:
5) Are there other brands that are worth looking at?
With regard to the latter, we have seen some about half the price, but generally these have been pretty thick -- basically a regular table with wood on top. This makes for a 9" or more thick table that is quite awkward to sit under -- you cannot use a higher chair without hitting your knees, and so your food is up too high. A real requirement for us is getting 7" thick or less. It's also VERY hard online to find this measurement, running around with a tape measure at a dealer is all I can do so far.
Note Fusion had some thin tables but are only in 7' lengths, and not interested in those. At least they responded to an inquiry on their web site!
And of course, any general advice is always welcomed.
After a lot of web surfing, Canada Billiard's La Condo Louts looks like a possibility. If we have it made without the curved board under the table, it has an acceptably thin profile (about 7.25"), and if we drop it one inch from standard (which puts it up about 1-2" from a dining table and add slightly taller chairs, sitting at it is comfortable. If I can talk her into the plain La Condo it's just slightly under 7" (and a lot cheaper but plain looking).
We visited a dealer and my wife was surprisingly happy with how it looked and felt. Hurdle one passed. We are rearranging furniture and putting outlines on the floor in tape to see if that works; more work on that hurdle.
Let's assume for the moment that as a dining table it can work for us, some questions:
1) How is Canada Billiards in terms of pool table quality? Do they play well? Do they age well and stay square and true?
2) Has anyone specifically tried a La Condo Lotus, or plain La Condo? Opinions/experience?
3) How is Canada Billiards to deal with if something later goes wrong, or we need a replacement part, etc? I am particularly concerned as I started by asking for a dealer contact on their web site and never heard anything back; just found dealers online. Weird for a company depending on sales.
4) Hoping it is OK to ask about specific retailers: We are considering two roughly equally distant retailers, Robertson Billiards in Tampa and Boynton Billiards in Boynton Beach. Both are CB dealers, but seem to have substance and duration, both say they use their own staff for installs and regularly install in this area. Does anyone have feedback on them, especially with regard to the quality of installation and setup?
And finally:
5) Are there other brands that are worth looking at?
With regard to the latter, we have seen some about half the price, but generally these have been pretty thick -- basically a regular table with wood on top. This makes for a 9" or more thick table that is quite awkward to sit under -- you cannot use a higher chair without hitting your knees, and so your food is up too high. A real requirement for us is getting 7" thick or less. It's also VERY hard online to find this measurement, running around with a tape measure at a dealer is all I can do so far.
Note Fusion had some thin tables but are only in 7' lengths, and not interested in those. At least they responded to an inquiry on their web site!
And of course, any general advice is always welcomed.
