Basement Pool Room

9Footer

If you play 9 footers get one. The feel of an 8 foot surface doesnt carry over to 7 or 9 foot play. Get a shorter cue if playing off the wall interferes, you will find it isnt a big issue.

I think you only need 19x14 foot space to be safe, sounds like you have that. Good luck. Tom

I have GCIV 9ft in a room 24 x18. I don't think you will be to bad for space I have a gas fire place that eats up space on the length and I still have tons of room. I measured it out on the floor then used my playing cue to check for room before I bought. Just use painters tape to give you a outline of the playing surface it will be pretty accurate.

I would go with the 9. You're not going to have many problems if any. Unless you have a long stroke and you're coming off the rail perpendicular to the wall behind.

icucybe said:

Hello guys,

This is a question for those of you who have a pool table at the house. I was looking online and from what I found a 9ft table requires around 20 x 15ft of space. We have a 19.5 x 14.25ft in the basement. We are looking at Pro Am dimond, etc. Would that space fit nicely a 9ft or should we get a 8ft? What would you guys do or recomend? Is a lot of money...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billiard_room
http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/table.html#size

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Buy the 9' table. A clearance problem (if any) would only be a straight cross table shot if the CB is hugging the side rail.
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go with the 8 footer

i built a room addition once for a bar table i poured the slab 14 feet wide not thinking about the 4 inch thick walls, i was forever dissapointed, there is nothing worse than being cramped and trying to play pool. everytime you get to a critical point in the game, you go to shoot and the butt of your cue hits that wall. it ruins your game. the room i have now, i made it big enough. its 24 by 28 for a 8 foot table.

from diamond

This is the space diamond recomends.

Nine foot table: 4.5' x 9'
(Playing area: 50" x 100")
Minimum Room Size: 14' x 18'


you should be fine

No.

There is a lot of misinformation out there. Here is a thread I started on this topic a few months ago when I was house-hunting: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=308212

In short, you do not have enough room to play comfortably on a 9 footer. If you are looking at a Diamond pro-am, you are probably a serious player who would not be happy if you couldn't take a full stroke off the rails.

There are a few options:

1) Buy a smaller table.

2) Buy a 9 footer, but position it off-center in the room. If you move it a few inches to one side, you would have enough space to use a full cue on three rails and be required to use a short cue on the fourth rail.

3) Expand the room / find a bigger room.

4) Buy the 9 footer and accept the fact that you will not have enough room to take a full stroke if the cue ball is frozen to the long rail.

For what it's worth, I was talking to the Diamond delivery guys a couple of weeks ago and they recommended having seventeen (17) feet of width to ensure that you have no issues whatsoever. That's really hard to find in a residence though.

icucybe said:

This is exactly why I started the thread! I heard this before and I know I am very close from hitting the minimum requirements so I wanted to see opinions from those of you with 9ft tables in similar areas. This is a town house basement with exterior access and the area for the table is 19.75 x 14.25ft.

I am thinking I should be good with the 19.75 lengh. Is that correct? I am hoping the 14.25 dont affect much. One of the walls on the left side is a closet so that helps. There is more room in the basement but is occupied.

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Your length should be workable. Do you have anything in that space that would interfere with your cue or stance? Pillars, wall molding, window treatments, pictures on the wall, spectator chairs, etc.? To the extent those items are temporarily movable, that would be good. For example, buy lightweight bar stools as your spectator chairs so you can easily slide them out of the way for a shot.

Your width is tight for a 9 footer. It's really hard to know how that will affect you until you try it. Are you going to use the table primarily for practice? Social play? Competitive play? If it's primarily for practice, I like the idea of getting a 9 foot table and placing it a little off-center in the room. With full access to three rails, you can set up every possible shot on the table.

My space is 15' 3" wide (so a foot wider than yours) and I have a 9 foot Diamond Pro-Am that was just installed. I haven't had a chance to play on it yet -- right now it is covered over for painting that is going on in the house. Once that finishes I can report back. I am cautiously optimistic that I'll have enough room for a full stroke but I am a little worried for shots off the rail. The Diamond guys doing the installation felt the same way - probably enough room but just barely. With 14.25 feet I know that you won't have room for a full stroke with a full cue, but the sixty-four thousand dollar question is how often will those shots come up, and how bothersome will they be?

I have a 9 foot table and my width is 14 feet 2 inches. When the cue ball is on the rail and you have to shoot straight across the table you have to shorten your backstroke. My cue is 59 inches. IMO you will be just fine and even though it's a little tight no one here has ever had to use a short cue. I used to have a pro 8 and yes it had more room but the nine footer is worth it.

JC

I have an 8. That's the largest that would fit... It works though.

If a 9 footer fits, get it.

my 9' is in a 14.5x19 and I have plenty of room.

JC said:

I have a 9 foot table and my width is 14 feet 2 inches. When the cue ball is on the rail and you have to shoot straight across the table you have to shorten your backstroke. My cue is 59 inches. IMO you will be just fine and even though it's a little tight no one here has ever had to use a short cue. I used to have a pro 8 and yes it had more room but the nine footer is worth it.

JC

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That is good to know. It really bothers me that the table manufacturers don't also list room sizes accounting for a full stroke. Diamond, Brunswick, and Olhausen all say that 14x18 is the minimum room size for a 58 inch cue, but that assumes no backstroke. It's misleading, especially when there is such a big purchase at stake. I literally bought my house based on the dimensions for a 9 footer.

My room is only like 14 feet 7 inches wide. You do hit the wall occasionally . Of course it always seem you hit the wall on a big shot. What pisses me off the most is I built the house with the intention of having a pool room in the basement. My builder assured me it would fit. I shou;d have extended the wall so fit 15 plus feet of width.

I'd get a 9 footer and deal with hitting the wall its not that bad.

TSW said:

... My space is 15' 3" wide (so a foot wider than yours) and I have a 9 foot Diamond Pro-Am that was just installed. I haven't had a chance to play on it yet -- right now it is covered over for painting that is going on in the house. Once that finishes I can report back. I am cautiously optimistic that I'll have enough room for a full stroke but I am a little worried for shots off the rail. ...

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You should be fine if you use a normal-length cue. 15'3" is 183". The playing surface is 50" wide. That leaves 133" ÷ 2 = 66½" on each side of the playing surface if you center the table. With a standard 58½" cue (allowing ½" for the tip and bumper), for example, you have 8" for a backswing perpendicular to the long rail if the cue is perfectly level. Since a cue is normally elevated a bit in back when the OB is on the cushion, you have even a tad more than 8" for a backswing.

As for the OP -- with just 14'3" of width, a centered 9' table would leave only about 2" for a backswing perpendicular to the long rail with the OB against the cushion. My preference in that situation, if I played on 9-footers outside the home, would be to still get the 9-footer but to offset it about 4" - 6" from the room center line on one side of the table. Then I would never have a problem on 3 sides of the table, and could use a shorter stick when necessary on the one compromised side.

AtLarge said:

You should be fine if you use a normal-length cue. 15'3" is 183". The playing surface is 50" wide. That leaves 133" ÷ 2 = 66½" on each side of the playing surface if you center the table. With a standard 58½" cue (allowing ½" for the tip and bumper), for example, you have 8" for a backswing perpendicular to the long rail if the cue is perfectly level. Since a cue is normally elevated a bit in back when the OB is on the cushion, you have even a tad more than 8" for a backswing.

As for the OP -- with just 14'3" of width, a centered 9' table would leave only about 2" for a backswing perpendicular to the long rail with the OB against the cushion. My preference in that situation, if I played on 9-footers outside the home, would be to still get the 9-footer but to offset it about 4" - 6" from the room center line on one side of the table. Then I would never have a problem on 3 sides of the table, and could use a shorter stick when necessary on the one compromised side.

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Thanks -- this is what I am thinking too. The reason I like even more space is because there are nearly always small things in the way that you don't think about. For example, one wall of my room has a window. That window has a shade, which sits about an inch or two off the wall. If you are cutting your room so close that every inch matters, a little thing like a window shade can get in the way. icucybe mentioned that he has a closet in the room. A closet usually comes with a doorframe and a door knob, each of which reduces the space in the room by a little bit.

Granted, these are all very minor issues that most people wouldn't think twice about. But if you are a serious player, the last thing you want is an obstructed shot at a key moment. At the least, you should know about that risk before buying a table.

I have a 9' table in a room that's a bit less than 20' x 16' 6" with a half wall (and staircase) on one side. When I first put it in, I had it shifted over to make room for chairs on the full-wall side. It was just close enough to the half wall to make it a nuisance (especially for guests), so I ended up moving it over by about 3 inches towards the chairs, which are low enough not to come into play. My point in mentioning that is to show that when it comes to space for a backstroke, inches matter.

My advice would be to get a table that fits your space with room for a full stroke off the rail. If nothing else, your guests will appreciate it. I would only try to fit a 9' table in if you plan to use it as a personal practice table 95% of the time and don't mind the inconvenience of using a shorty cue or bumping the wall.