for those whose home rooms are a SMIDGE too small....

I've not had a table in a room too small, but I've played on them and it gets old fast. But in your case if you are willing to put it in the garage you have a satisfactory plan B if it doesn't work out for you in the house. Of course there are considerations with a garage as well, like climate control etc.

Naturally, that assumes you would be happy with an 8 footer if you were going to install a table in the garage to begin with.

Best of luck on your decision.

You have to learn to play better position to keep the cue ball in the middle of the table and off the rails.

enjoy a 7 footer or be depressed with the 8 footer. thats life. move or go for the 7 foot.

Do MAJOR surgery (like me) and get a 9'er!:wink:
Or...... get the 7'.

It is very annoying (for me anyways) to have to grab a short cue or end up banging the butt of my cue on the wall. I would rather play on a 6 foot British 8 ball table than be reaching for a short cue.



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To figure how much space you need, do the math yourself.

The playing area of an 8' table is 44"x88". A standard cue is 58", plus 1/2" for the rubber bumper at the bottom. If the CB is on the rail you will need about another 4" of backswing space. So the width you need is...

44" + 58.5" + 58.5" + 4" + 4" = 169" (14' 1")

canadave said:

I just bought a new house and am looking at getting a pool table. There are just two options as to where to put it: the detached garage outside, and a room inside the house. The inside room is of course infinitely preferable. The only problem is that although the room has plenty of length, it's only 12 feet 8 inches wide. I really don't want a 7-foot table--was really looking at getting a 4x8 table.

So I see the minimum room width recommended for full-length cues is 13 feet 4 inches. Obviously I'm just a tad small by that measure--about 4 inches each side. For those that have gone ahead with a 4x8 table under these "just a little too small" conditions, how has that worked out? I don't want to be using a 52" short cue too much.

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For many, the minimum recommendations are already at the "a tad too small" dimensions. I had a room slightly wider than yours and it was a tad too small for the 7'. And 8' would have driven me crazy.

Freddie <~~~ was crazy enough

canadave said:

it's -30C outside, I want to go play pool, so I turn up the thermostat in the garage, and that radiant heater kicks in and quickly heats the garage to a comfy room temperature.

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No, it really doesn't. If you are talking about a in-floor radiant system, those have very large thermal mass, and heat and cool slowly. If you are talking about a free-standing radiant heater, those heat things, not air. So, turn on the heater and aim at yourself, and let the air stay cool. Either way, that slate is going to be cold for a long time after you kick in the heater.

To bring a 44" x 88" by 1" thick slate, at -30°C up to 20°C, would take 1.2 kWh of heat. For a 1500 Watt heater, that's 46 minutes. For JUST the slate, the floor is even worse.

Thermal expansion (lengthwise) for that change is roughly 1/32".

Thank you kindly.

Man I hate playing with a short cue. You might make shots but you never hit it right, the taper is always just different enough not to feel right. If a 7' fits right I'd just go with that one, but that's just me, I know some of you guys have a real aversion to bar tables. Think of it this way, if you wanna play basketball sometimes you have to play in your driveway or at the local gym, you can't always play at the Staple Center or Madison Square Garden.

I would think this is generally a bad idea, because nothing involved in this equation was engineered to be used at the temperatures you are talking about. Adhesives for the rails, the rails themselves, the bolt mounts holding them in, I can see them all slowly failing over time if submitted to constant temperature cycling. I would look at the cost of keeping the garage constantly up to temp compared to the cycling, it might actually be cheaper in the long run, depending on the level of insulation you have.

canadave said:

So you're saying there shouldn't be too much heating/cooling contraction/expansion damage to the wood/table?

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NO. I am not saying anything of the kind! I have no idea how well your particular table will react to that amount of movement. I was just giving you a rough estimate about how much movement we are talking about (for the slate).

Thank you kindly.

JasBy said:

I would look at the cost of keeping the garage constantly up to temp compared to the cycling, it might actually be cheaper in the long run, depending on the level of insulation you have.

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That is physically impossible. Heat loss is dependent on insulation levels, area, and temperature difference [U * A * ΔT]. So if you let it cool down, the loss will gradually reduce, until the temperature equalizes, at which point there will be no heat loss. Heat loss translates directly into money (and planetary damage).

Thank you kindly.

too small

first time I built a home room I made it 14 feet wide for a bar box. still hit the walls with a standard cue.

next time I built a 24 by 28 room for a 4 by 8, no problems there.

a room that too small for a table is worse than having no table at all !!!!!!!!!!!.

canadave said:

I just bought a new house and am looking at getting a pool table. There are just two options as to where to put it: the detached garage outside, and a room inside the house. The inside room is of course infinitely preferable. The only problem is that although the room has plenty of length, it's only 12 feet 8 inches wide. I really don't want a 7-foot table--was really looking at getting a 4x8 table. ...

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Why do you want a pool table in your home? Do you compete in leagues or tournaments? What size tables are used for those?

If your primary reason for buying a table is simply occasional entertainment -- playing games with family, friends, and neighbors -- then a small table inside the house should be fine.

But if you are a competitive pool player, and your objective is to develop your game for competition on large tables, then I'd recommend something entirely different. And that is to buy a 9-foot table and put it in the inside room offset from center. I'd put it so the noses of the cushions on the long sides of the table are about 5½' (or a couple inches more) from the wall on one side and 3' from the wall on the other side. [5½' + 3' + 50" = 12' 8".] That will give you 3 sides of the table completely unencumbered and allow practice of any and all types of shots. With a full-length cue, many shots would still be possible from that 4th side, but, of course, many would not. Obviously, this set-up wouldn't be good for playing games with others.

Buying a 9-foot table now might also serve you well if you ever move to a house with a larger room for a table, or if you solve the temperature problems for the detached garage at the house you just bought.

If you are a competitive player and the competition is always on 7-footers, then that would be a good size for that interior room in your home (although even a 7-footer will result in some encumbered shots with a full-length cue in your room).

So I think the first order of business is to be clear on the purpose(s) for which you'd like to buy a table.

I got an 8ft table in a room that is only 13 ft wide and although yes it is annoying on some shots. Most shots (95%) are not even affected by this. With that being said also I like what Atlarge had to say, figure out what you want to use it for and go with what is best for your needs

I think a table in your garage is a bad idea if you cannot keep it at a consistent temperature. It will obviously take the slate longer to warm up then the rest of the table and I think you would find out that the table played quite a bit different when it was cold vs when it was up to temp. I have a 9' table at home but almost all tournaments and leagues in our area are played on bar boxes. It is such a big difference between the two that I recently bought and set up a 7' table too. So the size of the table is probably dependent on what you shoot on the most.