Cost of Table Maintenance Question

Well Free is an excellent price.

1. Depends on what kind of felt. Simonis or regular nappy felt. The prices can varry from $200(at the lowest for regular) to $600 (Highest for Simonis). Those I would say are the average lows and highs. Somewhere in the middle should be average. That doesn't include it needing to be replained or moved.

2. A dehumidifier can help. And a garage that has temperature control. Wether it be central or a window unit.

3. Not a clue

4. If going with regular felt (non-simonis) then be sure to brush in a straight line in the direction you break. This lays the nap down in 1direction so it plays straighter. No drinks near the table. Don't use baby powder for your hands. That has oil in it which traps the chalk underneath the felt.

If you can get some pictures or more info on the table it would be great.

uality cloth like Simonis is around $400.00 installed, varies with mechanics and quality of work.

Table stored in a garage is a horrible idea unless this is a well insulated climate controlled area. Humidity plays hell on cloth and kills consistancy, not to mention will dry out and ruin the rails and pockets in no time at all.

troi said:

2. The table is stored in the garage, so is there a particular type of felt that will hold up better to dramatic changes in weather (humid as hell during the day & cold at night)

3. Any table mechanic recommendations in SoCal? San Diego to be exact.
-Troi

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In reverse order....

If it's really an Olhausen table, then talk to the Olhausen store on Kearny Mesa Road. It's between Clairemont Mesa and 52. The virtue of having them do it is that they're reliable, have fairly competent mechanics, and if they botch it you can call Butch or Donny Olhausen at the factory in Poway and whine to them. That store pushes "Tour Edition" cloth (or used to, anyway) which is ok but not as good as Simonis 860 in my opinion. Their Simonis 860 price is fair but not great. The guy who used to be their main installer personally prefered Granito Basalt but I never asked him about a price (he does work outside of Olhausen installations). If it's not an Olhausen, I recommend using them anyway, if they'll do the work. If not, try Quality Billiards out toward Santee, or American Billiard S(omething) - don't remember what the 'S' is for but the initials are ABS and it's in the phone book and the guy's name is actually Paul; he never did any work for me directly, but his reputation is pretty good. Another thing to try is to go over to College Billiards and ask them who they use these days.

I'm quite surprised the garage has enough room for a table. That's pretty unusual for San Diego-area garages unless it's a newer house or a really large older one. Or is this maybe not a full-size table? One thing you'll have to contend with is that the garage floor will have a noticeable slope to it. About 1/2-inch to 1-inch in ten feet, sloping toward the main door, usually. There's nothing you can do about this, just note that when you set it up, it's going to make one end (or side, depending on direction) noticeably higher than the other after the table's leveled - annoying, but not fatal. As for climate control, it really depends on where you are in "San Diego". I had a nine foot Olhausen in a screened-in porch about half a mile inland from Mission Bay and had no problems, nor did I notice problems with any other tables along the coast from Leucadia to Ocean Beach. Frankly, San Diego north of 94 and west of 15 doesn't change weather enough to worry about. Further inland - Santee, say - you're going to want a window unit in the garage because otherwise it'll get too hot for *you* whether it changes the table's play or not.

-- jwp

A swamp cooler will raise the humidity of a room by a very large amount. They work by trickling water down porous pads and using a fan to suck air through the pad (cooling it by evaporation) and blow it into the room. In the process of being cooled, of course, the air picks up a vast amount of water vapor. Swamp coolers don't make much sense in Mira Mesa where it's moderately humid and doesn't get very hot; the efficiency will be quite low. Out in, say, Temecula they work better - it's much hotter and generally drier. In any case, given the cost of water in San Diego, if they use it much their water bill is going to be beyond belief, and their electricity bill is going to be pretty interesting, too. Running a dehumidifier in the same space with a swamp cooler is a rather droll idea.... "Hmmm.... poor old SDG&E isn't getting enough of our money.... How can we maximize our electricity bill to help them out?" Swamp coolers also require a fair amount of care, especially given the quality of San Diego's water. Without some effort spent in keeping it clean, the crap from the water will build up quite rapidly and make water level sensors and drains dysfunctional, etc. Is there some reason they don't do something rational, like use a normal room airconditioner if they're really concerned about the temperature?

And yes, I do know a lot about that area. Worked at UCSD 30+ years, and lived in lots of different areas, one of them being a couple of blocks from the Mira Mesa bowling alley.