table underwater

JZMechanix

JZMechanix

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A friend of mine was the victim of a flood that left his table totally underwater in his basement. Not sure exactly how long it was submerged, probably for the better part of a day I'm guessing? This happened back in the summer. He said he is ready to have it set up again. I'm pretty sure it's a 4 x 8, 3 piece slate, not sure who made it. Anybody have any experience with a table like this?
 
JZMechanix said:
A friend of mine was the victim of a flood that left his table totally underwater in his basement. Not sure exactly how long it was submerged, probably for the better part of a day I'm guessing? This happened back in the summer. He said he is ready to have it set up again. I'm pretty sure it's a 4 x 8, 3 piece slate, not sure who made it. Anybody have any experience with a table like this?
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Ouch!

I've messed with tables that have had the legs underwater, but never the entire table. Even in some of those cases, there was enough moisture to swell the MDF blinds making them basically unusable.

You hate to think of the table being a total loss, but hopefully he has insurance that will help out with it. Beyond that, I'd say somone would just have to see it to see the condition of the parts.
 
I agree with Josh. We recently had a olhausen santa ana that was under water and was a total loss. The legs when they dried out totally blew apart,twisted the rails, even the cabinet was split. The mdf slate backer was about triple the normal size. I had to laugh when the insurance adjuster asked if we would be willing to give them anything for the table.I said "yeah,just my bill for throwing it away."
 
I saw a Proline pretty well totaled when a basement flooded one time. It wasn't even totally submerged. I have to agree, hit the insurance co. It will never be the same again unless it's replaced. Good luck:sorry:
 
ouch...

I had one (Golden West) in Sacramento last year that was drowned as a result of the fire sprinklers going off while nobody was around over the weekend....but the customer refused to part with it and wanted it setup in memory of his dad and him playing together, so with everyone else laughing at me, and questioning my sanity, I spent waaaay too much time getting it done.
Actually Glen and I laughed about that table earlier today on the phone, but after that one, I'm not too sure I'd go out of my way to try and fix one again.
Expect alot of waves in the frame,slate and rails if nothing else.
alot of planing, straps, woodwork, and time to get it as close as possible to what it used to be before the failed swimming lessons.
Like my buddy in Cali said once...."you don't see many pool tables setup at seaworld."lol

God bless insurance. And I'm sure someone on AZ has a table for sale that would make a good replacement.:wink:
 
It's a loss. There's no way the table can endure total submersion and still retain it's shape. Even if you put it together and it seems fine, water damage continues to warp wood, even after it's noticeably dry again. All wood has some natural moisture level. (ask any cuemaker or woodworker) Submersion really screws with the natural ability of the wood to maintain a consistent moisture level and makes it do strange things. I guarantee you that if you put the table together and then come back a month later the cabinet will have twisted away from the slate in some places, probably wreaking havoc on the slate seams.
 
thx 4 the replies. I haven't seen the table yet but I wasn't suspecting it would be pretty :frown:. I'm not sure if his insurance will cover it or not. I don't think he had flood insurance. I'll have to check it out and see how bad it is. He said it looks ok to him but we'll see.
 
Slate is somewhat stable and porous correct? If true, would you be able to salvage at least the slate, assuming it wasn't cracked? Perhaps usable on another table, sell it (wouldn't be worth much I'd assume) recover some loss? Good luck on the table! Cheers!

Charles Snyder
 
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Saved a drowning victim

I got a call from someone needing their table recovered "and oh by the way, it was in a flood!"

The flood happened back in April. They said there was about 4' of water in their basement, and the table had been totally submerged :frown:
They finally got their basement repaired and were ready to have the pool table fixed up.

I remembered some of the comments the other guys made in this thread after dealing with "flooded" tables and I wasn't sure if it could be saved.
I explained that there was a good chance that the frame, etc. would be warped and twisted but I wanted to help them out since they had no flood insurance.

They had it cleaned up as best they could. Other than some mud and debris here and there, overall the wood looked fine!
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Surprisingly, the table leveled up fine! The rubber was also in good condition. The leather pocket webs were a little stiff. After some new Simonis the table turned out great :thumbup:

I'm not sure who made the table. The owner bought it from Watsons, their typical home furniture style 4' x 8'.

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If it's nasty and unrecoverable don't forget the value of parts, especially if it's a brunswick or something where people are always looking for castings or pockets or metal trim parts or counters, etc, even the ball trim and bridge holder and rack holders are of value on tables like that, not just the slate which would also be usable minus the backing. For many tables that stuff parted out is worth nearly as much as the whole table.

I'm still looking for a 9' slate for a gold crown damaged in moving and improper setup, and would love to find a set from a flood whether all the backing was ruined or not, would also snatch up the pockets and rack holder and a bridge holder as long as it was a decent price. So there are those of us who do need slates and parts, especially for popular tables.
 
JZMechanix said:
I'm not sure who made the table. The owner bought it from Watsons, their typical home furniture style 4' x 8'.
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That looks like an American Heritage. I'm surprised the table didn't show more swelling and more damage than that! Nice, work, Jack!
 
Club Billiards said:
That looks like an American Heritage. I'm surprised the table didn't show more swelling and more damage than that! Nice, work, Jack!
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I was also surprised the wood looked as good as it did. I really didn't notice any swelling or warpage. The house had a walk in basement. The owner said the water basically broke down the door and rushed in all at once. He said the force of the water moved the table 15' across the room! :outtahere:
 
JZMechanix said:
I was also surprised the wood looked as good as it did. I really didn't notice any swelling or warpage. The house had a walk in basement. The owner said the water basically broke down the door and rushed in all at once. He said the force of the water moved the table 15' across the room! :outtahere:
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Amazing!

It's downright scary that you have it looking like nothing ever happened to it, I'd hate to buy something used not being able to tell it once practically floated away.
 
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