A short guide to buying a billiard table

In the past there have been numerous attempts to combine the French Carambole Billiard table, which has no pockets with the American Pool table, which has six pockets,  into a single construction. While some very interesting pieces of furniture have resulted from such attempts, none of the technical solutions have been able to provide an acceptable quality of play on both versions. 

Principally there are two main alternatives: The double cushion, where an additional frame of cushions can be inserted onto the basic pool frame to cover the pockets, or more sophisticated, the double slate, where two different slates are fixed  back to back, one plain, the other with six cutouts for the pockets, each equipped with cushion frames. A horizontal steel axle runs through the middle of this very heavy sandwich, which allows the slate to be spun to the desired game. 

Both solutions necessarily disregard the international game norms and offer relatively poor ball reflection, hence failing to satisfy players in the long term.

From our experience, such predominantly historic combinations look nice and are interesting for a demonstration, but are hardly ever really used. We therefore advise customers to choose a single version. So the decision for one or the other version should be made definitive.

The billiard table consists out of a rectangular slate stone, encircled by a triangular shaped strong elastic cushion, both covered with special cloth. The American Pool table and the British Snooker also have additional six pockets, one at each corner and two in the middle of each long cushion. The rest of the table can be individually designed without narrow constraints. Different styles, materials and colours may be used to realise customers' design concepts. The special billiard cloths covering the slate and the cushions are offered in a wide but not unlimited range of colours. 

STEFAN CULEN DESIGN WIEN can either realise your own personal or your architect's design concept or design a billiard table to your specifications in-house.

Lighting
The playing surface must be well lit and there must be sufficient open space above the table for special actions, especially for carambole billiards. This is typically achieved through a light-source mounted along the middle line of the table. As long as the table is sufficiently well lit, all variations in style and technology are possible. The image shown was developed for an Art Nouveau pool table, where vertical queue action does not occur.

Heating
The cloth may absorb moisture from the environment, which slows down the ball. Tournament tables with large surfaces have a heating element installed underneath the slate to keep the cloth warm and dry. In non commercial formats moisture will have little effect and heating elements are seldom installed.

Accessories
A wide range of queues, balls, chalk and replacement leather tips are available across various price segments. While customers typically purchase these accessories individually, we are willing to give advice of provide the required items together with the billiard table.

Usually the number one problem in connection with the installation of a billiard table in a private house is space.

Space requirements include the net playing surface, i.e. the space between the cushions, plus the length of the queues from the edges plus serveral inches for stroking.

The chart summarizes the space required around a billiard table but furniture shorter than 80 cm/7,5 inches will not hamper play, provided there is sufficient space to walk around the table.