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Are you planning on adding a snooker table in your house and want to know if the floor will be able to take the weight? This is even more necessary to know if you’re installing the table upstairs. Likewise, if your house was built in more of a DIY style, then again you should first estimate how much weight your floor can take. Because pool tables, especially slate-based snooker tables, can be quite hefty!
How much does a snooker table slate weight? If you’re looking at a 5-piece per table slate for a standard full-size 12 feet snooker table, with 45 mm (or 1.75 inches) thickness, then one slate piece can weigh about up to 365 pounds.
This varies with the type of billiards game, the size of the table, the thickness of the slate, and also how many pieces per table you are using. Normally full-size snooker tables i.e. 12 feet by 6 feet always require 5 pieces. Smaller size tables can have 3 pieces or even a single piece slate bed.
Non-slate snooker tables are very light!
There are non-slate tables available too, however all professional style leagues and serious players use tables with slate beds. Some people are of the opinion that non-slate tables are usually for amateur or youth players.
Non-slate tables are much cheaper, very light, and quite easy to move around. A non-slate table could weigh around 200-300 pounds only (that’s about the weight of a single slate for a slate table!). It could easily be moved around by two people, even without disassembling it.
But apart from that, their smoothness, precision, and durability are lower than that of a slate table, so no wonder professional players never go for a non-slate table just for the sake of saving money. Home users may go for the cheaper option though.
Benefits of slate tables
Slate tables are used for many reasons, but the main one is precision. In a snooker game, precision is everything, and an imprecise table surface can be a real let down.
Unlike other materials, slate is perfect for snooker tables because it can be leveled to an extremely high precision degree. Slate is also hard and more durable; it is not damaged easily. And the thicker the slate bed the better.
Slate is like rock so it is very, very heavy. One-piece slate beds (used in bars) are thinner, and so they weigh slightly less, but professional tables which use 3-piece or 5-piece slate beds are extremely heavy.
Table sizes
Different billiard games have slightly different table standards by dimensions, bed thickness etc. For snooker, a full-size tournament table is 12 feet by 6 feet (the length of a billiards table is always twice the width). This is bigger than a full-size pool table.
Other standards are 10 feet by 5 feet, 9 feet by 4.5 feet, 8 feet by 4 feet, and 7 feet by 3.5 feet.
Smaller tables can do with thinner beds and fewer pieces per table, but full-size, tournament snooker tables always have very thick beds of thickness 4.5 cm or 1.75 inches (tournament pool tables must be 1-inch-thick at least) and usually 5 pieces per table.
How much does a table slate weigh?
Now this depends on the dimension of the slate as well as its thickness.
For some standard snooker tables, the weights are approximately as follows:
- For a 12 feet by 6 feet table with 5 pieces and 1.75 in. slate thickness, a table slate weighs 365 pounds. The total weight of all the slates added up is 1830 pounds.
- For a 10 feet by 5 feet table with 5 pieces and 1.75 in. slate thickness, a table slate weighs 220 pounds. The total weight is 1102 pounds.
- For a 9 feet by 4.5 feet table with 5 pieces and 1.5 in. slate thickness, a table slate weighs 174 pounds. The total weight is 870 pounds.
- For an 8 feet by 4 feet table with 3 pieces and 1.5 in. slate thickness, a table slate weighs 231 pounds. The total weight is 694 pounds.
- Lastly, for a 7 feet by 3.5 feet table with a one-piece slate bed, with 0.75 in. slate thickness, the slate would weigh around 300 pounds.
Depending on the thickness and quality of the slate, as well as the frame, all tournament-size tables always weigh above 1000 pounds and can go up to 2500 pounds too.
So, if you’re planning on buying a snooker table with a slate bed, be sure your floor or carpeting isn’t one to be damaged by the weight of it. Or, if you want to move your table to a new location, then you’ll definitely need to disassemble the slates and frame first to manage it (unless you can bring a weight-lifting truck inside your house!)
Related Questions
How many slates do I need for a full-size snooker table?
Full-size snooker tables almost always come with a 5-piece slate bed. A minimum would be 3 pieces, but professional tournament tables always have 5 pieces per table.
How much does a wood pool table weigh?
Anywhere between 100 pounds to 1500 pounds. Wooden tables are much lighter than slate pool tables. These are considered low-end, because all professional tables always have a slate bed. Their weight varies widely, depending on the type of wood, the size of the table, and the build or style.
See Also:
How Long Does a Professional Snooker Game Last
Snooker Cue Vs Pool Cue
