How to move a pool table

Pockets off, rails unbolted, felt lifted from the slate, then each slate section unbolted and lifted off individually. The felt is stapled or glued and usually does not survive being removed, which is why a table move and a recover are quoted together. Number every rail and bolt as it comes off, because the rails are matched to their positions and are not interchangeable.

Because a pool table is only a pool table if it is level, and reassembly puts three slate sections back onto a frame on a floor that is not the floor they were levelled on. The sections have to be aligned to each other within a fraction of a millimetre, joined, waxed and then shimmed until the whole surface is true. That is the part that takes the time and the part that decides whether the table plays.

Some can and most do not. A general crew can carry the pieces, which is the easy part; what a table needs is someone who reassembles them regularly. Ask whether the company does the disassembly and reassembly themselves or subcontracts to a table fitter, and ask whether the quote includes new felt, because it usually does and the price difference is significant.

A wooden-bed table is a different job entirely and often moves in one piece, because there is no slate to crack and the frame carries a fraction of the weight. If you do not know which you have, look under the table at the playing surface from below: slate is grey stone, a wooden bed is board. The difference decides whether this is a specialist job or a heavy one.

Clear the room entirely, including everything on the walls, because rails and slate need a wide carry with two people at each end. Photograph the table from every angle and photograph the underside of the rails before anything comes off. Confirm where it is going at the other end and that the floor there is level and rated, since a slate table concentrates weight in a small footprint.