As a large, heavy piece of furniture that feels exceptionally solid, many wonder: “Can I stand on a Pool Table?”. Despite their size and weight, some pool tables can be incredibly fragile, and we would therefore strongly recommend never standing on a pool table.
Why A Pool Table’s Design Isn’t Designed to Sustain a Person’s Weight
The key part to understanding why a pool table shouldn’t be stood upon is its slate. The slate is a piece of flat stone that is often milled to precision, then covered in a cloth for pool. The slate is very fragile, and most importantly a very brittle material that doesn’t offer much in the way of structural support.
Despite making for a large percentage of any pool table’s overall weight, a slate on a pool table on average is only 19mm thick, meaning that stepping upon a flat slate is likely to crack or split it, possibly completely. This is especially true for older pool tables and most pool dining tables at lower price points. This is because these tables give their slate a relatively low amount of overall support, and could potentially collapse if enough weight is placed upon it.
A dining top helps to avert this with a cover that is primarily supported by the table’s construction and top rail rather than the slate, though again we strongly advise against standing on a topped pool dining table.
How Can Pool Players On TV Stand On Pool Tables?
We’ve all seen the glorious moments on TV following the deciding shot that decides a big pool tournament where the players will leap up on the pool table in celebration, ecstatic at their victory. How are these pool tables different from the pool tables you might find at a pub or at home?
As stated earlier, the slate bed of a pool table is an incredibly delicate thing when subjected to force in the wrong place. For playability reasons though, competition grade pool tables tend to support their slate beds a lot more uniformly, consistently and in more places. In addition, these tables frequently use thicker slates, making the construction a little more solid. This however doesn’t mean the table should be stood upon! The cloth on a table can still get spoiled from such contact, and will not do the slate itself any favours (such as the slate cracking, or ruining the join between the slate sections).
Can I Sit on a Pool Table?
If you can’t stand on a pool table, can you sit on a pool table?
In general terms, sitting on the edge of a pool table is much less of a worry than sitting or standing on the playing surface of a pool table. If sitting on an edge, the weight is concentrated closer to the support of a leg and is more likely to hold. In this case, leaning on a pool table is unlikely to cause any kind of structural risk. There is a chance that the table's levelling could be upset (especially if it was a delicate job getting it levelled upon installation), but this is normally over a longer period of time rather than from a one-off event.
One key point that could discourage sitting on a pool table however is the matter of a table’s finish being damaged as a result. For example, we have seen cases where a pool table’s finish has been scratched or marked as a result of rivets from a person’s jeans scraping across the table’s exterior.
Conclusion
If the above information didn’t make it clear already, we strongly advise never sitting or standing on your pool table due to damage that could occur as a result. This information applies to almost all slate bed pool tables, but if you have any other additional questions, feel free to contact our team on 0800 622 6464