How to compare billiard table sellers in the UAE: seven questions

Two billiard tables can sit side by side at the same price and be built completely differently. Almost nothing that separates them is visible in a photograph, and very little of it is visible in a showroom either. What separates them is underneath the cloth.

This guide is the set of questions we would ask if we were buying a table in the UAE from someone else. None of them are trick questions. A seller who builds good tables will answer all seven quickly and specifically.

1. What is the bed made of, and how thick?

This is the single most important question and the one most often answered vaguely.

A natural stone bed - slate or marble - is quarried, cut and ground flat. It stays flat for decades and does not care about humidity. MDF and wood-composite beds are lighter and much cheaper, and in Dubai's humidity swings they are the component most likely to move over time.

Ask for the material and the thickness together. Slate beds are normally 25mm and come in three pieces. Marble beds are thicker, around 60mm, because marble is more brittle in thin sections. Our own bed materials guide explains why the two thicknesses differ.

A weak answer: "It's a professional table." A strong answer: "Three-piece 25mm natural slate."

2. What is the frame made of?

The frame holds the bed level between services. Solid hardwood or steel holds it well; veneered chipboard does not, and you will be re-levelling more often.

Ask what the frame, the legs and the cushion bodies are made of, as three separate things. Some tables have a hardwood frame on chipboard legs.

3. Which cloth, by name?

Cloth is the cheapest part of the table and the part you feel on every shot. "Premium felt" and "tournament cloth" are marketing words, not specifications.

Ask for the name and grade of the cloth. It should be a product you can look up. And ask whether it is woollen or worsted, because that is not a price question at all - it decides which game the table is set up for. Billiard cloth grades explained covers the difference.

4. What are the cushions?

Cushion rubber is what makes a ball come off the rail rather than die against it. Cheap rubber goes hard within a few years and cannot be revived - the rails have to be rebuilt.

Ask for the cushion specification. K55 rubber is a common quality standard. Steel block cushions are used on tables built for Chinese 8-ball. If the answer is just "rubber cushions", press for more.

5. Who installs it, and is levelling included?

A slate table is not delivered, it is assembled. It arrives in pieces, the bed is laid and shimmed, the seams are filled, the cloth is fitted under tension and the whole thing is levelled.

Ask three things: does the seller's own team install it, is levelling part of the installation, and what happens if the table is not level a month later. A table installed by a general delivery crew and never levelled will play badly from day one - and most buyers blame themselves rather than the table. Our levelling guide shows how to test it yourself.

6. What does the warranty actually cover?

Almost every seller offers a warranty. Very few will tell you what is excluded without being asked.

Ask for it in writing, and specifically ask whether it covers the cloth, the cushion rubber and levelling. Usually it does not - those are wear items - and that is reasonable. What matters is that you know before you buy rather than after.

Also ask whether the warranty is transferable and whether it survives the table being moved.

7. What happens in three years?

This is the question that separates a seller from a shop.

When the cloth wears out, who re-clothes it, and what does that cost? If a cushion goes dead, can the rails be rebuilt or is the table finished? If you move house, can they move it? Are spare parts available at all?

A seller who cannot answer these is selling you a box, not a table.

The comparison in one page

• Bed: material and thickness, in that order.

• Frame: frame, legs and cushion bodies, as three answers.

• Cloth: the actual product name, plus woollen or worsted.

• Cushions: the rubber specification.

• Installation: own team, levelling included, and what happens if it drifts.

• Warranty: what is excluded, in writing.

• After three years: re-clothing, rail rebuilds, relocation, spares.

Things worth being sceptical about

• A price with no specification attached. A cheap table is not a problem. A cheap table nobody will describe is.

• "Imported" used as a quality claim. Almost every table sold in the UAE is imported, including ours. It says nothing about how the table is built.

• A showroom with no table set up to play on. You cannot judge a table you have not hit a ball on.

• A quote far below everyone else's with the same claimed specification. Something has been substituted, and it is usually the bed or the cushions.

• No mention of who installs it. This is where the cost hides.

For what it is worth, here are our answers

We would rather publish these than be asked:

• Bed: every full-size table is three-piece 25mm natural slate, or three-piece 60mm natural marble on three models. Nothing in the range is MDF except the AED 4,000 convertible, which we say plainly.

• Frame: solid maple frame, legs and cushion bodies. The LT uses a heavy-duty steel frame by design.

• Cloth: Moorj 500, CPBA MG-700, CPBA TN-999 or CPBA Competition, named per model.

• Cushions: K55 rubber, except the 9-6 SM which uses steel block cushions for Chinese 8-ball.

• Installation: our own team delivers, installs and levels. Delivery cost depends on location.

• Warranty: 1-year limited against manufacturing defects, with the exclusions written on every product page.

• After three years: re-clothing from AED 1,400, levelling AED 500, relocation from AED 800, and we service tables we did not sell.

The full model-by-model breakdown, including what is wrong with each table, is in our billiard table comparison.

Ask us the seven questions

Call 04 422 9454 or WhatsApp 055 918 4887. If a competitor answers them better than we do, buy from them - a table lasts decades and it is worth getting right.