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How many of us have had the experience whereby we have been playing pool at a friends house, and you end up with several shots where you do not have enough room to properly and comfortably make a normal cue stick draw and shot? You find that your shot is restricted by a wall, or a column, or some sort of furniture or building being set to close to the pool table which is compressing your available space to make the only open shot you have on the table. Yes, this is a frustrating experience. Many people tend to place their billiards tables in a basement remodel, yet most basements have some sort of structural column which is supporting the floor of the main house.

We completed just that sort of a project, whereby we bought a house with an unfinished basement. We remodeled the basement to make it a finished game room, and in doing so I wanted to build the proper layout and placement of my pool table such that I would have completely unrestricted access for any shot. I definitely did not want my cue stick to be bumping into a wall, or a column, so I began my effort to design the proper dimensional layout. The main area where I was planning on placing the pool table was a large rectangular area, with a wall along the length of one side, and some support columns on the other side.

I began trying to research standard billiard table sizes, and I was surprised to find out that there were as many or more than 5 different sizes of pool tables. And for each of these sizes, I had a tough time on finding recommendations on the space required around the table for unrestricted play. We also wanted to put a hardwood floor underneath the table to make the area more appealing and decorative, but again I had trouble figuring out the correct dimensions for the best overall play.

In the table listed above, you’ll see that there are 4 typical types of billiards table available on the market today. The 7’ table is a special design inexpensive pool table which is typically sold at many discount type department stores, and many times will retain for under $1,000.00. This is a smaller table, which many will choose to purchase due to cost or room dimension restrictions. The actual playing surface area is 76 inches in length by 38 inches in width, and the finished outside dimensions of the pool table will be approximately 87 inches long by 49 inches in width.

Now, the average pool cue length is 57”, and the average draw length is 6”. This information together will give us the recommended minimum dimensions of clear unrestricted area to place a pool table, and this 7’ short table setup should yield a recommended overall play space required of 16’-10” long by 13’-8” wide, given the pool table will be set in the middle of this area. So if you are trying to plan your space for a pool table, and you have a column, or a wall, or some furniture within this overall play space, you will experience times when you cannot make the shot you desire because your pool stick will be hitting that obstruction.