Category Archives: News

We are working away from Home for the next week in butlins at Skegness , my Daughter will be manning the Home phone
but the best way to contact GCL billiards for next week is by Email   c.large@btinternet.com
I will answer you when I get back on Friday , I have around 4 days work at Butlins and one day in Newark on the way back on Friday .
Please be aware we cannot take anymore work on for our run up to Christmas we are fully booked out , so if your enquiry is for work to be done before christmas we cannot take anymore on , we are working 6 days a week to clear it and the odd evening .

We have 6 american pool tables to re-cover in special printed Art Scape cloth with the budweiser logo on
we also have two normal pub type pool tables to re-cover in the staff Canteen known as the team diner .

I take my time in making sure these tables get re-covered correct and are level when we finish
they take some abuse during the season and I have been informed they have been moved to one side and back again by the staff so I am expecting some slate joint damage and re-leveling of the tables due to this


we have re-covered then in different designs in the past , all made possible by Artscape printed Strachan super pro american speed cloth
Next week they will get the Budweiser logo again

from 13th NOVEMBER 2015 to 4th of January 2016 …………………….Fully booked out for work

Due to influx of  Booking for work we have no more days available before christmas for any more work
We have become very popular Local and even outside our  Midlands area .
We have worked booked in for Portsmouth Area / Cheshire / Lincolnshire / Wakefield / Derbyshire / Rugby / Manchester / Nottingham / Mansfield / Grantham / & Leicester

I am sorry if anyone is desperate to have work done on their cue sports table , but there are just no more days or hours to spare

everyone wants there table either setting up or re-covering for christmas and it always gets busy this time of year

We even have a week’s work at butlins re-covering their American 9ft   American pool tables in Artscape Budweiser logo printed cloth
it is jobs like these that take weeks up rather than a day

add on 4 days work in a large snooker club

also pool tables in another club taking more days out of the 6 remaining weeks to Christmas Day
add to these large job’s , around 20 private house tables to do and you can see why we are saying no more work before christmas !
we are very sorry to have to refuse work , and hope that you can use us in the new year
We are worth waiting for , we never rush work , and we try and improve a table if you are having problems
We also specialise in the transportation of snooker table and pool table supto a combined weight of 1600 kg Payload

our van with full size snooker table on board , this table with tools weighs around 1400 kg
if you require work doing we are available for bookings for work  from the 4th of January 2016 .

There Is a shortage of Supreme pool tables coming out of the factory due to demand at anmytime of the year .
we have managed to secure two for our rental stock and these will be available for rental / hire on a 12 month basis from December
They Will be in stock from november 25th ready to rent
these will be added to our portfolio of pool table rental sites

All our pool tables come in Black pearl cabinet finish and Green cloth as standard
They are the latest Green badge supreme Winner 7×4 coin operated tables .

This was a local pub in Stapleford in Nottinghamshire  that had two pool tables on a rental contract from GCL Billiards

On a rental contract your table re-covers are all in with the price of  the rental agreement
two re-covers per year one every 6 months at £18.50p per week over 52 weeks, and this works out at £80 per month
a set of replacement match balls every year and 4 cues plus box of 12 chalk and spare tips .
we also give two sets of balls out on first install one set for normal play the other set for match play .
who offers this much back up on pool tables ?

We used to offer two different types of rental contracts but because of ease of working out contracts and invoicing we now only offer the set 12 month two recover contract .
it all depends on how busy your pub or club is to how long a cloth will last , but with our now standard 2 re-covers a year we are sure the cloths will last .
we ask all our rental customers to look at cloth wear as we do Car tyres , the more we use it gets the quicker it will require replacing
there is no set time scale to a table cloth lasting , it is all down to traffic of players using the table
we get some clubs have tables recovered every 6 months and others will last a year , but because of ease of servicing we now only offer our 2 re-covers per year at  every 6 months
all our table sites are now going over to this type of contract and it makes it easy to invoice as every site pays the £80 per month set fee ., and NO vat will be added .

We cover a wide area for pool table recovering in the Midlands
We are well known for being very thorough and not just recovering and out the door quick .
We take our time and clean the internals of the table , also taking out every staple in the cushions
We do not staple over staples , or use low cost quick to use spray on Glue
We find using the comb spreader is the best way to glue contact adhesive to the slate and the under part of the cloth , it bonds very well and will not come loose.

Our feedback from this table was very good in fact we do not get bad feedback as we like to do all our work right in front of the client so they can see what a thorough job we do cutting NO corners .

we clean out the table and also wipe down the ball rails and internal slope

we have our own method of glueing cloth to slate bed which we know is the best way  ,
none of our glue is anywhere near the playing surface so the ball will not roll off on glue applied on top of the slate

when we strip the cushions of old cloth we take every staple out

we would never leave your table with muck on the ball rails for balls to stick to , and that muck also gets transferred by the ball to your new cloth
leaving a table like this is bad news for the owner , speed fitters who charge slightly less and try and pull more work into a day by doing very little to each table do this .

a typical problem we find on spray on glue cloths is overspray onto slate , a slow ball towards this middle pocket will suddenly stop or change direction

we get our cloth on tight , unlike this freshly recovered bed cloth that was put on by another firm

we also level to a high degree of accuracy , but sometimes we do come across bowed or twisted slate beds or body of table ,
we do try and sort this out for you and have a good track record of improving the leveling of the table .

From large clubs

to family owned tables

We even do American pool tables

and full size snooker tables
if you want your table recovering in good quality cloth by a time served billiards fitter then contact Geoff at GCL billiards
We have many recommendations of approval

We feel some advertising performances are just paper down the toilet

Due to feedback from Customers we have decided to cut back our outlay of advertising through Yell from next year .
we find this the most expensive yet the least productive avenue of contact for GCL Billiards from our feedback when we questioned our customers of where they found us
Most say through Google direct to web site and a good percentage of returning customer , but also a large amount from referrals from our regular clients .
I have been monitoring our performance this last month and we have had just one enquiry through Yell .

we do not have money to burn on advertising that does not perform for us .
the one yell enquiry we got last month was at 12 o’clock one Sunday evening for a table to be booked to play on , WE ARE NOT A SNOOKER CLUB !
So we are taking steps to cut back our advertising with Yell to the one free local Nottingham listing , this will become effective from August 2016 when our current contract with Yell expires . until then we will still be advertising in Derby and Lincoln areas .
PLEASE search for us on Google you will find many references to us on there with direct contact to our web site without going through a third party advertising agencies web Business Listings  , we are one click nearer going through Google rather than through Yell
and if you are looking for a firm that works on maintaining Cue sports tables such as snooker and pool table re-covering , you will not have to troll through a cue maker or various snooker club listings all piled under one section to find us .

We like to offer sponsorship to the local leagues so we do support both Derbyshire Institutes league  and Nottinghamshire snooker leagues NBSA through advertising in booklets and donating the odd trophy .
by doing this we are also recommended to all the snooker clubs that are in those leagues .
we find this direct contact with our local clients much more rewarding than advertising on third party search engines .

I am not saying Yell does not perform for other advertisers , it just does not perform for us . we find our listings is lost in an area covering other types of businesses and not direct to what we do or what people are searching for when looking for re-covering or table moves . or being replaced as a top listing because they offer a silver gold listing payment for the higher system , just a way of getting people to pay more to be listed higher , we are established so we do not need to do this anymore and good feedback and recommendations are a better way of feeling we are the firm for you rather than sponsorship to Yell for 2nd or 1st placement .

we also find that saying how long a Firm  has been advertising is not always the best way to rate them , we for example have only been advertising with Yell for 4 years but someone who has been with them for 15 years because of the large logo stating this makes them look a much better organisation even though I have been personally fitting snooker and pool tables for 40 years .
So as from next year the best way to find us is through Google or direct if you know we exist by googling direct by name of GCL billiards , just type snooker recovers nottingham when you are looking , or your Home town plus recovers snooker  / pool ,
we do come up on google on the first or second page listings,  if not maybe the third page if we have not done work in your area recently or in the past .
If your area or town is mentioned on just one post in our web site we should come up on Google .
this is not down to paying smart people doing things to keep us there , it is based on the number of people who are searching for Snooker or pool table recovers and clicking on our web site when it comes up we do not pay to enhance our hits on our web site it is down to clients looking for us .
They have either heard of us through another person or have stumbled upon us because we have done work in their area and we have mentioned that on our reports on the web site .
Google is a powerful advertising tool and the best thing is it’s FREE .

We are getting very busy with work already booked in for most of November and December has started to fill up
If you are planning on using GCL billiards before Christmas for work on your cue sports table , please book now we have only around three weeks of days left plus the odd day here and there.

WEIGHT LIMITS and PAYLOADS for 3500 van carrying snooker tables .

I had  a phone call the other day from another Billiards fitter I know very well on the south coast
he informed me he was stopped by the Police  in a long wheel base transit hire  van with a full size snooker table on board .
Not many people know this but Transits and sprinter Mercedes are not very good at carrying capacity or what is known as PAYLOAD , the long wheel base transit he was driving only had a Load weight of 1050 kg Payload.
some of those sprinters are below 1000 kg payload , they are not very good vans for Snooker tables removals and deliveries.
an average snooker table weighs in at 1150 kg and the thick welsh slate bed tables can be up to  1400kg .
He was fined for being 600kg overweight and had to unload three slates to carry on his journey then return and pick them back up again pl;us £40 for storage to a breakdown yard at a services on a Motorway
that was one very heavy table he had on the van

Moving tables can take upto two days if distance is an issue  , this bottom of the range Riley Regis weighs around 1100 kg

We specialise in the movement and assemble of tables this Sam american pool table weighs around 800 kg

the way you load a van can also be very tricky to work out , no more than 1000 kg on the back axle , these modern thinner italian slates are within that weight limit but if thicker welsh slate then this is loaded to the front of the van right up to the bulkhead separating panel  between load area and drivers cab
you have to cut down on tools to only taking what you require for the work as it all tallies up including the Driver the passenger and the Fuel in the tank is all regarded as Payload .
if you are border line then we only fill half a tank at a time .

I did a lot of research when I chose our works van , the Newer shape Vauxhall Movano or the Renault Master which is the same vehicle really  is the van to go for and class leading in payloads for 3500 vans  , the Transit cannot touch it .
with the very small version carrying the most Payload and as you increase length of van the payload decreases
for example the normal no high roof standard wheelbase  version of the Movano has  a payload of 1684 kg , that’s a whopping 634 kg more weight carrying capacity than the long wheel base Ford Transit that my Colleague from down south had .
he was 600 kg overweight , and with that smaller movano van he could have been around 50 kg within the legal payload if he had been driving the L1 Vauxhall movano .

My van is the L2 H2 the medium wheel base medium roof version , you can move the load around a bit more and get the weight forward of the back axle
it takes a full size table within the back compartment without removal of the bulk head panel which protects the driver and passenger and the payload for our van is 1610 kg
I have worked that out that most snooker tables with a full tank of fuel and two people and tools on board we have a tolerance of 100 kg from type of table to carry within the payloads to stay within the Law .
We can increase this if we take out the double passenger seat and replace it with a single one and also take out the Bulk head panel , thus making the van weigh less but increasing the payload capacity by say a further 50 kg .
and you can buy them with just two seats in rather than the normal three seater.
The longer the wheel base then the payload decreases as extra weight for panel work comes into force , this is all for the 3500 range , which means the total weight must not exceed 3500 kg of van and load .
the next step up is a twin wheel version of the Movano which can carry way  over two tons 2000 kg , but these are very long vehicles and not easy to park .

If we do have a very heavy table to move then it will of course be a bit more expensive to transport as we have to either use two vehicles or use jonhills removals who have a 7 ton removals van
I would say 95% of tables move can be done in our own Vauxhall Movano , but we do get the occasional thick heavy slate and heavy wood with steel cushioned table to move

this table for instance was especially heavy , we did move it 35 mile but found out we were actually overweight by around 300 kg
a mistake that we cannot ignore anymore , if you have a very heavy table then it will be more costly to move as we will use two vans or jonills removals to deliver your table .

this the normal way we stack a table inside the van , this one is within legal load weight and is positioned just right for back axle weight to front weight ratio to avoid light steering .
we carry just enough tools , to erect the table at the delivery address .

Very light Metric tables by Thurston are around 1150 kg we have two frames cushions  and the slates on here , we where transporting them to a council yard two mile down the road who had a weigh bridge
we weighed the van with two people on board and it came to a little over 1450 kg  with two tables and shades but one set of slates on .
with 1000 kg exactly on the back axle , and just below half a tank of fuel .

for comparison a Gallon of fuel weighs approx 3.5 kg , half a tank would be around 8 gallon , = 28 kg  , full tank around 60 kg .
Deduct that off the 1610 kg and it reduces the payload to 1550 kg,  less 200kg for driver and passenger = 1350kg
tools and a normal weight snooker table just come in on that weight limit on my van for 95% of tables .

The law is that the Police may give you leeway of a up to 5% discrepancy , warned and  tell you to take more notice of your load weight .

after the 5% it is a sliding scale of fines of around £100 per 200k kg overweight , if you go over 30% overweight then it is a court case and you will have to appear in court .
we cannot go above the load capacity using just  one van , we just cannot afford to do this . so if you have an extremely heavy table such as a Burroughs and watts solid oak or Mahogany  steel cushioned table then be prepared it will cost more to transport .

Read this and see the gulf between a Transit and a Movano for payloads.

http://www.parkers.co.uk/vans/news-and-advice/2015/march/top-10-vans-for-payloads-at-35t/

I have been over to a farm in Ashbourne for a couple of days work
this involved taking an already dismantled 9ft snooker table from the Barn and installing it into a new build room that is attached to the main Farm house.

The 9ft frame erected , slates on and leveled , cushions being stripped down on a blanket on the end of the table
notice the blankets protecting my clients brand new wood floor

the cushion showing that the rubber as well as the cloth has been completely removed and every tack or staple has been removed

the blocks on the cushions and the back of the rubber has been coated with contact adhesive and these have to semi dry for around 20 to 30 minutes before positioning together to bond
if you bond too soon the glue never drys and the rubber slides down the wood block on re-covering , too long and it will fall off , timing is has to be just right .
always glue in warm room conditions , a very cold room and the glue does not dry .

all cushions have gone through the process of having the rubber attached and shaped to pocket falls

the rubber has been shaped to the pocket openings and then taped to help keep rubber on the block from people sitting on cushions
the white arrow is cloth nap direction and the number is for cushion location on table , a table has 6 cushions and the Baulk end cushion is No 1 , gong in a clockwise direction no2 is to left of Baulk then 3/4/5/6
nap direction is to the left on 1/2/3/4 and to the right on 5/6 , this is to keep side cushion nap going in the same direction as the bed cloth nap direction from baulk D end to black ball spot end .

the finished table , this table had new slates fitted to it by Padmores of Birmingham at some time in it’s life
and they where a modern 5 section slate  circa 1980/90s , the original set would have been a three section slate bed .
We noticed that the previous fitter had left all the cushion bolts washers missing , this is very bad practice and cushion bounce would have been affected , we replaced all missing washers and now the cushions are nice and tight with good rebound

Our van outside the new build snooker room of the Farm in ashbourne Derbyshire .