A New Venture for Jon who is opening a slight twist to the normal Snooker club Scene
This Venture is going to be like a Games Room for Hire by membership.
the room being based in a rather large Barn loft area , and has been recently fully refurbished to a high standard

I think the format is going to be based on a limited members joining and paying a Membership fee with free table time or maybe smaller membership fee with table charge per hour bookable by going on line
But I am sure Jon who is opening the Snooker Games Room will let me have more information on the format as it is due to open 1st of April 2015 .
The two tables are already in place and I have a few Photos provided by Jon to let you see what the small club is all about .

I think this is a one off type of club as I have never heard of anyone setting up a Games room use before , it is targeted at all those people who wish they had a Games room at home but due to space could not have or  not being able to afford one or not get planning permission of one .
Details of the club can be got Direct from Jon on 07970 443549 , please leave a message if you do not get an answer straight away .
What I will say is this club offers very warm playing conditions with plenty of heating , so no cold rooms to play snooker in this establishment , plenty of Free Parking , also a professional games driving machine as used by professional F1 Drivers is also being installed but no loud speaker to annoy the snooker players , Head phones only  on this game which is in the far corner well away from the snooker playing part of the room .
There is also a small kitchen area and toilet and hand wash facility area .

First table being installed , position of the table being in the center of the room , there is plenty of cue room as the room is 16 ft wide at this point .
As you can see there are plenty of heating radiators and the floor is fully carpet tiled , all interior decorated as new and also new lighting , extra table lighting is now being organised and will be ready for the 1st of April 2015.

Sliding the slates onto the first table , there are 5 slates to each table weighing 1 metric ton

The bed cloth having been refitted and re-stretched back on , I center a line for the spots to be positioned .

On one table I noticed that the center slate bearers ( Muntins) where located in a sliding rebate , so after I had a few words with Jon about adjustable slate brackets and the benefits of fitting them , He  had his friend make some adjustable brackets to move the sliding muntin beams up to support the slate and prevent possible slate sagging , I always recommend this if it is possible , these brackets where made on site just around the corner for the club in a workshop within 24 hours , a job very well done by the engineer who made them . without these brackets the center beam was 1/2 inch below the slate and doing nothing and in time the slates may well have started to sag down in the center of the table resulting in balls rolling inwards from both sides of the tables with no way of leveling this out without adjustable Brackets fitted

Lucky for us , the owner of the Barn has an extending beam fork lift , which we used to get the slates up to the First floor through what will eventually become a fire escape door .

these fork lifts are very good to get to above ground floors with ease , I have used them on various job’s that I have worked on and below are a couple of other job’s where we where fitting tables and the chance to use one was gladly taken up .

So if you fancy becoming a member who enjoys snooker or billiards in warm quite surroundings rather than the normal noisy club atmosphere then Give Jon a phone on 07970 443549 to enquire and get the full story of this one off limited numbers Members club .
Again I am not sure on the opening times of the club , but I did hear they where planning an all day booking time so maybe it is going to be open 24 hours a day .
I think you will be able go on line and book a time on the web site when it is up and running , this could be as simple as logging in on your smart phone to see what times are available on each table and book it .
The Games room is located close to church Broughton just a few minutes off the main A 50 Nottingham to Stoke road , plenty of parking in the main courtyard of this very large Farm on dry gravel not Mud !

We are experts in the relocation of Snooker tables , we move tables on a regular basis throughout the year and have many satisfied clients .
Do you have a table upstairs or in a basement location , we have moved Full size tables that are in difficult places to remove , or install into a room .
We have special trolleys to wheel slates and also a slate slide to get them downstairs , we also have lifting straps for up to 6 men to lift slates off a Slate trolley at the base of a set of stairs to a Slate trolley at the top of the stairs .
We have wraps to place around stair rails to protect them , and also a slide carpet to go over the stairs to protect from the slate slide .

Sometimes it may be possible to use a local crane hire , like this example in France to lift slates up to an opening in a Barn conversion , A Manitou fork lift borrowed from a local farmer and was on site ready for when we arrived , this was planning well in advance .
and came about because we talk about the install and like to see photo’s of where it is going way before we do the work .

Or even this example of using a crane that was already on site to lift the slates into the basement before capping with the floor area , the customer in this case even built his own slate rack to strap the slates to .

and another example of getting the heavy slates upstairs , many hands make light work as they say , and this client to keep costs low just employed a fitter ( myself)  and used his own 5 man team to lift the slates upstairs with myself making the 6th man .
These slates had another set of stairs to go up as the table was being set up in an attic room . Believe it or not one of this team was a woman she is just out of sight on the other side of the slate in the middle . she was strong though ! it really is a story of many hands make light work though and it is not as bad as the photo looks . all the slates where up within 45 minutes and all lifted up by hand and I provided all the lifting straps for this job , so no need to worry about equipment to find to get the table upstairs even if you do supply the extra men. I  am not saying we cannot supply the men , it was just that this client required a lower priced option by supplying the extra 4 men and 1 Woman !

Another table that was in an upstairs location in a Factory unit , this time the client  had the table lifted up by forklift that can be purchased if you shop @ Forklift Safety Solutions, and the table was as you see it when I arrived to finish the work off .

a full size snooker table loaded onto the van , all woodwork is blanket wrapped for the move and relocation , but if you are just having the table taken into store then for an extra charge we can bubble wrap all the woodwork to help keep damp out if say you are storing in a Garage that is unheated , note one of our sets of piano wheels at the back of the van that we use to trolley the slate on level ground .

another table just being loaded , again we make sure the polished woodwork is well wrapped to protect during the Move and relocation .
note our slate slide to the right with a blue ratchet strap , we use this to slide a slate downstairs using a strip of old carpet to protect the stairs , we only require three men for this type of removal of slates rather than 6 men to get them upstairs .
If you have a table upstairs we may ask you to send us a photo to show the stairs that we have to take the slate s down or up . we like to know exactly what we are up against before we take the work on , any firm that just shows up then starts to moan about the stairs is unprofessional , it shows our professionalism in the art of Snooker table removals that we ask so many questions .

STORAGE ,   if you cannot store your own table may we offer you an alternative ?
we have a large DRY storage area that our very good friends Jonills Removals offer our clients , we do not charge any middle men fees for storage we let you pay for storage direct to Jonills Removals  in Nottingham rather than take a percentage
And if you are moving house we can also work alongside Jonills in the removal of your snooker table at the same time as your House move , not many billiards firms can offer this all in service !
I have worked for many years with Dave at Jonills , removing tables at the same time as he moves the house , so if you required an all in quote of house contents and snooker table removal and set up at new property we can get together to work the best price out for you .

No fitter likes to lift slate upstairs , but we have to take the rough as well as the smooth work as they say .
If there are enough people on site to help get the slate upstairs then getting them up is not a problem for us.
if fork lifts and cranes can be used then go for this every time , but that is not always possible , and I would say it is very rare to get such machinery close by at the same time as an install upstairs.
above I have given you an insight of what it takes to get tables up or down stairs , I am glad to say most snooker tables are located on the ground floor and most of our table removals are straight forward and just a two man job if both locations are ground floor with solid ground and good access or a lift is available for getting slate  upstairs , but by showing you these examples it shows that GCL Billiards do have the Professional experience to tackle such work .
all above photo’s are on examples I have actually worked on , I do have many more photo’s too but I think I have put enough on to show what we do in our every day work as a billiards fitter.
In March I have a job to take 3 full size snooker tables downstairs for storage on site , this will be one of many job’s we take on throughout the year , if you have a table that requires moving by Professionals then please contact Geoff at GCL Billiards on 07753466064 or email at c.large@btinternet.com

and what a table looks like after re-locating and set up .
a very nice Riley Viceroy in oak  .

Today I have been out to Spalding in Lincolnshire , I was booked to do a re-cover in 6811 pool cloth on a 7×4 supreme winner pool table .
the venue was a fishing lake club and caravan park site.
I noticed that the cushions where going spongy so after a discussion with the owners it was decided that they upgrade to include a Brand new set of cushions supplied direct from the supreme Factory , these are not the low cost options you can buy on ebay , but Genuine supreme winner and prince cushions made  by supreme with high quality rubber used , they also come with a new set of fixing bolts .

I also took my time and made sure the table had a full service

The inside of the table was vacuumed out , and all ball rail runs and center section washed out with warm soapy water , and allowed to dry out .
I did this before i did the re-cover to allow for it to dry .

the side ball tray was given the full works of de-clogging all the grease and grime and dust and chalk build up , this was very bad and it was almost impossible for the balls could even roll down the tray
the last person to re-cover the table did not do this so it was a double dirty one to sort out  notice I got right into the flip out ball tray with the cloth .

the finished table . one of the legs had a none adjustable broken stripped thread foot , so we made this one leg the  high point and used the other feet to level the table up to that level , the slate had a dip in so we used strips of cloth on the support bars to take this bow out , the owner was most impressed in the way we went about the work and was highly delighted with the finished table
I suspect the foot was broken when the balls got stuck on all the grease and clogging of runners , to free the ball they lifted the table up and banged it back down stripping the thread on the adjustable foot.
So be aware make sure you have the table fully cleaned out , if they had done this last time that foot would have been undamaged !
GCL billiards will always do the work to a high standard , improving the tables play ability in the process , to the point you would not want another firm touching the table when it come’s to maintenance such as this .
Please contact Geoff at GCL billiards for your table to get the same treatment .

I do not know what is happening usually there is a lull in work after Christmas  , but with cheap low cost full size snooker tables flooding the market and with pool tables being played on much more , we have been getting bookings to move tables and re-cover a substantial amount of pool tables.
I have only a couple of days spare and I have quotes out for those days so it looks like the 2nd week of March before I can start taking more work in .

I do not like turning work away and will try and fit you in if I am passing for the odd pool table  re-cover or service or re-stretch of bed cloth on snooker tables .
please be patient when trying to book us for work , I am sure it will be beneficial for you to wait a few more days or weeks to get a professional re-cover by a time served Billiards fitter.

We do take our time when completing any work on your table and will not rush a job to earn a few more £s , we are not on a bonus scheme like some are .

We aim to keep costs to a more reasonable charge , and one way of doing this is for the client to supply help to lift slates upstairs if they have a 2nd floor location .