LIOO Moving · Heavy & Specialty
How to Move a Pool Table (Why It Has to Come Apart)
Every pool-table disaster starts the same way: “it’s just a big table, four of us can get it.” The legs rack, the slate flexes over its unsupported middle, and the table never plays true again. Here’s what actually happens in a proper table move.
Teardown order Top down
Pockets first, then the rail bolts from underneath — rails come off as units, hardware bagged and labeled per rail.
Felt: stapled felt pulls up slowly from the edges for reuse; glued felt generally doesn’t survive — plan on new cloth at setup.
Slate: unscrewed from the frame, lifted flat by two people per piece, carried on edge like glass, padded — never flexed, never dropped a corner.
Frame and legs break down last; photograph the underside before the first bolt comes out.
Transport Slate rules
Slate rides on edge, padded, strapped to the truck wall — the same physics as mirrors, at ten times the weight.
Rails and felt-side pieces travel padded, nothing stacked on them.
Stairs multiply everything: a 200-lb slate piece on a staircase is a three-person carry with straps — this is where heavy item crews earn the fee.
The honest budget Moving + setup
A slate table move is two skills: the heavy careful carry (a mover’s job) and the re-level and re-felt at the destination (a table technician’s job — slate seams shimmed level and waxed, cloth stretched drum-tight). Some moves bundle both; many pair a moving crew with a local billiards tech for setup. What matters is that both are planned before move day — a table that gets moved but not properly leveled plays wrong forever. Non-slate (MDF) tables are lighter and can often move in fewer pieces, but the rails-off rule still applies. Either way, tell the crew the table exists when booking — like a safe or a piano, it changes the equipment on the truck.
Tell us slate or MDF, the size, and the stairs at both ends — the quote covers teardown, the carry, and coordination for setup.