Pool Table Sizes

Mar 2, 2012

Here at DK Billiards, we pride ourselves on matching our clients with the perfect size pool table. What’s that you say? You didn’t know that slate pool tables came in many different sizes? Well folks, hopefully after reading my latest pool table blog, you’ll be a little more in the know about pool table sizes. Back in the mid-1800s, pocket billiard tables really only came in one size. A four and a half by nine-foot was considered the “Standard” size pool table. Back in those days, having a pool table inside of one’s home was considered a status symbol. Most people who could afford such a luxurious piece of furniture probably had more than enough room to accommodate the largest size pool table there was. Fast forward 90 years to the 1940s. Many things had changed, home sizes were becoming smaller and some middle-class families were able to afford luxury items.

Pool table manufacturers started to see a whole new market of pool table owners emerging. But if home sizes were shrinking, would pool table sizes start shrinking too? Yes, that’s absolutely what happened! Thus was born the eight-foot pool table. This new size would become the standard pool table for home recreational use. It had a 46 by 92-inch playing field, which by today’s standards is an uncommon size. So as the sizes of homes and rooms got even smaller, the sizes of pool tables did as well.

Fast forward to the present day. The old standard size home pool table is now being called the “Pro Eight Foot” size table. It has been replaced by a slightly smaller size. The new standard home pool table size is called the 4 by 8 foot. Its playing field measures 44 by 88 inches. And of course, there is a seven-foot pool table, sometimes called a “Bar Size” pool table because of its prevalence in bars and nightclubs. The coin-operated bar table’s playing field measures 40 by 80 inches. Residential seven-footers are 39 by 78 inches. And for those folks really, really determined to have a pool table in their home game room, we can even custom build you a six-foot pool table with a playing field that is 36 by 72 inches. To my knowledge, this is the smallest slate pool table size to date.