Do I need to keep room heated

[chas6868]

Do I need to keep my snooker room heated all the time.
Have a big double garage with non insulated floor but have heavy wool underlay plus carpet.
Just recently fitted new steel blocks and concerned about the rubber if left in a cold room.
The room has insulated walls and ceiling
Plus 4 x 2000 k watt heaters normally I would just put 2 on when I go in for a practice or 4 if its the dead of winter.

[philip in china]

I would be inclined to keep a low heat on if not all the time, certainly part of the time. You are not only keeping it comfortable for yourself. You need to control the relative humidity.

My snooker room is a converted barn, so possibly slightly similar to yours. Electricity here is cheaper at night. So I run the air conditioner, on heating setting, for 8 hours a couple of times a week. The room is very well insulated so that makes a difference even if I don't go in until the evening perhaps 10 hours after I have switched off the heater. Interestingly I got my monthly power bill yesterday. Over 44% of my power consumption was off peak.

[chas6868]

Thanks Philip.
My problem has always been the non insulated concrete floor.
Round about this time of year it is really bad for about 4 months and it takes a bit of heating up.
Iam not playing everyday and with the price of electricity its a bit of a problem.
I have no ceiling hieght to even add insulation to the floor./sometimes I feel like going outside for a heat!
Main concern is just really keeping the northern rubber in good condition .

[Geoff Large]

Put a couple of oil filled radiators under the table and turn on when playing , leave one small wattage one on all the time ,
if you have long dust sheets try and cover down to the floor leaving open slightly at each end
the heat will rise trapped under the table into the slate and if you put 2 inch thick insulation over the top this will trap heat in the space below to the cloth that is passing up through the slate bed , this will in turn keep the rubbers above freezing temperatures ,

the best heat setting is to not let the actual table get below 60F

a log burner with flu going almost up to the roof then turns and goes through a wall will also heat the room up .

the biggest problem you will have is Humidity and condensation when heating cold rooms that is why constant heat is better under the table , slates will sweat condensation if heating up from cold , this will in turn damp the cloth .

I had a set of slates on my van the other day , and when putting the table up in a warm room , the slates started to sweat out the dampness of being stored on a van for two days between a house move .
you will be amazed at how much dampness comes out of them , when heating the slate up from cold .

[throtts]

Put a couple of oil filled radiators under the table and turn on when playing , leave one small wattage one on all the time ,

if you have long dust sheets try and cover down to the floor leaving open slightly at each end

I have those white heating rods on permanently under my table slates. Very low cost to run, I think.

I also have a God Cover. Its a proper table cover, you have to have big muscles though because its quite heavy. Looks cool too when covered up :snooker:

[Andrew watt]

I have those white heating rods on permanently under my table slates. Very low cost to run, I think.

I also have a God Cover. Its a proper table cover, you have to have big muscles though because its quite heavy. Looks cool too when covered up :snooker:

I have a God cover also. I took the gel packs out of it as it was marking the cloth with the weight of them. Your also right about the weight it's ridiculous how heavy it is.

[perpetualboredom]

Thanks for the replays.
I have 3 of those tube heaters think they are about 300watts each .
Maybe I will fix them under the table and keep one on a timer or on constant.
The other two only when playing.
I have one of those silver covers maybe not the best it was about £35 I think.
Will look for another heavy cover maybe.

if anyone knows a brand of tube heaters that don’t blow every couple of months please let me know! I’ve had 6 go now from toolstation which the fitter recommended. Even though they’re under warranty I can’t be bothered taking them off refitting/wiring etc so they’re sat their dead atm. I’ll just get a refund when I grab round to removing them..
oil filled radiator works well but you don’t get as even a spread of heat as with the tubes.

[Geoff Large]

Please note placing heat directly under slate in the LONG TERM will damage the slate bed
Heat rises so oil filled rads are in my opinion better for the slate bed in the LONG TERM USE.

As a billiard fitter of over 40 years served , I have seen some very distorted slate beds with heat being placed directly to or just below the slate bed .
slate is a porous surface and there are small tiny air or even gas pockets inside the slate formation , these expand and you can get distortion or unevenness of the slate surface caused by too much heat at close quarters , this happens when normally in constant use .

in bad situations you can even get separation of the slate bed layers with the heat lifting large shale of slate upwards , it all depends on how the slate was formed all in one thick layer if you are lucky or small separate layers over time
most modern slates are by the small layer system especially Italian Chinese and Brazilian slate , the three main sources for modern tables manufactured since the 1980s .

heating slate is not a new thing it was used from the early 1900s by form of radiators or even a lit flame under a dome of metal in the form of a China mans hat shape just under the slate bed , normally covered in soot from the flame .
I came
I came across one such flame under the black end of the table in a club in Ilkeston near Derby in the 1980s , the end slate was distorted that badly it could not be leveled .
it was lower cost to change the table rather than re float the slates.

Re-floating slate is an expensive procedure it cannot be done at Home or on site it makes such a mess .
and you require around 12 foot at each end of the table to do this .
the last firm I knew who floated slates as a service where Enbild and Karnehm and Hillman , both not trading anymore .

another thing you have to watch out of is lack of center support and the use of heaters will cause slate sagging .
We are now as a matter of recommendation to all clients who have a table set up or worked on asking each client if they require slate support adjustable brackets fitting .

http://gclbilliards.com/badly-fitted...e-way-forward/

if your table does not have these and there is a gap between slate bed and the slate bearer then I would advise on this conversion for peace of mind .
ask your local Billiards fitter to retro fit this system .

[philip in china]

Those packing pieces for UPVC windows are almost unbelievable! You must see some real cowboy jobs But I can't imagine many being worse than that.

Always a pleasure to visit your site, Geoff.

[philip in china]

I suppose we should be grateful they didn't use aerosol foam.....

[Geoff Large]

I once took a table apart that had two cushion bolts placed in blocks of wood all around the edge of the frame and the slates just rested on the cushion bolt points
that was the a bad one I had seen for bodging , or ?

but the worst slates where a set that had been sanded down on site with a floor board sanding machine with the so called billiard fitter walking up and down the table on the slate bed itself .
he used this method to get the slate joints level , I could name him but NO , he has passed on now so no point .

a bit like a sam k steel pool american table .

[Geoff Large]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PIV7N...-tvw7s7-DBMOPK

Tube heaters that claim to be constant use type so should last , just do not place them too close to slate bed .
leave around 9 inch below slate bed

[throtts]

Geoff,

I have the thin white rods under my slates, think they are around 48" in length, 2 per slate.

They are on all the time. Was told it was safe to do so. Hope its correct..

[Geoff Large]

It is the long term use that effects slate beds , if too close to slate bed refit a little lower for peace of mind
you drop not have to fry an egg on the slate surface to help it play faster , a warm table is all that is required .
Actually long term heat also degrades rubber quicker too .
there is a fine balance between rubbers giving a long life , too cold and they get hard , too warm they got too soft at first then too hard and brittle shrink and crack .

[philip in china]

I have one of my pianos in the snooker room. I really need to keep an eye on both temperature and humidity.

Fortunately I have a curatrix who monitors such things from time to time in most of the rooms.