High Pressure Laminate vs Natural Wood
Outside of slate, probably no other decision is as important to the consumer as what type of table should you buy. Because we manufacturer both laminate and natural wood tables, I’ll do my best to present the most balanced a view as I can. Having said that, my personal view is that for the vast majority of people, high pressure laminate is the best way to go. I’ll explain more later, but for now, you need to ask yourself the following question.
“What exactly am I trying to accomplish in buying a table?” Are you buying this for your kids? Are you an ex-league player or an aspiring “student of the game” that enjoys the unique challenges of the game? Perhaps you’d just like a nice table to complete your “man cave”. Perhaps you’re looking for a stunning piece of furniture that will impress your friends, or maybe you’re just looking for something to fill a space in your recreation room with something you hope someone will play. Is the initial cost an issue or the long term costs over the life of the table? How about possible re-sale value or the actual quality of the table?
How you answer these questions and the numerical “weight” you give them can go a long way to help you choose what is the best table for you. For now, keep your answers in the back of your mind and lets talk about wood.
Today, wood tables come in so many configurations even I can’t keep track of them all, but here are the most common wood and wood type tables you’ll find.
Solid Wood - As the name implies, all of the main components of the table (rails, aprons, cabinet & legs) are solid wood. However, just because it’s solid wood doesn’t mean it’s the same wood. For example, you can buy tables that are solid oak, cherry or maple, and our Paladin Classic is a good example of a solid cherry table. Many of the solid wood tables on the market might have solid oak rails and aprons (aprons are the part of the table that hang just under the rails and their only purpose is to hide the side of the table.) but the cabinet and legs are another less expensive wood that is stained to look like oak. However I just saw a new entry (at least for me) in the world of tables and that was a table that looked like real oak wood, but the wood was embossed (embossing is taking a piece of wood and under high pressure imprinting (squeezing) a pattern into it. In this case it was oak embossed and from the outside it looked like the grain pattern of oak. Only when you looked at the inside of the cabinet can you see it’s not really oak, but some other cheap hardwood from Asia. I only hope that the people who purchased it understood they weren’t getting a solid oak table.
Veneered Wood Tables - Lots of these out in pool table world. A veneer is a very thin piece of natural wood glued to a substrate. The substrate can be another cheap piece of solid wood, plywood, particle wood and even medium density fiberboard (MDF). These tables usually have solid oak rails and aprons while the legs and cabinet are veneered something.
“Tables That Look Like Something But Are Entirely Different” This probably comprises most of the wood tables sold today. These tables are made out of some cheap foreign wood but spray stained to look like the real thing. Cherry and mahogany are the most popular candidates for this.
One more thing about wood. Even for people with the most casual understanding of wood, furniture made out of woods like Cherry, Black Walnut and Mahogany brings $ signs to our eyes. However one of the most popular tables is mahogany, but in pool table world that means Philippine Mahogany otherwise known as Lauan. Lauan is related to mahogany like the pine trees in my yard are related to an oak tree. Just because they say it’s something, doesn’t mean it’s true.
High Pressure Laminate (HPL)
HPL is a sheet of imprinted paper that is coated with phenolic resins. The sheets are then compressed under tremendous pressure which infuses the phenolic resin into the paper. The result is a material that is substantially more resistant to burns, stains, scratches and impacts.
Some of the most common names are Formica & Wilsonart. Although HPL has many uses, it is usually used in high wear areas, such as kitchen counter tops and it is perfect for pool tables. In fact, every commercial pool table made uses some type HPL and that should tell you something about its ability to resist burns, stains, scratches and impacts.
I also have to give credit to the manufacturers. Over the years these companies have really upped their game when it comes to wood grain laminates. They are very striking and many of my customers are surprised when they find out that the table they admire is actually HPL and not real wood.
The Problems With Wood Tables
I like wood. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like it. But wood by its very nature has some general downsides. It’s very susceptible to burns, scratches, and if you hit it, or drop something on it, it dents.
And it is for those reasons that I strongly feel that laminate is more appropriate. Just ask yourself how careful you are around your own wood pieces. You don’t just set a drink on it, you’re careful when you vacuum and I’m reasonably certain you do your best to encourage your kids not to play around them. And I’m also certain that you are very careful when you move them. I also know from personal experience the angst you feel when you goof up and put a scratch in one.
Now, think of a pool table. Usually, it’s a family game so now you have kids and their friends playing. The pool balls are hard as rocks, and you have watches, rings and belt buckles ready to put a scratch in your table. And here’s something that a retail pool table dealer will never tell you. Not only do cues occasionally slip out of your hands and bang against the side of the table (which can leave a mark) cues also use chalk. As I’m sure you know, chalk is used on the tip of the cue so you don’t miscue. But what no one tells you is that chalk isn’t fine (like talcum powder) but more granular. And it’s those grains that create friction (adhesion) between the cue tip and ball. However, when the cue ball is tight against or very near a rail, the proper method for shooting the shot is to lay the cue flat on the rail, take a couple of practice strokes and then shoot. Essentially, what you’re really doing is dragging a piece of sandpaper over your beautiful wood rails. It doesn’t matter how many coats of polyurethane finish are on your rails, you are going to leave a mark. (Qualifier Alert! Of course you’re not going to leave a mark every time you shoot this shot, but over time, it will happen). And, the better the player or the stronger the guy shooting, the greater the marks. And no, Pledge or Formby’s isn’t going to take them out. Those marks are there for you to look at forever.
This isn’t some story I’m making up to scare you. I move tables for a living, and I’ve moved tables that are just a couple of years old and the rails are covered with marks. Besides, by the very nature of you being on my website you are already very familiar with chalk and you know what I’m talking about. If you are still skeptical, walk into a retail store and tell the salesman that some crazy guy was saying that chalk can mark up a rail and that you’d like to try this out for yourself on their most expensive wood table and see what happens. Of course, he won’t let you do it but if he’s sharp he’ll probably say that holding the cue flat on the rail isn’t the proper way to shoot the shot and the real way, the way the “pros” do it, is by jacking (lifting) up the back of the cue and hitting down on the ball. He has no idea what he’s talking about but he does sound like the typical salesman.
Another common problem is that when racking the balls, they slip out of your hands and bounce on the rails. Again, I don’t care if your table has 9 coats of poly on it, drop a ball on your rail and it can leave a dent.
Let me quickly add something about wood finishes. Ask a typical salesman about laminate pool tables and he’ll probably snort and say something like; “we don’t sell many “plastic” tables”. I find this odd because what they mainly sell are wood tables with plastic finishes. Let me explain…
Basically, there are two ways to finish wood. Hand-rubbed & Spray-on. A hand-rubbed finish is a combinations of natural oils which sometimes has a chemical hardener in it. The goal is that as the finish dries, it strengthens the wood fibers. You apply the finish, give it time to soak into the wood, then hand rub more finish down into the grain. Let it dry and then repeat a couple more times. To be fair, there is a bit more to this but you get the idea. The result of a hand-rubbed finish is the wood is protected and you can actually feel the wood grain. This is the finish we use on all of our hardwood games and the finish you’ll get when you spend $7,000 on a table.
The second type of finish is spray-on and it is a much quicker (cheaper) way to apply finish. These finishes are applied using a spray gun and the finish has a drying chemical in it that reacts to UV light. First, the wood is sanded, then the first coat of finish is applied using a spray gun. Many times this first coat has a tint (stain) added for color, which is allowed to soak into the wood and then the excess stain is wiped off . The piece is then run under a UV light and is dry in less than a minute. Then the next coat of finish (usually clear coat) is applied (but not wiped off)and then again, hit with UV light. This is how you quickly (and cheaply) build up multiple coats of finish. Essentially, what you end up with is a piece of wood with a “plastic” coating on top of it. You can’t feel the grain of the wood since it’s buried under numerous plastic coats of finish.
Another game well played by the wood pool table industry is what I call “painting with stain”. Wood being a natural product isn’t perfect. Every board of wood contains light and dark spots. Many people like that variation. They feel that is the quality that makes wood beautiful, and I agree. However, many types of wood don’t take stain evenly (even with chemical agents that are designed to do that) or the wood doesn’t have a very attractive grain pattern. For pool world, the answer is easy. They take a piece of inexpensive hardwood and simply spray on the stain (usually very dark) and let it dry, without wiping off the stain. The end result is just like paint. A piece of wood with very little noticeable grain and all the same color. They then market this to you as a solid hardwood table (for a considerable price), which it is, it’s just a cheap hardwood table.
Some people like this type of finish. They can still see the wood and it’s protected from damage by the finish. The one problem with this is that a) the finish itself marks up, b) when hit with a ball or cue it cracks and c) over time not only does the finish wear off, but it wears off unevenly and looks terrible.
High Pressure Laminate isn’t finish. It is a piece of colored paper and then is infused with phenolic resin under tremendous pressure which binds the materials together. It might surprise you to know that many pool balls are also made of phenolic resin. I really don’t know how much stronger HPL is than a spray-on finish but I’m guessing it’s in the hundreds of times. What I do know, is HPL is much more resistant to burns, stains, scratches and impacts than any finish.
Remember the questions I asked at the beginning of this section? One was about re-sale. I know at this point you’re just thinking about buying a table and not selling it, but look into the future. Are you buying this for the kids? Do you still want the table after their gone or do you want to downsize to a smaller home that probably doesn’t have room for your table. Either way, many of you will probably sell your table sometime in the future and how much do you think you’ll get for a scratched and dented table because a few years down the road, that’s what you’ll be selling. How much would you pay? Add in the additional $400 - $600 cost of moving (what is probably a 3-piece slate) and re-setting your table and the reality is that you’ll be lucky to get 10% of the original price. I’ve seen used $4000 tables go for $100 bucks. I kid our customers that you should name the table because they’ll have it, not only for the rest of their lives, but well into their children’s. It’s not to say that other tables won’t last as long because many of them will. The difference is how they look. If you own one of our laminate tables and you do have to sell it, the combination of the vastly better appearance (no dings or dents) and our one piece slate assures you of getting top dollar for your table. (To read more on how the type of slate you get affects the overall cost of the table click here).
To further support this argument let me share with you a personal experience. I got a call from a guy whom I sold a table to 18 years ago. He and a buddy have a Wednesday night pool match and he wanted his table recovered. Even after all that play, it really didn’t need recovering but the guy told me that after 18 years, his wife was tired of the color of felt. When I saw the table, outside of the obvious wear of the cloth, the table itself looked brand new. That is the power of HPL and something that you’ll never get from solid wood.
One last note on wood tables. Go to different pool table websites and you’ll see a lot of words thrown around like “handmade” or “old world craftsmanship”. With words like this, the pool table industry would like you to think that you’re buying a piece of 16th century Renaissance artwork and not a 21st century pool table. See those ornate legs on that $6,000 table that caught your eye? They are not made by some bearded old guy wearing a smock and laboring over a workbench with a hammer and chisel. Everything, from ornate legs and cabinet trim to the patterns cut into the cabinet and legs are all done by machine. Your pool table has as much “old world craftsmanship” in it, as your cell phone or the car sitting in your driveway.
“What exactly am I trying to accomplish in buying a table?” Are you buying this for your kids? Are you an ex-league player or an aspiring “student of the game” that enjoys the unique challenges of the game? Perhaps you’d just like a nice table to complete your “man cave”. Perhaps you’re looking for a stunning piece of furniture that will impress your friends, or maybe you’re just looking for something to fill a space in your recreation room with something you hope someone will play. Is the initial cost an issue or the long term costs over the life of the table? How about possible re-sale value or the actual quality of the table?
How you answer these questions and the numerical “weight” you give them can go a long way to help you choose what is the best table for you. For now, keep your answers in the back of your mind and lets talk about wood.
Today, wood tables come in so many configurations even I can’t keep track of them all, but here are the most common wood and wood type tables you’ll find.
Solid Wood - As the name implies, all of the main components of the table (rails, aprons, cabinet & legs) are solid wood. However, just because it’s solid wood doesn’t mean it’s the same wood. For example, you can buy tables that are solid oak, cherry or maple, and our Paladin Classic is a good example of a solid cherry table. Many of the solid wood tables on the market might have solid oak rails and aprons (aprons are the part of the table that hang just under the rails and their only purpose is to hide the side of the table.) but the cabinet and legs are another less expensive wood that is stained to look like oak. However I just saw a new entry (at least for me) in the world of tables and that was a table that looked like real oak wood, but the wood was embossed (embossing is taking a piece of wood and under high pressure imprinting (squeezing) a pattern into it. In this case it was oak embossed and from the outside it looked like the grain pattern of oak. Only when you looked at the inside of the cabinet can you see it’s not really oak, but some other cheap hardwood from Asia. I only hope that the people who purchased it understood they weren’t getting a solid oak table.
Veneered Wood Tables - Lots of these out in pool table world. A veneer is a very thin piece of natural wood glued to a substrate. The substrate can be another cheap piece of solid wood, plywood, particle wood and even medium density fiberboard (MDF). These tables usually have solid oak rails and aprons while the legs and cabinet are veneered something.
“Tables That Look Like Something But Are Entirely Different” This probably comprises most of the wood tables sold today. These tables are made out of some cheap foreign wood but spray stained to look like the real thing. Cherry and mahogany are the most popular candidates for this.
One more thing about wood. Even for people with the most casual understanding of wood, furniture made out of woods like Cherry, Black Walnut and Mahogany brings $ signs to our eyes. However one of the most popular tables is mahogany, but in pool table world that means Philippine Mahogany otherwise known as Lauan. Lauan is related to mahogany like the pine trees in my yard are related to an oak tree. Just because they say it’s something, doesn’t mean it’s true.
High Pressure Laminate (HPL)
HPL is a sheet of imprinted paper that is coated with phenolic resins. The sheets are then compressed under tremendous pressure which infuses the phenolic resin into the paper. The result is a material that is substantially more resistant to burns, stains, scratches and impacts.
Some of the most common names are Formica & Wilsonart. Although HPL has many uses, it is usually used in high wear areas, such as kitchen counter tops and it is perfect for pool tables. In fact, every commercial pool table made uses some type HPL and that should tell you something about its ability to resist burns, stains, scratches and impacts.
I also have to give credit to the manufacturers. Over the years these companies have really upped their game when it comes to wood grain laminates. They are very striking and many of my customers are surprised when they find out that the table they admire is actually HPL and not real wood.
The Problems With Wood Tables
I like wood. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like it. But wood by its very nature has some general downsides. It’s very susceptible to burns, scratches, and if you hit it, or drop something on it, it dents.
And it is for those reasons that I strongly feel that laminate is more appropriate. Just ask yourself how careful you are around your own wood pieces. You don’t just set a drink on it, you’re careful when you vacuum and I’m reasonably certain you do your best to encourage your kids not to play around them. And I’m also certain that you are very careful when you move them. I also know from personal experience the angst you feel when you goof up and put a scratch in one.
Now, think of a pool table. Usually, it’s a family game so now you have kids and their friends playing. The pool balls are hard as rocks, and you have watches, rings and belt buckles ready to put a scratch in your table. And here’s something that a retail pool table dealer will never tell you. Not only do cues occasionally slip out of your hands and bang against the side of the table (which can leave a mark) cues also use chalk. As I’m sure you know, chalk is used on the tip of the cue so you don’t miscue. But what no one tells you is that chalk isn’t fine (like talcum powder) but more granular. And it’s those grains that create friction (adhesion) between the cue tip and ball. However, when the cue ball is tight against or very near a rail, the proper method for shooting the shot is to lay the cue flat on the rail, take a couple of practice strokes and then shoot. Essentially, what you’re really doing is dragging a piece of sandpaper over your beautiful wood rails. It doesn’t matter how many coats of polyurethane finish are on your rails, you are going to leave a mark. (Qualifier Alert! Of course you’re not going to leave a mark every time you shoot this shot, but over time, it will happen). And, the better the player or the stronger the guy shooting, the greater the marks. And no, Pledge or Formby’s isn’t going to take them out. Those marks are there for you to look at forever.
This isn’t some story I’m making up to scare you. I move tables for a living, and I’ve moved tables that are just a couple of years old and the rails are covered with marks. Besides, by the very nature of you being on my website you are already very familiar with chalk and you know what I’m talking about. If you are still skeptical, walk into a retail store and tell the salesman that some crazy guy was saying that chalk can mark up a rail and that you’d like to try this out for yourself on their most expensive wood table and see what happens. Of course, he won’t let you do it but if he’s sharp he’ll probably say that holding the cue flat on the rail isn’t the proper way to shoot the shot and the real way, the way the “pros” do it, is by jacking (lifting) up the back of the cue and hitting down on the ball. He has no idea what he’s talking about but he does sound like the typical salesman.
Another common problem is that when racking the balls, they slip out of your hands and bounce on the rails. Again, I don’t care if your table has 9 coats of poly on it, drop a ball on your rail and it can leave a dent.
Let me quickly add something about wood finishes. Ask a typical salesman about laminate pool tables and he’ll probably snort and say something like; “we don’t sell many “plastic” tables”. I find this odd because what they mainly sell are wood tables with plastic finishes. Let me explain…
Basically, there are two ways to finish wood. Hand-rubbed & Spray-on. A hand-rubbed finish is a combinations of natural oils which sometimes has a chemical hardener in it. The goal is that as the finish dries, it strengthens the wood fibers. You apply the finish, give it time to soak into the wood, then hand rub more finish down into the grain. Let it dry and then repeat a couple more times. To be fair, there is a bit more to this but you get the idea. The result of a hand-rubbed finish is the wood is protected and you can actually feel the wood grain. This is the finish we use on all of our hardwood games and the finish you’ll get when you spend $7,000 on a table.
The second type of finish is spray-on and it is a much quicker (cheaper) way to apply finish. These finishes are applied using a spray gun and the finish has a drying chemical in it that reacts to UV light. First, the wood is sanded, then the first coat of finish is applied using a spray gun. Many times this first coat has a tint (stain) added for color, which is allowed to soak into the wood and then the excess stain is wiped off . The piece is then run under a UV light and is dry in less than a minute. Then the next coat of finish (usually clear coat) is applied (but not wiped off)and then again, hit with UV light. This is how you quickly (and cheaply) build up multiple coats of finish. Essentially, what you end up with is a piece of wood with a “plastic” coating on top of it. You can’t feel the grain of the wood since it’s buried under numerous plastic coats of finish.
Another game well played by the wood pool table industry is what I call “painting with stain”. Wood being a natural product isn’t perfect. Every board of wood contains light and dark spots. Many people like that variation. They feel that is the quality that makes wood beautiful, and I agree. However, many types of wood don’t take stain evenly (even with chemical agents that are designed to do that) or the wood doesn’t have a very attractive grain pattern. For pool world, the answer is easy. They take a piece of inexpensive hardwood and simply spray on the stain (usually very dark) and let it dry, without wiping off the stain. The end result is just like paint. A piece of wood with very little noticeable grain and all the same color. They then market this to you as a solid hardwood table (for a considerable price), which it is, it’s just a cheap hardwood table.
Some people like this type of finish. They can still see the wood and it’s protected from damage by the finish. The one problem with this is that a) the finish itself marks up, b) when hit with a ball or cue it cracks and c) over time not only does the finish wear off, but it wears off unevenly and looks terrible.
High Pressure Laminate isn’t finish. It is a piece of colored paper and then is infused with phenolic resin under tremendous pressure which binds the materials together. It might surprise you to know that many pool balls are also made of phenolic resin. I really don’t know how much stronger HPL is than a spray-on finish but I’m guessing it’s in the hundreds of times. What I do know, is HPL is much more resistant to burns, stains, scratches and impacts than any finish.
Remember the questions I asked at the beginning of this section? One was about re-sale. I know at this point you’re just thinking about buying a table and not selling it, but look into the future. Are you buying this for the kids? Do you still want the table after their gone or do you want to downsize to a smaller home that probably doesn’t have room for your table. Either way, many of you will probably sell your table sometime in the future and how much do you think you’ll get for a scratched and dented table because a few years down the road, that’s what you’ll be selling. How much would you pay? Add in the additional $400 - $600 cost of moving (what is probably a 3-piece slate) and re-setting your table and the reality is that you’ll be lucky to get 10% of the original price. I’ve seen used $4000 tables go for $100 bucks. I kid our customers that you should name the table because they’ll have it, not only for the rest of their lives, but well into their children’s. It’s not to say that other tables won’t last as long because many of them will. The difference is how they look. If you own one of our laminate tables and you do have to sell it, the combination of the vastly better appearance (no dings or dents) and our one piece slate assures you of getting top dollar for your table. (To read more on how the type of slate you get affects the overall cost of the table click here).
To further support this argument let me share with you a personal experience. I got a call from a guy whom I sold a table to 18 years ago. He and a buddy have a Wednesday night pool match and he wanted his table recovered. Even after all that play, it really didn’t need recovering but the guy told me that after 18 years, his wife was tired of the color of felt. When I saw the table, outside of the obvious wear of the cloth, the table itself looked brand new. That is the power of HPL and something that you’ll never get from solid wood.
One last note on wood tables. Go to different pool table websites and you’ll see a lot of words thrown around like “handmade” or “old world craftsmanship”. With words like this, the pool table industry would like you to think that you’re buying a piece of 16th century Renaissance artwork and not a 21st century pool table. See those ornate legs on that $6,000 table that caught your eye? They are not made by some bearded old guy wearing a smock and laboring over a workbench with a hammer and chisel. Everything, from ornate legs and cabinet trim to the patterns cut into the cabinet and legs are all done by machine. Your pool table has as much “old world craftsmanship” in it, as your cell phone or the car sitting in your driveway.