I am installing a floating laminate floor with a foam underlayment on a wood subfloor. This is in the living room on the first floor of my house. I would like to put a slate-topped pool table (heavy) in the room but I am concerned about the weight of it. I question what thickness of laminate to get and a way to distribute weight enough not to damage floor. Any suggestions?
Choose the base of your pool table wisely. Force = pressure multiplied by area. The force will remain constant as the weight of the pool table does not change. So, you need to change surface area to affect pressure on the floor. The larger the floor contact with the pool table, the more distributed the weight will be. Which means that if you have a large contact with the floor, you will have less pressure on that section of the floor. If you have no choice but to go for those tiny little leveling feet, then possibly run a thin piece of wood between the feet at each end. Something like a 1x4, or even a sheet of thick plywood. You will be distributing the weight of half the pool table from two tiny little feet onto a much larger surface, thus reducing the pressure effectss on the floor. Just remember, you can always touch up that piece of wood to match your table. It's just a way to protect your floor. Heck, you could even install a nice curtain of sorts to hide the base of the table from view.
The weight of the average size and weight pool table will not have any effect on correctly installed laminate. The weight is spread out over the 4 legs. Not much more than an average size person standing in a spot on the laminate. If possible always get the 10/12mm thickness in laminate. This is more often a better quality flooring than a 6/8 mm laminate. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar. I ve attended several installation seminars , as well as installed a couple 100,000 s/f. GL
