Pool and snooker tables come up for sale constantly, usually because somebody is clearing a games room or a pub is refitting, and they are frequently priced to move because the seller knows what is involved in shifting one. Pool table van hire is therefore a call we take fairly often, and it is worth being blunt from the start. A slate bed table is not a piece of furniture, it is several extremely heavy stone slabs in a wooden frame. Getting van hire in Warrington is the easy part of this job.
Slate Is the Whole Problem
A full size English pool table typically has a bed made of one or three pieces of slate, each of which can weigh well over eighty kilograms on its own, with the frame, cushions and legs on top of that. A three quarter or full size snooker table is in a different league again and is genuinely a specialist job. The slate is also brittle across its thinnest dimension, which means a slab that four people can carry safely on edge will crack under its own weight if it is picked up flat in the middle. Almost every damaged table we hear about was damaged by being carried the wrong way up rather than dropped.
Dismantle Properly Rather Than Moving It Whole
Nobody moves a slate bed table assembled. The cloth is unfastened or the cushions unbolted, the slates come off individually, the frame is separated and the legs come off last. Photograph everything as you go, particularly the underside of the slates, which are usually numbered or marked because they were levelled as a set and must go back in the same arrangement. Bag and label every bolt as it comes out. Reassembly is where a badly documented dismantle costs you an afternoon, and a table that goes back together in the wrong order will never play level no matter how much time you spend with a spirit level afterwards.
Why a Low Load Floor Matters So Much
Every slab has to be lifted from ground level into the vehicle and back out again, and the height of that lift is the difference between a controlled transfer and a dropped corner. The Luton low loader van is the sensible choice here because the lower deck reduces the height each slate has to travel, and the large box body gives you room to stand slabs on edge properly rather than laying them flat. Everything we run sits within three and a half tonnes gross vehicle weight and is driveable on a standard category B car licence, so the constraint is people rather than paperwork.
Carrying and Standing Slate on Edge
Slate travels on its edge, standing vertically against a side wall of the van, never flat and never leaning at an angle where it can slide. Two people take each slab, one at each end, keeping it vertical throughout the carry. Put timber battens or something similar underneath so the edge is not resting directly on the metal floor, and pack between the slabs so they cannot rub or tip into each other. Strap the stack to the wall. Slate that shifts in transit will chip along the edge, and a chipped edge is exactly where the cloth has to sit flat, so the damage shows in the finished table rather than staying hidden.
Doorways, Stairs and Where the Table Is Going
Think hard about the destination before you commit to buying. A slate bed table going upstairs or into a loft conversion is a serious undertaking and some floors are not suitable for the concentrated load. Measure the route in, including the turn at the bottom of a staircase and any doorway you have to negotiate with a slab held vertically between two people. Garage conversions and ground floor games rooms are the straightforward cases. Customers collecting from around Leigh van hire bookings and bringing a table back into town frequently find the destination room, not the van, is the thing that decides whether the purchase is sensible.
Booking the Van and Planning the Day
Allow far more time than seems reasonable, and agree in advance who is doing what. A group of four working to a plan will finish comfortably, whereas the same four improvising will still be arguing about the leg bolts at teatime. A careful dismantle, load, drive, unload and reassemble is a full day for a group of four, not a morning. Our depot on Tilley Street beside Asda at the main entrance to Cockhedge Shopping Centre is open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday, so a Saturday job needs an early start and a plan for getting the van back. Bring a photocard licence and a DVLA check code, there is no deposit on most vehicles, and your car can stay in the free secure parking on site while you are out working on the table. Most of what people ask before a first booking is answered on our van hire FAQs.
Tell us the table size and how many slates it has and we will advise on the body and on whether you have enough people. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 before you agree a collection day with the seller, and we will make sure the vehicle you take is the one that suits the slate.
