WHAT SIZE RUG GOES UNDER A POOL TABLE? (7, 8 & 9FT GUIDE)

Somewhere in your house there's a pool table, or there's about to be. Either way, it's several hundred pounds of wood, slate and felt, and it deserves better than bare floor and a chalk-dust halo. Frankly, so does your floor.

We've spent 50+ years designing floors for casinos, airports, and resorts, which is a long way of saying we have opinions. Here's the answer we'd give a friend.

THE SHORT ANSWER 

Measure the outside of your pool table, rails included, and add six feet to both the length and the width. That puts about three feet of rug on every side, which is enough that anyone lining up a shot is standing on the rug instead of on its edge. For a standard 8-foot table, that means a rug at least 10'8" x 14'4", which is why a 12' x 15' is the classic pick for an 8-footer.

That's the rule. Now for the reasons behind it, a quick room check, and which of our three sizes belongs with which table.

→ Explore our Pool Table Rug Size Guide

Crossplay Area Rug, sized to keep players comfortably on the rug around the table. Click the image to learn more.

THE GROUND RULES

Give it three feet

Nobody stands at the rail when they're shooting pool. They step back, lean in, plant a back foot two or three feet behind themr. Then they wander to the next shot, sometimes backward, eyes on the balls, trusting the floor to be there.

A rug that ends right under that back foot is a trip hazard with a nice pattern. Three feet past the rails keeps everyone on the rug for the whole shot, including the friend who lines up every shot like there's money on it.

The three feet comes from the cue, by the way. A standard cue is 58 inches, and cue length decides how far back people stand. File that away. It comes back around later, like a good bank shot.

Afterimage Area Rug, with generous coverage beyond the rails to give players room to step back and line up every shot. Click the image to learn more.

Leave a little floor showing

Your table already needs a room big enough to swing a cue, which for an 8-footer with standard cues is about 13'4" x 17'. A strip of floor around the rug frames it, the same way the rug frames the table.

That said, this is a pool room, not a formal living room. You're allowed to push the rug closer to the walls. Nobody's grading it.

Keep it low and flat

When a pool table goes in, the installer levels it right there, shimming and adjusting until the slate is dead flat. The catch is they level it once, on the day they're there. A thick, plush rug keeps compressing under all that weight for weeks afterward, and it doesn't always compress evenly. A table that drifts out of level stops rolling true, and suddenly everybody has an excuse.

A dense, low-profile rug doesn't have much give to begin with, so the level your installer leaves behind is the level you keep. Ours are made from nylon with a tight, low pile. It's the same fiber you'll find on casino floors, because nothing else bounces back like it after years of foot traffic, rolling chairs, and the occasional dropped ball. It also means there's no thick edge for anyone's heel to catch.

OUR THREE SIZES, AND WHERE EACH ONE BELONGS

You won't find 8 x 10 or 9 x 12 here. Those standard sizes were designed around sofas and dining tables, which are lovely, but they never need room to back up and take a shot. Ours were chosen for the rooms we actually make rugs for. They look a little odd on paper and very right under a pool table.

Here's the cheat sheet:

12' x 15': The full spread

This is the pick for 8-foot, oversized 8-foot, and 9-foot tables. Under an 8-footer, you get more than three and a half feet of rug along the long rails and 3'4" past each end. That's room for the dramatic stance, the slow lap around the table, and the player who studies every angle like it's a crime scene. A 9-foot table still gets 3'5" on the sides and 2'10" at the ends.

In a room built right at the 8-foot minimum, the 12' x 15' runs nearly wall to wall, with about eight inches of floor peeking out on the sides. Plenty of people love that. It makes the whole room the pool room, no debate. If you'd like a little more floor framing things, the 11' x 13' is right there.

11' x 13': The bar box's best friend

Under a 7-foot table, the 11' x 13' hits the guidelines almost exactly: 3'4" along the long rails and 2'9" past the ends. In a room built to the 7-foot minimum, around 13' x 16', you get about a foot of floor on the sides and a foot and a half at the ends. That's textbook.

It's also the smart call for an 8-foot table in a room that's right at the minimum. You still get 3'2" along the long rails and keep more than a foot of floor all the way around. Since the long rails make up two-thirds of the table's edge, that's where most of the shooting happens, and it's exactly where this size gives you the most rug.

Firelight Area Rug brings rich color and traditional pattern to an 11' x 13' footprint, giving a 7-foot pool table plenty of room to play. Click the image to learn more.

8' x 11': Built for tight rooms

Remember the cue thing? Here's the bank shot. When a room is too small for a standard 58-inch cue, players switch to 52- or 48-inch cues. Shorter cue, shorter stance, and everybody stands closer to the table. A 7-foot table set up for 48-inch cues fits in a room about 11'6" x 14'6", and an 11' x 13' in that room would be doing a very aggressive impression of wall-to-wall carpet.

The 8' x 11' gives a 7-footer close to two feet of rug on every side, which suits that shorter stance, and it leaves a proper frame of floor around the edges. Same logic for an 8-foot table squeezed into a short-cue room. If your house rules include a special exception for the support pole, this might be your rug.

It also makes a great second rug in a bigger game room, anchoring the couch on the other side so the seating gets its own zone instead of floating out there alone. 

→ Explore out our Gaming Room Layouts

For the tape-measure people

If you measure twice, cut once, and then measure a third time just to feel something, this one's for you. Here's how much rug you get past the rails with each size. The numbers are based on typical outside table dimensions, and rail widths vary by manufacturer, so measure your own table, rail to rail, before you order.

Framework Area Rug shows how the right rug size creates comfortable playing space while giving the pool table a strong visual foundation. Click the image to learn more.

PUT THE RUG DOWN FIRST

A slate pool table weighs hundreds of pounds and gets assembled and leveled right where it's going to live. Getting a rug under it after the fact means lifting it or taking it apart, and neither one is a fun Saturday. So get the rug down before the table arrives. Unroll it, give it a day or two to relax flat, then let the installers set up and level the table right on top.

Table already in? It can be done. It's just a job for whoever installed it, not three friends and a pizza. 

QUESTIONS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Do you really need a rug under a pool table? 
If you've got hard floors, yes, and not just because it looks better. Sooner or later a ball jumps the rail, and six ounces of solid resin will chip tile or dent hardwood on the way down. Pool chalk isn't really chalk, either. It's mostly fine silica, which is basically sand, and every footstep grinds it into your floor's finish. A rug catches the jumpers and traps the grit. It also means a spilled drink on the way back from the bar isn't a slip-and-slide. It softens the crack of the break so the whole house doesn't hear it, and it's easier on your feet four games into a best-of-seven. Plus, the table finally looks like it lives there instead of like it's waiting for a ride.

What about an oversized 8-foot table?
Treat it like an 8-footer with ambition. It runs a few inches bigger, so go 12' x 15' whenever the room allows.

Can one big rug cover the pool table and the couch?
It can, the same way one big pair of pants can fit two people. Give the pool table its own rug and the seating its own, and the room reads as two great spaces instead of one confused one.

Ready to give your pool table the floor it deserves? Explore our Pool & Billiards Room Rugs and find the perfect foundation for your next game.