ping pong tables

Consider hardwood flooring.

-- earthartandfoods.com

You might find some inspiration here

Nice looking table from Offerman Wood shop.

mrjinx flooring idea is good as long as you make the joints tight and seamless. We had a pool table with a cover to turn it into a make shift pingpong table and knowing how to play the joints on the table top was a huge home court advantage hahahah.

-- "He who has no dog, hunts with a cat" Portuguese proverb

I’d check with some ping pong experts about the color. Natural wood might be a distraction to a serious player if they’re used to traditional colors. Flatness is important to almost any level player….nothing worse than the ball catching the edge of a joint and bouncing unpredictably.

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

I’m pretty sure the ITTF rules have the specs for the table, and specify a continuous material with a uniform dark color in a matte finish (typically blue or green). However, If the table isn’t being used for competition, I guess it wouldn’t really matter.. natural wood, gloss finish, painted bright pink, whatever the customer wants :)

Cheers,
Brad

-- Brad in FL - In Dog I trust... everything else is questionable

watermark, They sell hardwood flooring without the grooves and the ones with the groove would indeed be ping pong challenge.

-- earthartandfoods.com

How about using an exotic wood laminate? Babinga for example. Edge band the table with hardwood to match and put a satin finish on it.

-- Tim Haenisch, San Diego Ca. http://www.facebook.com/commandperformancewooddesigns

Thanks for all the great comments…keep em coming! I’ll be sure to keep you jocks informed on what I decide and post pics of the finished products.

-- "The difficult I can do right away. .....the impossible will take a little longer! "

I would think that you’d want a surface that stays flat and stable, which is hard to achieve with hardwood. Batten underneath would be necessary.

Veneer on a stable substrate (MDF or plywood) would be more stable – plus give you more affordable options for wood selection. With veneer, would be very simple to incorporate the court markings on the table, too. Downside is that veneering large panels (half a table) needs a big press or vacuum platens.

-- Mark Kornell, Kornell Wood Design

Regardless of the style I would recommend sticking with an MDF top. Ping pong balls don’t bounce as well on plywood.

-- Willie, Washington "If You Choose Not To Decide, You Still Have Made a Choice" - Rush

Even the pool tables made with exotic woods or even heavy legs from tree trunks still have tops of slate and felt. I think you’ll be making a mistake if you do anything except legal and traditional for the top. Make your statement with the aprons and the legs. Make the top regulation. Don’t listen to all that chatter about flooring.

-- --Dale Page

Great input bannerpond1. I was leaning towards that myself. Now doing some research on dissecting ping pong tables.

-- "The difficult I can do right away. .....the impossible will take a little longer! "

If you have a building material salvage outlet near you, you might be able to find prefinished basketball court flooring that has been removed. It shows up locally quite often in big slabs. If you knew of such a project before it commences, you might be able to specify the size you would need.

-- I admit to being an adrenaline junky; fortunately, I'm very easily frightened

Check this out:

-- earthartandfoods.com

If the husband and son are serious players, the table must conform to the standard.
I just had a look at the ITTF link hereabove, there is a 22 pages technical leaflet.

There are also some constraints for the feet/under carriage.

mrjinx007, very nice table.

-- Sylvain, Brussels, Belgium, Europe - The more I learn, the more there is to learn (and that is nice)