Restaurant Furniture Blog

Restaurant tables design has swung between legs and pedestals for many years. Legs of course offer a more stable base with four legs touching the floor. Pedestals generally only have the one point touching the floor. This has changed a little over the years with bases incorporating fancy mini-legs.

Those mini-legs still only cover a very small area of the floor so table tops are still a minor balancing act. Good maintenance is essential to ensuring your tables maintain their balance and don’t create major accidents.

Over time, as diners lean on your restaurant table tops their weight creates a lot of downward pressure on the table top. This can act like a lever and cause the opposite side of the table to come away from the base. Tables should be regularly checked to see if there is any rocking movement between the table top and the base support.

If you do find there is movement between the table top and the base, this must be seen to immediately. Often, all that is required is the tightening of the screws or bolts holding the table to the base. If left unattended, the screw’s bolts can be forced out of their seatings - this effectively tears the fitting and results in the screw or bolt having no seat to be tightened into.

Once this happens, the table top and base become ineffective. You may be able to salvage the base and reuse it with a new table top - it will depend on the damage and which components have been affected.

Your restaurant tables design generally incorporate features that ensure your table top and base stay together. This doesn’t mean you should set and forget them. You are dealing with diners and hot food. The last thing you need is for a table to tip over simply because you failed to maintain it.