To: All Board and membership
Several months ago, Rollin Gartzke stopped by my house and handed me a $5000 check for SBARC on behalf of the Gartzke Family. Rollins father, Fred Gartzke, K6YD, and I worked side by side at Raytheon for many years. We collaborated on navigation systems long before GPS where I had skilled myself with the Boston Police Department using phase ranging techniques of UHF transmissions for vehicle location systems. Fred passed away rather young. He was a brilliant mathematician and mentor in amateur radio. I never forgot his guidance and support with establishing a tri-county VHF net for the SB Section of the ARRL. His legacy lives on.
Bill Talanian
Cue for Success: 805 Pool Table Services Brings Billiards Back Into Style
Owner Rollin Gartzke started his business to fill a local need; since then, his business has expanded around the stateby Daniel Green, Noozhawk Staff WriterOctober 10, 2025 | 9:46 pm
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Rollin Gartzke stands in his workshop where he runs 805 Pool Table Services. He started his company during the COVID-19 pandemic after he purchased his own table. Daniel Green / Noozhawk photo
Many people started new hobbies during the COVID-19 pandemic, but few turned them into a business.
Even though Rollin Gartzke, the owner of 805 Pool Table Services, had an interest in pool and played in a local league, his first real step into reconstructing pool tables came during the pandemic, when he bought a table from a neighbor for $500.
After moving the table to his house, Gartzke and a friend discovered there are no local installers. He said many of the local vendors either retired or were dealing with medical issues.
Some local shops were using a team out of Los Angeles. The distance created an issue for people who had to wait for the LA installers to travel up to Santa Barbara every few weeks to work on a few tables.
However, despite saying that describing the trade of servicing tables as a dying industry, Gartzke believes the popularity of pool as a hobby is growing.
“I feel like since COVID it is really taking off again,” Gartzke said. “That’s kind of where this whole business spawned from. I got a table, my friend got a table and my uncle got a table. All three of us needed to have them done, and that’s when we realized nobody did it.”
That hole in the local scene inspired Gartzke to begin his company, 805 Pool Table Services, which offers cleaning services, repairs and alterations.
As a self-described self-starter, Gartzke said the process of starting the business was fairly easy for him. He watched videos on how to repair tables on YouTube and figured out which techniques worked best for him.
“There was a lot of R&D at home, never at the customer’s house, but it’s a learning curve,” Gartzke said
The first pool table that Rollin Gartzke restored and that piqued his interest in repairing pool tables. Courtesy photo
He said learning how to apply new felt or put together a table was more time-consuming than difficult. Every table also comes with its own unique challenge.
Gartzke had to learn how to know when to stop stapling and leave enough room for the pockets, as well as how to work with tables that require glue instead of staples.
He repairs tables in his garage or on-site, depending on what is needed and the type of table.
Since starting the business, 805 Pool has rapidly expanded to cover a significant portion of the state. Gartzke became a certified installer for Costco and for Jack Game Room.
The company now serves customers in areas including Bakersfield, Cazadero and parts of Los Angeles.
For now, Gartzke said he has no plans to expand his business, adding that he takes pride in his work and is concerned that having more people will make it harder to ensure that all the work is done to his standards.
“It’s one of those things that’s keeping me busy enough that I don’t feel the need to expand this early yet,” Gartzke said. “I’m not having a backlog of people on the schedule.”
