Dart Board Installation Specifications

Hanging a dart board to regulation is a relatively straightforward task. Adhere to the guidelines laid out by both the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) and the British Darts Organisation (BDC) in order to install your board to correct height and throwing distance rules. Nothing helps your game more than knowing your own board is at the same height and throwing distance of correctly installed boards in all over the country and the world.

  1. Where to Hang your Board

    • Consider where you wish to hang your dart board. Ideally, you will hang your board in a low-traffic area, such as a corner of a room that does not have any doors or walkways. Think about the worst-case scenario for a bounce-out, where a dart hits a wire of the board and fires off away from the board and back into the room. For example, you do not want to set up your board right next to a soft furnishing, as it is likely to get damaged at some stage. Consider whether the ceiling is high enough to accommodate a board also--anything lower than 7 feet may disrupt a player's dart en route to the board. Leave at least 10 feet directly in front of the board for a player to comfortably throw darts from regulation distance.

    Height

    • Install your board so the center of the bull's-eye (the red dot in the center of the board) is 5 feet 8 inches from the ground. Nearly all dart boards come with a simple hanging bracket on the back that will hold your board at the correct height, so, using a tape measure and a pencil, work out where 5 feet 8 inches is on your wall and draw a small cross. Boards almost always come with a nail, so you should take a hammer and gently tap the nail in through your pencil cross, lift the board over the top and carefully lower it onto the nail. This may take a couple of attempts, so make sure you support the weight of the board rather than trusting the nail to catch it.

    Distance

    • As well as for height, there is a regulation throwing distance for the game of darts. Make a 3-foot-wide line using chalk, tape or some other indicator at exactly 7 feet 9 1/4 inches from the face of the board. An easy way to measure this distance is to take a tape measure from the center of bull's-eye diagonally downward to the ground directly in front of the board at 9 feet 7 3/8 inches. This will be the correct throwing distance.

    Extra Equipment

    • Find a darts store and add a few extra accessories to your dart board to heighten your playing experience. For example, you can purchase a surround, which is a soft foam ring that surrounds your board and protects both the wall you are using and your darts from damage. Another useful item for darts players in a darts mat, which they can roll out before the board to act as an oche--the mat has a throwing line drawn on it and it protects both your carpet and darts from damage if they bounce out from the board. Finally, a scoreboard, whether electronic or simply a chalkboard, is another essential piece of equipment.