How do I dampen the noise from a dart board being used?
May 24, 2021 7:47 PM Subscribe
My brother just got a dart board in our garage. We thought we were smart hanging it on a stud. Unfortunately, the sounds travels really well upstairs and next door into my bedroom. What can we do to dampen the sound of the darts hitting the board so its not as loud in other rooms?
Um... the first thing I'd be tempted to try would be to put a layer or two of foam poster board between the dart board and the wall. I don't know if it would work or not, but those are usually around $1-2, and so would be cheap and easily to cut.
We used to have ours installed on a (larger dimension) piece of plywood, and then the plywood installed on the wall, but that was to protect the wall around the dartboard, so I don't know what the sound difference would have been.
posted by stormyteal at 8:22 PM on May 24, 2021
We used to have ours installed on a (larger dimension) piece of plywood, and then the plywood installed on the wall, but that was to protect the wall around the dartboard, so I don't know what the sound difference would have been.
posted by stormyteal at 8:22 PM on May 24, 2021
Ideally you'd isolate the dartboard - make it its own stand, away from the wall.
posted by porpoise at 9:53 PM on May 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by porpoise at 9:53 PM on May 24, 2021 [8 favorites]
If the dartboard is just a round target hanging from a nail, take it down and on wall behind where it hangs, tape up a few old socks, loosely folded over to about 1-2cm thickness, so the board rests on the socks rather than the wall. The socks should still be kind of fluffy, not packed flat, so they absorb the impact.
If it's one of those darts cabinets with the doors that swing open, socks may get compressed too much, so those big plastic "body scrub" shower puffs will probably work better. Get four or six of them and tack them up behind the cabinet and loosely rehang the cabinet.
In both cases you should be able to gently push on the dartboard with a finger and feel it yield. This will absorb almost all of the impact sound.
If that doesn't dampen the sound enough, a separate floor-mounted stand is probably your best hope.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:59 AM on May 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
If it's one of those darts cabinets with the doors that swing open, socks may get compressed too much, so those big plastic "body scrub" shower puffs will probably work better. Get four or six of them and tack them up behind the cabinet and loosely rehang the cabinet.
In both cases you should be able to gently push on the dartboard with a finger and feel it yield. This will absorb almost all of the impact sound.
If that doesn't dampen the sound enough, a separate floor-mounted stand is probably your best hope.
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:59 AM on May 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
Nail a sheet of homasote to the wall. Glue a sheet of drywall to the homasote. Use a drywall anchor to hang dart board.
posted by Mitheral at 6:47 AM on May 25, 2021
posted by Mitheral at 6:47 AM on May 25, 2021
Hang a piece of 1/2 inch or thicker plywood between two studs. Cover the plywood with 1/2 inch thick cork tiles and hang dart board over the cork.
posted by tman99 at 7:46 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by tman99 at 7:46 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]
As someone whose childhood bedroom was on the other side of a dartboard wall, the only thing that will eliminate the sound well enough is to mount the board on a stand. I'd also then put some padding/soundproofing on the wall behind the stand to muffle any wayward darts.
posted by jenny76 at 8:54 AM on May 26, 2021
posted by jenny76 at 8:54 AM on May 26, 2021
Can you move the board to the opposite wall of the garage?
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:12 AM on May 26, 2021
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:12 AM on May 26, 2021
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by signsofrain at 8:21 PM on May 24, 2021