With natural appearance and even great extent in feel with natural grass, artificial grass is rapidly becoming one of the most popular trends in both residential and commercial landscaping. It is a perfect solution for the home where children and pets play outside. And as artificial grass requires no watering, fertilizer, mowing, or other maintenance, it is an environmentally friendly approach to property maintenance.

However, artificial grass has one major disadvantage that is never a factor with natural grass. When exposed to excessive heat, the turf will become hot and even starts to melt under some extreme situation. Actually, the melting point of artificial grass is quite high, where should be no melting issues during daily use. Why the issue still happen?

The melting issues caused by mainly two factors:

Reflective surfaces

The first possible reason is the artificial grass was installed close to reflective surfaces.

Reflective surfaces will reflect the sunlight to the surface of grass. In turn it will cause accumulation of heat in certain area. When the accumulation of the heat reaches the melting point of turf fiber, the fiber will melt to different extent. If the heat keeps accumulating, turf fiber will shrink which will expose the curly underneath, which we will see as damage of turf surface. Reflective surfaces most frequently in projects are as below:

1. Windows

It has a large surface area for sunlight to reflect off for a sustained period of time.

2. Polished Gutters

It is often dark colors that absorb heat and reflect light from their shiny surface.

3. Mirrors

It reflects sunlight at a high intensity off a large surface area.

4. Reflective Panels

They are often on doors, sheds, outbuildings, etc. These can also have a big surface area in which light can reflect off for a long time.

Direct Heat

The other reason for synthetic turf melting is through direct application of heat:

Fire – Either through vandalism or stray embers from a barbecue. This kind of intense heat applied directly onto an artificial lawn can burn and melt the grass.

Artificial grass can be repaired if they suffer damage from heat or sunlight. However, the best method of keeping your turf in the best condition is prevention – stopping the problem before it starts. Find your contractor or installers for detailed project planning is a good choice as well.