How to Clean Bushfire Smoke and Ash Off Artificial Grass

Ash on a synthetic lawn is a water job

A smoky week leaves a grey film over the outdoor setting, and a closer fire can drop flakes of ash and blackened gum leaves right across the grass. On a synthetic lawn that material works down into the pile and the sand infill, where rain will eventually shift it, though slowly.

Ash sits on polyethylene fibres rather than soaking into them, and the backing drains, so a patient rinse gets most of it out. People go wrong in two ways. They clean it fast with a blower or a dry broom and put the fine particles straight back into the air they breathe, or they treat ash from a burnt shed like ash from a burnt paddock.

Work out which kind of ash you have

Situation	What you see on the turf	Approach
Smoke haze from a distant fire	Fine grey film, smoky smell	Routine rinse and brush
Ash fall from a nearby bushfire	Burnt vegetation flakes, fine ash in the pile	Dampen, collect, then rinse gently
Fire reached your street or property	Ash that may include buildings, fences or treated timber	Follow official clean-up advice first
Aerial retardant drop	Red or pink residue	Scrub with fresh water and a broom
Ember strikes	Small melted, blackened holes	Patch repair

If buildings or treated timber burnt, the ash is a different problem. Victoria's Better Health Channel says spreading ash around a property is unsafe, particularly where asbestos materials were present or CCA-treated timber was burnt. Older homes, sheds and fences can contain asbestos cement sheeting, and CCA (copper chrome arsenate) treated timber turns up in older pergolas, retaining walls and garden edging. Its ash carries copper, chromium and arsenic.

If anything built burnt near your lawn, leave the hose off, because rinsing that ash through the turf sends it into the base and the soil underneath. NSW Government bushfire clean-up advice says to keep CCA timber ash out of garden and organics bins, seal small amounts in a plastic bag for your local waste facility, and ask council about larger amounts. Possible asbestos is a job for a licensed professional. The steps below are for vegetation ash and smoke film.

Gear up before you start

The NSW advice for handling ash is gloves, a P2 mask, and long sleeves and trousers or overalls, then washing your hands and washing clothes and shoes before wearing them again. For a light haze film, gloves and old clothes will do, though anyone with asthma or a heart or lung condition is better off handing the job to someone else.

Keep kids and pets inside until the lawn has been rinsed. Both spend their time close to the ground, and dogs lick their paws.

Cleaning ash off turf, step by step

Dampen the ash first

Wait until the fire is controlled and ash has stopped falling. Then set the hose to a gentle shower and mist the whole lawn until the ash is damp. The NSW advice is to keep ash wet so it is not blown around, and to avoid high-pressure water spray.

That rules out the usual tools. A leaf blower and a dry broom are fine for leaves on an ordinary week, as our artificial turf maintenance guide covers, but on dry ash they lift the finest particles to breathing height and spread them over the house. Leave both in the shed until the ash is gone.

Lift the drifts

Wind piles ash against fences, steps and garden edges. Shovel those drifts up while damp and seal them in a plastic bag, which is the NSW method in place of sweeping or washing ash away. A plastic leaf rake handles burnt leaves and twigs. Keep metal rakes off turf, because steel tines snag fibres and can pull seams apart.

Rinse slowly, in stages

Give the lawn a steady, gentle soak, working across it in strips. Water drains down through the perforated backing (up to 2,000mm per hour in the manufacturer's testing, according to APT's brochure), taking the ash into the crushed rock base. That is fine for burnt vegetation and one more reason to keep structural ash off the lawn.

Direct runoff away from stormwater grates, which drain to creeks, and away from any rainwater tank inlet. Plan on two or three rinses over a few days, and let the next decent rain help.

Brush once it's clean

When the lawn has dried off a little, cross-brush against the pile with a stiff synthetic-bristle broom to stand the fibres up and loosen ash caught in the infill, then rinse once more. Heavy rinsing can shift sand, so check the level. If the pile looks longer than it used to or flattens quickly, brush in a bag of kiln-dried sand on a dry day.

Getting the smoke smell out

Turf that sat under smoke for a week can hold a campfire smell, mostly in the infill. Warm water, a squirt of dishwashing liquid and a soft brush, followed by a good rinse, handles most of it, and sun and wind do the rest.

Skip anything stronger. Solvents, degreasers and citrus cleaners attack polyethylene fibres. Soot recipes that call for household bleach are best kept for walls, because everything you put on turf ends up in the soil underneath it.

Fire retardant on the lawn

A water bomber's drop leaves the lawn streaked red or pink. The NSW Rural Fire Service fact sheet on retardants and foams explains that long-term retardants are essentially fertilisers (monoammonium and diammonium phosphate) with thickeners and corrosion inhibitors, plus a colouring agent that fades in light. The RFS says no known adverse long-term health effects have been attributed to them.

Its clean-up method is fresh water and brushes to scrub and dilute the dried residue, then a rinse. On turf, your stiff broom is the brush. Wear gloves and non-slip shoes, since the residue gets slippery, and the RFS suggests a P2 mask and safety glasses. Fertiliser left in the infill does nothing for a plastic lawn and can feed weeds along edges and seams, so rinse it out properly.

If you have a rainwater tank, the RFS advises disconnecting downpipes so retardant is not washed in, and NSW Health says to hose off the roof or wait for a good flush of rain before reconnecting them.

Ember damage and when to replace

Embers leave small melted, blackened holes, and no cleaning brings melted fibre back. Our guide on whether artificial grass is a bushfire risk explains why polyethylene melts under an ember, and why artificial grass melts covers the same mechanism with reflected sunlight.

A handful of holes can be patched. Cut out the damaged section, cut a matching piece from an offcut, line up the pile direction and fix it with joining tape and adhesive, the technique shown in our guide to laying artificial turf. Widespread ember fall usually means replacing a whole section.

New material ships in fixed cut lengths, commonly 5m, 10m, 15m or a full 20m roll depending on the product, at a fixed 3.71m roll width, and a length shorter than a full roll carries a cutting fee. For wider areas, join rolls side by side. Every product in the range has a length and quantity calculator, with current pricing on the product page. We supply only, so installation is yours or your landscaper's, and we do not deliver to Western Australia or South Australia.

Setting up for next season

• Keep a non-combustible strip of pavers or gravel between the turf and the house.
• Clear leaf litter off the lawn and out of nearby gutters through spring.
• Hang on to install offcuts for patching.
• Know where your downpipes connect to any rainwater tank.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use a leaf blower to get ash off artificial grass?

Wait until the ash is gone. A blower on dry ash lifts the finest particles into the air you breathe and spreads them across your house and the neighbours' yards. Dampen the lawn, shovel up any drifts and rinse the rest through with a gentle hose, then the blower can go back to moving leaves.

Is bushfire ash harmful to dogs on artificial turf?

Dogs walk through ash, lie in it and lick it off their paws, so keep them inside until the lawn has been rinsed. Ash from burnt CCA-treated timber or buildings is the serious kind, so keep children and animals away from it until it has been cleaned up properly. Our turf for pets page covers the everyday side of dogs and synthetic lawns.

Will ash stain artificial grass permanently?

Ash is loose particles sitting on and between the fibres, so repeated rinsing and brushing generally clears it. Retardant colouring can linger in the pile until sunlight fades it. What leaves a permanent mark is heat, meaning embers that land and melt the fibre.

Should I pressure wash artificial turf after a bushfire?

Hold off while ash is still on the lawn, since NSW Government clean-up advice is to avoid high-pressure water spray on ash. Once the ash has been rinsed out, a pressure washer on a wide fan nozzle, held well off the surface, is fine for routine cleaning. A garden hose usually does the job anyway.