Does New Artificial Grass Smell in the First Few Weeks?

The short answer

Most new synthetic lawns carry a faint smell for the first week or two after they go down. People describe it as plastic, rubbery, mildly chemical, or a bit like the inside of a new car. It sits close to the surface, peaks on the first hot afternoon, and fades as the roll airs out. In an open backyard plenty of people never register it. In a walled courtyard or on a balcony, it can be noticeable for a fortnight.

The version people worry about, a sharp chemical smell that lasts for months, is uncommon on landscape turf. When it happens there is usually a specific reason: a roll that sat sealed in a hot container, adhesive laid on too thick at the seams, or turf over ground that was already holding water.

Where the smell comes from

The blade itself is drawn from polyethylene or nylon and is close to odourless. Nearly everything you can smell on a new lawn comes from the other half of the product: the backing, the coating that locks the tufts into it, and whatever the roll was wrapped in on the way to you.

The backing and its coating

Tufted yarn is held in place by a coating applied across the underside of the primary backing, usually latex or polyurethane. Both cure at the factory, and both keep releasing small amounts of volatile compounds for a while afterwards. Latex is the more talkative of the two in the first weeks. Polyurethane absorbs less moisture, which matters more for pet odour a year down the track than for a new-lawn smell.

Recipes differ between manufacturers even when the differences are invisible. APT states the backing on our range has included roughly 10 percent recycled paint content since October 2025, which they describe as a world first for the industry.

Time spent sealed in packaging

Turf ships as a tight roll in plastic wrap, so whatever the backing gives off has nowhere to go and builds up inside it. Cutting that wrap open is when most people first smell their new lawn, and it is the strongest it will ever be. Australian-made turf, with the yarn extruded in Melbourne, spends less time sealed and heat-soaked than turf that crossed an ocean in a container.

Heat and infill

Emissions climb with temperature and sun exposure. They are lowest on turf kept cool, indoors and out of direct sun, and highest on sports fields in use. The rubber smell itself comes down to volatile sulfur compounds, short-chain organic acids and terpenes, with rubber infill the most likely source, though the comparison against sand-only fields has not been measured.

That last point is the useful one for a home lawn. A backyard dressed with kiln-dried silica sand has no rubber in it at all, so the material most often blamed is simply not there. Our comparison of silica sand and rubber crumb infill covers the other trade-offs.

What off-gassing does and does not mean

The word gets thrown around loosely. Every cured polymer product releases trace volatile compounds as it ages, and synthetic turf is no exception. Detecting those compounds and showing that a backyard lawn poses a health risk are two different things. A sealed test chamber concentrates whatever the material gives off, and a crumb rubber sports field holds far more rubber than a home lawn does.

Our own position: the products in our range are tested to the AS ISO 9239.1 flooring fire standard, and they have not been through indoor-air VOC emissions testing. We will not claim a pass on a test nobody has run. If you need certified low-emission flooring indoors, ask any supplier for the test report rather than trusting a marketing line, ours included.

How long it lasts

Stage	What to expect	What to do
Unwrapping the roll	Strongest point. Distinct plastic smell out of the packaging	Unroll it outside and leave it a few hours
First 48 hours after laying	Noticeable up close, especially in afternoon sun	Hose it down, keep gates and doors open
Week one to two	Faint, mostly on hot still days	Rinse once or twice, no product needed
Weeks three to six	Detectable only if you put your face in it	Nothing
Past six weeks	Should be gone	If it is not, start looking for another cause

Hot weather compresses that timeline and makes it more obvious while it lasts. A lawn laid in July often goes unnoticed until the first warm spell, then produces a short burst that surprises people who thought they had dodged it.

What helps it clear faster

Air and water do almost all of the work. Unroll the turf and let it sit loose in the open for a few hours before fixing anything down, which also relaxes the memory creases and makes the lay easier. Once it is down, hose it over and repeat a few times across the first fortnight. Air moving across the surface matters more than anything you could spray on it.

Skip the scented deodorisers. They mask a smell that was going to disappear anyway, and some leave a tacky residue that collects dust. Bleach and solvents are worse again: bleach lightens the fibres, and turps or acetone can soften or discolour them and attack the backing adhesive.

Adhesive is the one thing that genuinely extends the process. Seam adhesive gives off solvent smell while it cures, and a generous hand with the trowel means more of it curing under a sealed surface for longer. Our guide to laying artificial turf covers the notched-trowel method that keeps it sensible.

Enclosed spaces are the hard case

Courtyards, light wells, balconies and rooftop terraces concentrate everything. There is less air exchange and the walls radiate heat back at the surface, so a roll that goes unnoticed in a backyard can be obvious for two or three weeks on a third-floor balcony. Air it out somewhere open before you carry it up, and expect the timeline above to run longer. The rest of the detail for those installs sits in turf for balconies and rooftops.

When the smell is not the new-lawn smell

Past about six weeks, a smell that persists or worsens is telling you something else. Ammonia points at pet urine, which leaves uric acid crystals in the pile that plain water will not shift, and the fix is an enzymatic cleaner rather than more rinsing. The full method is in removing dog urine smell from artificial grass.

A sour or swampy smell in one patch, especially a few days after rain, usually means water is sitting in or under the base, and cleaning will never fix a cause that sits below the turf. A broader diagnostic, including a bucket test for drainage, is in why artificial grass smells in summer.

Does cheaper turf smell more?

Price on its own is a weak predictor. Backing type, infill and how long the roll sat sealed in heat are what matter, and none of those track neatly with the tag. A well-stored budget roll can air out faster than a premium one that spent two months in a container.

What to expect when it arrives

Turf 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 anything shorter than a full roll carries a cutting fee. For a yard wider than 3.71m you join lengths side by side at that width. Each product page across the range has a calculator for the length and quantity your measurements need, including the Pet Premium Super, where the manufacturer states its silver-based yarn treatment gives up to a 99 percent reduction in microbes in their own testing.

One note on delivery: we ship to most of the country but not to Western Australia or South Australia, and that is a hard block at checkout rather than a preference. Plan where the roll will sit when it lands, somewhere shaded and open rather than a closed garage, so it starts airing out before you pick up a knife.

Frequently asked questions

Is the smell from new artificial grass harmful?

For a normal outdoor lawn with sand infill, there is no good evidence that a brief factory smell presents a health problem. The compounds involved are in trace amounts and disperse quickly in open air. If someone in the house is sensitive to solvents or has asthma, keep them off the lawn for a day or two after any adhesive work and let the area air out.

How long before the smell disappears completely?

Plan for one to two weeks in an open yard and up to about a month in a courtyard or balcony with limited airflow. Rinsing the surface a few times and keeping air moving across it will shorten that. A smell still obvious after six weeks is worth raising with your supplier, since it points to a manufacturing or installation issue rather than normal curing.

Should I wash new turf with detergent to get rid of the smell?

A plain water rinse is enough and is the safer option. Detergents leave residue in the pile that attracts dirt and holds moisture against the backing, creating a different smell problem a few months later. If you want to wash it, use a very dilute mild soap, rinse thoroughly, and never use bleach or solvent-based cleaners on synthetic fibres.

My lawn is two years old and has started to smell. Is that off-gassing?

No. Factory smell is finished long before that, so a smell appearing later has a new cause. The usual suspects are pet urine residue, decomposing leaf litter between the blades, or water sitting in a poorly draining base. Work out which applies before you buy any product, because the treatment for each is different.