Why Is My Artificial Grass Melting Near Colorbond and Glass

A stripe of ruined turf in an otherwise fine lawn

Melted artificial grass usually gets blamed on a dropped cigarette or a badly placed barbecue. Plenty of it has nothing to do with either. Damage in a band or a crescent, always in the same place, close to a window or a metal fence, is reflected heat.

Two culprits show up over and over in Australian backyards: modern low-E glazing, and Colorbond fencing.

What reflective melt looks like

Burn damage from a barbecue or a fire pit is small, round and obviously localised, often with soot or a rim of shrivelled fibre.

Reflective melt reads differently. The affected area is a stripe, an arc or a rough oval, usually a hand-span or two across at its widest. Fibres in the middle look glossy and shrunken, fused at the tips, stiff under your hand, and they won't stand back up when you brush them. Around the edge sits a halo of fibres that are curled and dull rather than fused, where the reflection was weaker.

The giveaway is position. Reflective melt runs parallel to a wall, window or fence, at a consistent distance from it, and its long axis follows the path the sun takes across the sky.

Why a window can be hotter than the sun

Low-E glass carries a microscopically thin metallic coating that bounces infrared energy back outside instead of letting it into the house. That works as intended. The problem is where the bounced energy goes.

Sealed double-glazed units flex slightly with temperature and air-pressure changes, so a pane that looks flat can hold a very shallow concave bow. A concave mirror focuses. The reflection converges into a narrow band below it, where the energy landing per square metre beats direct sunlight on the same day.

This is not a turf-specific quirk. Low-E glazing has a long track record in North America of warping and melting vinyl siding, a PVC product the Vinyl Siding Institute puts at softening from around 71 to 74°C (160 to 165°F). Australia arrived later because our glazing did: the National Construction Code's 2022 update lifted new homes to a 7 star NatHERS minimum, and low-E and double glazing became one of the quickest paths for builders to hit it.

Turf needs little help to get there. Unshaded synthetic turf runs 70 to 100°C in full summer sun, covered in our guide on whether artificial grass can burn bare feet. APT, the Australian manufacturer behind our range, gives a design range of roughly 65 to 75°C for turf in full sun and warns directly that turf melts near reflective surfaces. An ordinary hot day already sits near the ceiling, and a focused reflection pushes straight past it.

Colorbond is a different problem to glass

A Colorbond fence is flat coated steel, so it doesn't focus light the way a bowed pane does. It causes trouble two other ways.

Light finishes such as Surfmist or Shale Grey bounce a large share of the light hitting them. The bounce spreads rather than converging, so it rarely melts turf on its own, but the strip of lawn against the fence still takes far more energy than the rest of the yard. Dark finishes such as Monument or Basalt absorb instead: the steel skin gets very hot within minutes and radiates sideways at whatever sits next to it.

Either way the damage is a long even band along the fence rather than the tight arc a window leaves.

Reflective surface	What it does	First thing to try
Low-E or double-glazed window	Shallow bow focuses the reflection into a moving stripe	Exterior anti-reflective film, awning or external blind
Glass pool fence or balustrade	Specular reflection onto a narrow band beside the panel	Shade planting or a non-turf border
Light Colorbond fence	High reflectance spread evenly along the fence line	Non-turf border, screening plants
Dark Colorbond fence	Absorbs, then radiates heat sideways at close range	Non-turf border, screening plants
Gutters and downpipes	Small but intense glare off bright metal	Non-reflective paint

Confirming it before you spend money

Pick a clear day and go out three times: late morning, early afternoon and mid afternoon. Look for the bright patch on the ground, not the reflection in the glass. Where it lingers is where the damage goes. A cheap infrared thermometer settles it in a minute: read the damaged area, then read open lawn a few metres away, and a clear gap between the two points at reflection.

Sun angle decides where the beam lands. A low sun, through late autumn into early spring, tends to throw the reflection outward and upward onto nearby walls and buildings rather than down onto the ground, so the bounce that reaches a lawn is generally the one coming off glass with the sun higher in the sky. Do your checking across the warmer months, and repeat it if new glazing goes in next door.

The manufacturer's own mitigation guidance

APT publishes three measures for reflective surfaces, worth following as written since they come from the yarn manufacturer:

• Leave a border of at least one metre of non-turf material between the turf and any reflective surface.
• Screen the offending windows.
• Use non-reflective paint on gutters and downpipes.

Take the full metre wherever the yard allows.

Getting the border right

The border can be anything that isn't plastic grass: pavers, decomposed granite, river pebble, mulch, or a planted garden bed. A garden bed does double duty, since the plants eventually shade the surface as well as filling the gap.

Plan it before you order. Turf ships in fixed cut lengths at a 3.71m roll width, so taking a metre off one side can change which length you need and whether you're joining rolls. Our guide to measuring your yard walks through that, and every product page has a calculator that turns measurements into lengths and quantity.

Screening the window

Exterior anti-reflective window film is the direct fix, and the word exterior matters. The reflection happens at the outside face of the glass, so internal blinds, curtains and internally applied films change nothing. Cheaper options: an awning, an external roller blind, a shade sail angled to break the line between pane and turf, or a tall shrub in a pot.

Choosing turf for a spot you can't fix

Some hot spots can't be designed out: a neighbour's second-storey window, a fence you don't own, a courtyard hemmed in on three sides. That's where fibre choice does the work.

Product	Fibre	What it brings near reflections
SynRye	Nylon monofilament	Melt-Safe construction, which the manufacturer states withstands up to 220°C
Summer 30 Super, Pet Premium Super	Polyethylene, Super Yarn	COOLplus, up to a 42% increase in IR reflectivity in the manufacturer's testing (a reflectivity figure, not a temperature one)
Classic 40 GT	Polyethylene	HeatBlock cooling technology, plus the longest warranty in our range at 15 years
Coolplay Green	Polyethylene	COOLplus, which the manufacturer claims reduces turf temperature by up to 20%
Comfort Plus 30	Polyethylene with thatch	No dedicated heat additive, so treat it like any standard PE turf near a reflective surface

Nylon is the real answer here, tolerating far higher temperatures than polyethylene before it deforms, which is why it turns up in rooftop and reflective applications. The trade-offs: firmer and coarser underfoot than a soft PE monofilament, a fixed fibre colour blend, and premium-end pricing. See current pricing on the product page.

The cooling yarns are worth having. They reduce how hot turf gets in ordinary direct sun, though none makes a lawn reflection-proof, so treat them as a margin of safety on top of a proper border and screening. Compare the range on the products page.

Warranty and repair reality

Damage from reflected or concentrated heat is a standard warranty exclusion across the synthetic turf industry. Read the wording on whatever you buy, from us or anyone else, and assume melt is on you, so prevention is worth doing properly.

Melted fibre doesn't recover. No brushing, cleaning or heat treatment brings a fused tip back. The realistic options are patching the damaged section, which leaves a visible seam unless you're careful with pile direction, replacing the affected length, or turning the ruined strip into the non-turf border you needed anyway. That last one usually costs least and fixes the cause at the same time. Replacements come in the same fixed lengths at 3.71m wide, with a cutting fee on anything shorter than a full roll, and we supply to every state except Western Australia and South Australia.

Frequently asked questions

Can reflected heat melt turf in winter?

It can, though winter is the less likely season for it. A low sun bouncing off a vertical pane throws the reflected beam outward and upward, onto nearby walls and buildings, rather than down across the ground, so June is when a window beam is least likely to find your lawn. The months to watch are the ones with the sun high overhead. Cooler air helps, though not much, since a concentrated reflection does most of the heating on its own.

Does the colour of my Colorbond fence make a difference?

It changes which problem you get rather than removing it. Pale colours reflect more light onto the turf beside them, while dark colours absorb heavily, get very hot and radiate that heat sideways at close range, so either way the lawn against the fence carries more thermal load than the rest of the yard. A one metre non-turf border handles both cases, which is why the manufacturer's guidance doesn't distinguish between fence colours.

Will a barbecue or fire pit melt artificial grass too?

They will, and the damage is just as permanent. Radiant heat from a barbecue firebox, dropped coals or a fire pit base fuses polyethylene fibres within seconds. Keep a paver or a hard base under anything that generates heat, and give it more clearance than looks necessary.

Is melted turf covered by home insurance?

Usually not, since most policies treat gradual heat damage as wear rather than a sudden insurable event, and manufacturer warranties exclude reflective melt outright. Our guide on whether home contents insurance covers artificial grass goes through where turf sits in a typical policy. Check your own product disclosure statement before assuming either way.