Artificial Turf Protection from Window Reflection

Why Synthetic Grass Is a Great Idea

Artificial turf grass has been used on sporting fields, golf courses, and in commercial landscaping applications for years. The first generations of fake turf looked fine from a distance, but were rather unappealing to the eye and unpleasant to the touch up close. Modern synthetic turf grass, however, looks and feels almost exactly like grass; and like healthy, lush, weed-free grass, to be specific.

That's why so many people are choosing to forgo a traditional grass yard and instead install artificial turf on their properties.

The Many Benefits of Artificial Turf Grass

Artificial grass never needs to be watered in order to help it grow. It requires no fertilizer, lime, weed and feed, or insecticide. Bugs won't damage fake grass because there are no roots to munch on. Birds won't foul it because no worms or insects will be hiding away within a turf lawn. Fake grass never needs to be cut or re-seeded. In fact, usually the only maintenance artificial turf needs is the occasional raking or blowing to clear off leaves and debris that has fallen there from other nearby plants or trees.

The One Major Drawback with Artificial Grass

If there is one thing that natural grass offers that fake turf can't match, it is this: the ability to grow back. Sure, keeping a health, green, weed-free and tidy lawn of natural grass is a chore, but with enough effort and maintenance, natural grass can always be restored and will grow back even after patches of it are damaged by drying, issues like grubs or fungus, or from scorching caused by direct sunlight or window reflections. Synthetic grass is immune to drying out and to being attacked by disease or pests, but it can be damaged by excessive heat. In fact, excessive exposure to sunshine, and especially concentrated window reflections, can cause artificial turf to melt. And once ruined, fake grass has to be ripped out and replaced, there is no growing back a lawn made of scientifically formulated polymers.

How Sunshine and Window Reflections Ruin Turf Grass

Most artificial turf will melt at temperatures around 200 degrees Fahrenheit, though some types of synthetic grass experience distortion and damage at temperatures as low as 160 degrees. Low-e window reflections are such a common cause of turf damage because they are designed to be highly reflective. Low emissivity windows reject a huge amount of solar heat, often concentrating it into a beam that creates a hotspot on the grass. If hours of direct sunshine alone are not enough to melt your fake grass, you can bet that concentrated window glare will. 

How to Stop Window Glare Melting Artificial Turf Grass

If you suspect that your highly reflective energy efficient windows are responsible for melted turf grass, then applying Turf Guard Window Film to the exterior of your windows should stop the problem at once. These easily applied, easily custom trimmed sheets of material are covered in thousands of perforations that are too small to affect the way the human eye perceives the window's appearance or function, yet they scatter reflected light instead of letting it concentrate into a damaging beam.

Other Ways to Achieve Artificial Turf Protection

If it is not window glare causing melted turf grass on your property, it may be the sheer power of direct sunshine falling on the grass on days when the ambient temperature is already warm. (Hot days and window reflection combined are of course an even bigger issue!) There are a few steps you should take to protect your at-risk artificial turf against melting. These steps can also help keep your synthetic lawn cooler and more readily enjoyed by people and pets, and can reduce the ambient temperature around your property.

Replacing the infill of your synthetic grass with a lighter colored material is a good first step to creating a cooler artificial lawn. There are even specialty infills that are designed to help keep fake turf cooler, and if your artificial grass is at risk of damage or ruin, this type of infill is worth the expense.

You can also turn to the benefits of natural plants to help protect synthetic grass. By planting trees, hedges, and other larger plants, you can create shade the helps keep the surface of the lawn cooler and establish a deep root system that holds water underground, helping cool the property from below. 

In extreme cases of turf melting issues, you can even install a liquid cooling system that circulates water around and underneath the turf grass, keeping it more temperate thanks to the properties of evaporative cooling.