hi there - thanks to the information i obtained here, i bought a latex mattress about a year ago.
custom made at sleepworks north of toronto, i got an affordable bed made of 3" rigid polyfoam base with 6" dunlop latex support layer covered in cotton. instead of having a comfort layer built in, he recommended seeing if the mattress was good as is, then adding a topper if necessary. (my girlfriend, feeling my previous traditionl mattress was too soft, prompted me to explore a better bed in the first place).
i felt the latex alone was too firm, so the sleepworks guy built me a covered 2" memory foam topper. i didn’t love the cover (hardened the topper) so i ripped it open and used the foam over my latex and under my mattress cover and sheet. this has been quite comfortable, but the girlfriend still prefers her bed which seems to be a cheap ikea thing with a thick, very firm memory foam on top.
we recently tried a 3" gel memory foam topper from costco which seemed of good quality, but too thick and soft.
next step was going to be to ask sleepworks to buy a 2" slab of talalay, but their number seems to be disconnected.
so now i’m looking at the offerings from “sleeponlatex.com” (or their ebay store).
my question is - given the situation “solid latex foundation, 1 person likes bed firmer than the other” should i try 1 or 2 inch latex top, and in soft or med? my initial inclination would be 1"/soft. but i hesitate.
i feel like a thicker top reduces the force applied to the main support latex too much - the comfort top bottoms out, but there is not enough pressure left to really “activate” the main section and it creates a pressure point. sleeping directly on the 6" of firm dunlop actually reduces pressure points by allowing the mattress to conform and support, but it misses that soft feeling i have experinced trying high end softer latex mattresses.
thanks for any ideas - this place is an incredible resource.
Their website was still up at the end of last year although the promotion was out of date (see the wayback machine here) but it’s down now and their number is disconnected as you mentioned so I’ve removed them from the Toronto list. Thanks for the heads up
The only reliable way to know with any certainty would be based on your own personal experience because there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved for anyone to be able to make a specific suggestion based on “theory” or "specs (either yours or the mattress if you knew them) with the limited information you’ve provided but post #2 here and the topper guidelines it links to can help you use your actual sleeping experience as a reference point and guideline for choosing the type, thickness, and firmness for a topper that would have the best chance of success.
A good “average” choice would be 2" which would provide a “little to a fair bit” of additional softness and pressure relief. 1" would be more in the range of “a touch to a little” which may not be enough additional softness or pressure relief and would be more for “feel”. Choosing a 1" topper can also be a good strategy because you can also add an additional inch if you need it although the cost would be a little higher so the “ideal” would be to make the “best” choice the first time.
When you are uncertain about which choice would be best for you then the most effective approach is generally a more detailed phone conversation with a knowledgeable retailer or supplier since they will know the specifics of their toppers better than anyone and it would also be helpful if you could provide them with the density or ILD of the latex in your mattress, more specific information about any toppers you have used and done well with, and more about your body type and sleeping positions so they would have some kind of reference point for what you consider to be soft or firm and which of their toppers would have the best chance of success.
If you are uncertain about your choice then the exchange or return policy may also be a more important part of your choice just in case the topper you choose doesn’t work out as well as you hoped for.
It may also be worth considering using two separate toppers with the same thickness but a different firmness on each half of the mattress if your needs and preferences are very different.
i agree. since the most likely next step would be to try a “sleeponlatex.com” topper, would their 2" “soft” option (20 ild dunlop) be a more resilient support than the low density 2"memory foam i’ve used most or should i go for med? i think the soft would be less likely to “bottom out” or fully compress, and be better for both of us. if it softer than i predict a “soft” dunlop would be, then i would try the med.
Any latex topper in any firmness level would be more resilient (springy) than a memory foam topper (memory foam has little to no resilience at all). There is more about the differences between memory foam and latex in post #2 here but they are very different materials that are more of an apples to oranges comparison.
A topper is primarily for comfort and pressure relief not for “support”. There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress or “sleeping system” in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
It’s very unlikely that even a soft topper would fully compress or “bottom out” if you are using it on top of a mattress vs using it on a solid floor (where the only compression would come from the topper instead of both the topper and the mattress underneath it) although with a thinner/softer topper you may feel more of the firmness of the mattress underneath it and the transition from a softer layer to a firmer layer than you would with a thicker or firmer topper.
I don’t have enough information about either you or the mattress you would be using it on or enough reference points based on your experience to be able to make any guesses or suggestions about firmness but the topper guidelines I linked in my last reply have some general guidelines you can use for both thickness and firmness which along with a more detailed conversation with Sleep on Latex will be your most reliable source of guidance.
