Thanks for all the great info on the site. I’ve worked my way through most of it and feel like I’ve learned a lot. One question I have is about box springs. We are going to be stepping up to a king sized mattress in the near future which will require a new frame. I am going to be building that frame. Our current bed is a queen and we got the frame from Ikea (not the mattress.) With this frame, it has wood slats as the bottom layer and we didn’t buy the box spring with the mattress. The place we bought from said they wouldn’t warranty the mattress without the box spring, but we bought it anyways. This saved us a bit of money, which at the time was what we needed. Moving forward, do you recommend always having a box spring. I was planning to build my frame to support just a mattress with no box spring. I’m looking for guidance here. This time I definitely would want to purchase a mattress with a warranty. I’m in Buffalo, NY. I’ve seen your list of retailers in the area from searching your previous posts. Thanks for any help! Have a great day.
Hi bbuck002,
All mattresses need some type of support system underneath them (usually either a box spring, a foundation, or a platform bed) but which type is most suitable for a particular mattress depends on the type and design of the mattress. There is more in post #1 here and the two posts it links to in the second paragraph about the types of support systems that generally work best with different types of mattresses.
If you are building a bedframe that has a rigid non flexing slat surface with narrow gaps that were suitable for the mattress you choose then you wouldn’t need a foundation on top of it since it will perform the functions of a bedframe and a rigid non flexing foundation.
Some types of mattresses (mostly innerspring mattresses with coils that are joined together with helicals) may still do better with a functioning box spring that has some flex but the manufacturer of the mattress will be the best source of information about the support system that would work best for the design goals of the specific mattress you choose or that would meet the criteria of their warranty because each manufacturer may have different warranty requirements.
Phoenix