Hi ronpaul,
Choosing a mattress for a guest bedroom or for temporary use that is used less frequently and doesn’t need to “match” a specific person is generally a little easier than choosing a mattress for a particular person where PPP and durability are both more important.
In very general terms a good strategy can be to buy a basic “medium firm” mattress (firmness ratings can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but as long as it’s in the general range it would be fine) which many people would be fine with at least temporarily and then to add a topper so that your guests that prefer a softer mattress can add the topper. You would only need materials that are in the lower end of the quality/durability range in post #4 here because a guest mattress will last longer if it’s only being used occasionally than it would if it was being used every day. I would still avoid materials that are lower quality than the guidelines because even with temporary use there they can still soften or break down too quickly and there are many good options available in your budget range where the quality of the materials would be inside the guidelines.
[quote]Option 1 is Mattress with topper
IKEA MORGEDAL mattress $299 Matress comes in choice of Firm or MED/Firm Thickness: 7 1/8 " polyurethane foam
w/ topper
Topper option one: 5 lb COOL MEMORY FOAM MATTRESS TOPPER $269 for the 2" 339 for the 3"
Topper option two: 2" NATURAL TALALAY LATEX TOPPER $329 for the 2" choice of 20 ILD or 30 ILD[/quote]
The Morgedal uses 2.2 and 1.7 lb polyfoam which would certainly be suitable for a guest mattress. It also comes in a firm and medium firm version and I would probably tend to choose the medium firm version. As far as a topper I would probably lean towards the 2" softer latex so that you have a softer sleeping surface compared to sleeping on the mattress directly and a softer and more resilient material may be a better “match” for a larger percentage of people than memory foam because even though many people like the feel and slow response of memory foam … there are also many others that don’t and it tends to be more of a “love it or hate it” type of material than latex (although there are also people that don’t like the more resilient “feel” of latex).
[quote]Option 2 is mattress without topper
IKEA MATRAND $399 Dunlop Latex over foam[/quote]
This has about 5" of synthetic latex over 1.7 lb polyfoam and is also medium firm but it may be too firm for some of your guests so it would probably be a good match for a lower percentage of people than having a separate mattress/topper combination.
This has a thicker layer of synthetic (about 6") and a higher quality base foam (2.2 lbs) and also has a wool quilted cover so it would be more temperature regulating than a cover that used synthetic fibers. I would tend to lean towards this one vs the Matrand but it’s also a “medium firm” mattress so it wouldn’t have the same firmness options as a mattress/topper combination.
Overall, if I was in your shoes I would tend to lean towards the mattress/softer latex combination because of the more flexible firmness options it provides.
There may also be some other local options that are available to you and if you let me know your city or postal code I’d be happy to let you know about the better local options or possibilities I’m aware of.
The better online options I’m aware of that ship across Canada are also listed in post #21 here.
Phoenix