DIY Latex Hybrid Build Help

Mattress Talk 2) Materials, Specifications & Designs
1

5’ 9” 165 lbs. male side sleeper, occasionally lay on back or stomach, but side sleep is priority.

previous mattress experience

DIY build (2018, about 155 lbs. at the time): 6 in pocket coils from Arizona Premium with 3” soft Talalay topper. I had shoulder pain as I blew through the 3” latex and the coils were stiff against my body. Did not keep long. I now know the coil gauge was likely too stiff.

Casper Hybrid (2019-2026): This had 3 layers of various poly/memory at 1.5” each. Unknown coils. This was pretty comfy for the most part, but it slept warm, and sometimes woke up with shoulder/chest/upper body pain. Towards the end of its life, it seemed very sinking. Never felt the springs. Discovery of fiberglass (nightmare) ended this one.

2026-current: I am about 3 weeks into a 90 day trial for a Room and Board Luxury Hybrid: 3” Serene foam over 6” 14.5 gauge coils. This mattress feels “dead” compared to the Casper, and I tend to blow through the Serene foam and feel a lot of pressure on my hips from the springs. Sleep OK without shoulder pain, but wake up with mild low back pain. Not sure if hips are sinking too much, or not enough.

I currently sleep with Talalay Living latex pillows (solid, not shredded), and I love the feel, temp regulation, and buoyancy , which leads me to believe I will prefer a Talalay comfort layer.

So now I am looking again into the DIY route, and finding more options on the market for spring units. Namely Texas Pocket Spring has various stiffness units available.

Mattress Preferences: 11” or less total height, Talalay + coils, no wool (don’t like the smell). Would like to keep the construction simple (no multiple (3 ,4) stacks of foam).

I am thinking about some combination of the following, and I would like some input from others on how these might feel considering my past experiences.

8” TPS spring unit: 15.5 “workhorse”, or the PLUSH

3” soft Talalay

2” soft Talalay + 1” med Dunlop

2” soft Talalay + 1” soft Dunlop

TPS stretch cover.

All this will be under a Company Store 100% cotton quilted mattress pad which I currently use.

2

I am 6ft 210lbs and would use the 15.5g standard with 2" super soft blended and 2" soft Dunlop inside the luxury wool cover if I were to build my own bed.

Just for example one of my favorite beds available on retail is the nest and wild hybrid and it uses 880ct 15.5g coils rather than the 1005ct 15.5g coils offered on TPS website. Which is a firmness in between the workhorse and the plush unit. The nest and wild uses 2" of 14ild (super soft) latex+memory hybrid foam on the top, then 2" 23ild fast response memory foam before the coils.

The funny thing about this is that though you might think that foam is too soft, it’s the perfect combination of increments of firmness from the top to the base, so even though I’m a little heavy the bed feels awesome.

So for you being a little lower BMI I think that you may do better with the plush 15.5g and a 3" comfort layer with 2" super soft blended and 1" medium talalay. Latex has a higher resistance gradient than memory foam so it’s more likely to hold you up better.

One think you want to make sure of is that you get the exact height cover you need as coils need to be held in on the sides properly unless you plan on putting an inch of firm foam underneath the coils, which could come in handy because these coils do not require foam underneath, but you could remove that inch of foam and add another inch to the top if necessary.

Because it’s DIY you can always make the exact modification you need.