Emergency mattress shopping

Hello, please help us quickly make the best decision. We have to have my mother move into our house for emergency medical reasons and have no time to go around mattress shopping. We want the absolute best quality, long lasting, and recently enjoyed sleeping on a pillow top in Mexico. We have an eco house and don’t use any chemicals whatsoever. We are located in Calgary, Canada. Can anyone give us their top three choices given our circumstances? I don’t want to be sucked into the hype. We buy used Miele appliances made in Germany and a used Asko dishwasher made in Sweden. Please advise. Much appreciated.

Hi Miekamonster,

Three of our members are in Calgary which of course would be the first places I would suggest visiting …

http://www.sleepboutique.ca/ (formerly Labbe Bedding) Local factory direct manufacturer that makes a complete range of two sided mattresses including innerspring, memory foam, polyfoam, and latex (including organic latex). They can also custom build a mattress in a lower budget range. They use high quality foams and materials in their mattresses, have a wide range of choices, and there is some very good quality and value here.

tmasc.ca is a smaller sleep shop with stores in Edmonton and Calgary, AB which specialize in high quality premium mattresses and some very high quality bedding products. They carry SleepTek and Greensleep customizable latex mattresses and Berkeley Ergonomics customizable pocket coil/microcoil/latex mattresses. I have known Daniel one of the owners there for several years and they are exceptionally knowledgeable and helpful and have great integrity.

halstead.ca Local factory direct manufacturer who produces a range of high quality mattresses including latex and latex hybrids which also have some good value. They can be customized on each side as well as for the layers that are used to “fit” each person and can also be further customized after purchase if needed or if needs change.

As you probably know from reading on the site … smaller independent manufacturers who sell factory direct or through better sleep shops in general are the best source of both quality materials and value in mattresses IMO.

Our membership list is a group of manufacturers and retailers where I have talked with the owners enough to know that they have a combination of quality, value, service and transparency and compete well with the best in the industry and who also believe in the goals and ideas of this site enough to offer a discount or bonus to the members here (those who have registered and posted on the forum).

Some other Calgary options that may also be worth including in your research include …

Natural Mattresses Handcrafted in Calgary, AB – Black Sheep Mattress Company Local manufacturer. Makes some very high quality hand built mattresses using natural materials including innersprings, natural fibers, and for some models 100% natural latex. I have talked with Christian here (the owner) and was impressed with both his knowledge and his commitment to the value he provides to his customers. Good quality and value.

http://www.themattressmaker.ca/index.html Local manufacturer. Specializes in innerspring and Dunlop latex mattresses.

http://www.bodo.ca/ Carries intelligel mattresses which use buckling column gel in the comfort layers. An unusual but fairly costly material and while it would be worth testing because buckling column gel it is somewhat unique material … I would make some careful comparisons to make sure that the benefits are worth any premium in price compared to other high quality materials such as latex or memory foam. They also carry OMI latex mattresses which are also premium latex mattresses but are also in a more premium price range so I would make some careful “value” comparisons here as well.

http://www.dormirbedandfoam.ca/ Carries various types of good quality foam mattresses that use different combinations of high quality foams including Energia, High Density memory foam (up to 8 lb), polyfoam, and Talalay latex.

Furniture & Home DĂ©cor - Bring Home To Life - IKEA CA There are some better options here (along with some low quality options I would avoid). There is more about their mattresses in post #3 here.

Hope this helps

Phoenix

Phoenix:
There are two stores in Calgary; so do you go to both with your wish list and see which one is better or do you just cosse one and proceed from there. I don’t really want to waster there time and am more concerned about the quality of the mattress then the price.
We tried the Sealy Optimim Cava and liked it over the Simmons Beaty Rest with pocket coils (not a top end model). I don’t see much discussion over the Euro-top versus teh pillow top versus the firm. Am I missing something? Like almost every body we want something soft but firm. Form the mattresses section I get the feeling the support core isn’t that critical as long as it is of good quality (Springs or foam). The devil is in what is chosen for the mattress comfort layers.
REgards
Bruce

Hi NearlyAPar,

This pinned post has the “steps” I would take and the order I would take them when shopping for a new mattress.

The first step involves how to eliminate most of the worst choices which would have excluded both the Sealy and the Simmons right from the start and saved you whatever time it took to test them and probably other mattresses that you tested at the same time (if you were in a chain store or were testing “brand name” mattresses).

Both the comfort and support layers are important but the comfort layers are more of what you will “feel” when you lie on a mattress and the support layers will be a big part of how you feel when you wake up in the morning (either good or poor alignment). Both need to be good quality and both will affect the performance of the mattress but you are right that the deeper layers will tend to last longer than the layers that are closer to the top of a mattress.

Generally, the most effective approach is to find your favorite from a couple of stores (or a few more) and then choose between them. The stores you choose to do your testing can be just as important a part of ending up with the best quality and value as the choice of a mattress itself.

Phoenix

I note that the Black Sheep mattress sore was mentioned above and wonder if any of the members of the forum have any experience with their Suffolk mattress (Suffolk | Natural Mattress | Black Sheep Mattress Company)
I note that not too much information can be obtained from the website, so sent them an email with questions but still have not heard back. I think I am mostly worried how thick would be the wool and cotton comfort layer over the springs, would it be comfortable enough for myself (a 200lb male) and for my 4 year old daughter, whom I hope to be the main sleeper on it! I understand that wool and cotton tend to compress over time and that’s why my concern.

Anyone who has slept on a Suffolk mattress - please provide some feedback.

On another note, I also wonder which sprig option should I chose.