I have really appreciated this website and have tried to read almost all of the articles and several posts. We were originally searching for a memory foam mattress, then my husband laid on a latex mattress at an Ashley furniture store and really liked it (I wasn’t with him). I hadn’t considered latex because I know how expensive it is. On the other hand, it seems to be very durable and I would like to be able to avoid shopping for a mattress again for 15 years. We’ve had two innerspring mattresses in our 27 years of marriage. We kept both of them at least 5 years longer than we should. Our last one was a pillow top and developed “troughs” pretty early on. I can’t sleep on it right now and have moved onto a twin mattress in my daughter’s old bedroom (it too is old and not very comfortable.)
I need to find a good place to try several types of latex mattresses–Dunlop & Talalay and mattresses that are a hybrid with a latex layer over HD foam. We live in southeastern Illinois. The closest “city” is Evansville, IN (50 miles away). We would be willing to drive to St. Louis (2 1/2 hours), or central Illinois (Champaign, Decatur), etc. [possibly Indianapolis. I just need help finding places that would have a showroom and a variety of styles to try with latex. I like the idea of the exchangeable layers or custom selecting the layers of latex, etc. Ultimately, we may need to order something online, but I need to find a place to try the different types and levels of firmness.
Our budget should be at $1,500 and we are upgrading to a king bed to have more room. It may make latex out of the question. I would be willing to pay more if I could be fairly certain it would last for a long time. Any suggestions for a place in that price range–online or store? It would be nice to buy the mattress and foundation together and could go up to $1,800 for the combo.
My husband is 5’11" and 265 lbs. I am 5’4" and 148 lbs. From what I’ve read on here we need at least a 3" comfort layer. Do you think that will be enough? Also, what about overall thickness. When I was looking at memory foam I had read on another site that the support layer for a heavier person should be at least 6". Is that true for latex as well? In Memory foam I was looking at 11" minimum. For latex, we probably can’t afford more than 7 - 10 ". Any advice on the thickness?
I appreciate your help. I’ve spent many, many hours online researching and have visited a couple of big chain stores but know I need to look elsewhere.
Thanks!
Just in case you haven’t read it yet … the tutorial post here is the first place I would start your research and has the basic information, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices … and know how to avoid the worst ones.
I would be cautious at Ashley Furniture and make sure you know the actual materials in any mattress you are testing there. What many people call a “latex mattress” may only have a relatively thin layer of latex inside it and the top layers which are most important may not be latex at all.
The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in and around Evansville, IN are listed in post #18 here. The St Louis / Carbondale list is in post #6 here and the list that includes the Champaign/Springfield/Peoria area is in post #2 here and the Indianapolis list is in post #2 here.
Your budget is certainly enough for a good quality mattress but may be on the low side for “all latex” (depending on the type of latex) although it would still be in the range of a latex hybrid. I don’t keep a list of mattresses for each area based on price or specific construction (this would be more than anyone could keep up with in a changing market) so price and specific mattresses would be the part of your research that would be up to your phone calls and visits but you would certainly have some good options available.
I would tend to avoid trying to figure out the choice that would be best for you ahead of time based on specs and would focus on your own careful and objective testing using the guidelines in the tutorial post (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). Your husband is in a higher weight range so in very general terms he may find that a thicker mattress works better for him (see post #14 here about mattress thickness) but your own testing on a specific mattress is the best way to know with any certainty.
Thank you so much for sending links to different factory outlets and stores in my area. Some of the websites are disappointing because they don’t give much information. I guess I will start making phone calls and see what I can find.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and for sending so many links with information.
[quote]Thank you so much for sending links to different factory outlets and stores in my area. Some of the websites are disappointing because they don’t give much information. I guess I will start making phone calls and see what I can find.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and for sending so many links with information.[/quote]
You will rarely find enough information on a website to make a mattress choice (and in many cases they are not up to date anyway) so making a phone call before you visit any of them them can be one of the most important and time saving parts of the process.
You have some good options that hopefully are reasonably close to you depending of course on which ones turn out to be worth a drive.
I wanted to thank you once again for your help. I called places (from your lists) in Evansville, Herrin, and Forsyth, IL. I was most impressed with the answers I got from Sterling Mattress in Herrin. My husband and I made the 1 1/2 hour trip down there yesterday. With the things I had learned on this website mainly (plus some others), I felt we were able to make a much better informed decision.
We ended up getting a mostly latex mattress because we wanted something durable and supportive for a long time.
It has 2" of 20 ILD Dunlop latex, then 2 " of 5.3 lb. memory foam, then 6" of zoned Dunlop latex (32-36 ILD). We felt that the mattress was comfortable and supportive. Mike, the owner, was a great deal of help and they were willing to customize whatever we wanted. We paid $1995 (king) which seems to be a savings of $300-500 over everything I was looking at online. We will have the mattress in 2 weeks. We also splurged on some memory foam pillows that we really liked.
We can change the layers within 30 days if it ends up being too hard or too soft (we would need to pay transportation and the difference in price for materials.) We have a 10 year non-prorated warranty and the sag only needs to be 1 inch to be replaced.
We are very excited that we found a good deal. Thank you for all your help. It was great to be able to get personal feedback on questions. Also, we would have never heard of Sterling Mattress without your site. I will try to update after we’ve slept on the mattress for a few months. I know that reading about others’ experiences really helped so I want to share mine.
Thanks,
Tricia
