Foam manufacturers & distributors

[phoenix]

Hi bmbsqd7,

[quote]I had a mattress store in Wisconsin suggest FBM to me over the phone today. I called up FBM and I did not like the feeling I got from the rep on the phone. He was extremely evasive with terse answers without explaining anything. Most of the answers were “I don’t know” (such as “where does the foam come from” and “why is this HR foam considerably cheaper than elsewhere”). He would just ignore many questions and change the subject to something else. When I pressed, after the question was ignored several times earlier, for a policy on any warranty information and shipping charges if there would happen to be an issue with the foam, he got very frustrated with me and told me “I DON’T KNOW, every situation is different”. So needless to say I will not be sending business their way without getting any straight answers.[/quote]’

Unfortunately your experience is fairly typical of dealing with FBM and they rarely provide straight answers.

I called most of the places that you had linked to in post #4, and most of them range from $500-$1000 for the 6" of the King size HR foam and even the lower HD foam.

I quickly checked a few of the sources and there were some that were less than this for HD polyfoam so you may have been looking at the more costly ones.

However one of them that stood out for $300 + shipping was albanyfoam. Are you familiar with their quality? They rep told me that he was new there, so I’m not sure how much he was accurate on, but he claimed they manufacture their own foam and that they are CertiPUR certified. The only thing that makes me nervous is that googling brings up some importing records site which shows that they get some of their materials from China…hopefully not the foam.

As far as I know their foam is manufactured in the US (meaning it would be good quality based on the density) but they don’t manufacture it themselves. Maybe they meant by manufacturing was that they fabricate the foam meaning they cut and shape the foam from the buns they order from a foam manufacturer. the import records I saw were just for fabrics and I would seriously doubt they are importing their polyfoam.

My plan for a DIY bed was to start with 6" of ILD 35 HR polyfoam with a comfort layer of 3" of 4lb memory foam (hopefully Aerus). If I found this too hard (from bottoming out) or not supportive enough in the comfort layer, I would look to order the 2" of 8lb memory foam for a transition layer. Does this design and plan sound reasonable for someone who needs a thick comfort layer with soft conformity to fill in the gaps of a skinny body type frame, and also needs decent support to hold up hips so that they don’t sink in?

There is no formula that can predict someone’s experience on a specific mattress based on “theory at a distance” (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here) but if this design is a close approximation of a design you have tested and works well in your experience then at least the odds are in your favor.

Phoenix