Hardwood vs. Soft For Mattress Foundation?

Details, details, details.

Hi Phoenix -

As you know, I’m strongly considering the Green Sleep Niu bed (a floor model, which the store won’t go lower than 20% on, or a new one).

He’s offering a choice of two base foundations, both simply using wood slats. A Green Sleep, which uses spruce, a softwood (unlike their more expensive foundations which use poplar, a hardwood). He also has one made by WJ Southard, which he says uses some sort of hardwood (though I have found he doesn’t always have all of his facts right). I can’t find anything on WJ Southard’s website about the material in their base, or anything about their foundations.

The pros, as of now, without really knowing its interior for certain, of the WJ Southard is that it would be $400 instead of $500, the price of the Green Sleep, and perhaps the use of hardwood. The disadvantage is that the color wouldn’t quite match the Green Sleep.

Any thoughts on a plain slatted foundation?

Hi AnalogJ,

You can see some of the different properties of different types of wood here. The rated bending strength of poplar and spruce are almost identical.

The overall construction of each foundation including the width and thickness of the slats and the gaps between them would also make a difference. A quilted surface on the foundation would also be a little easier on the mattress ticking in terms of wear and tear than if a mattress is resting more directly on a harder wood surface. If you call Sleepmaster they would probably be happy to provide you with the details you need about the WJ Southard foundation.

There is more about foundations in the foundation post here but the end result you are looking for is a support surface that flexes as little as possible under weight (you can check for any flex yourself) and provides for an evenly supportive surface under the mattress. Slats that are closer together have less risk of any sagging in between the slats.

As far as appearance that of course would be a personal preference

Phoenix