Okay, so after lots of research my husband and I built our own latex bed, and overall it’s great but needs just a teeny bit of tweaking to make us 100% love it. I’m 5’5", 170 lb and he’s 5’5", 210 lb. Both of us are side and modified stomach with one leg bent sleepers.
We have 3" firm Dunlop base, 3" medium Dunlop support, and 3" soft Dunlop comfort layers set up. These layers are on top of a wood foundation designed for latex. Support and alignment are good but it’s missing that “plush” feel.
We’ve tried a 2" Talalay topper and although it feels good when laying on it, it might be just a little too bouncy and my neck and shoulders must sink in too far because they were fine with just the 3 Dunlop layers, but out of whack since using the Talalay. It’s being returned.
I’m primarily interested in trying a 2" topper- would love something with organic latex, cotton, and wool, but the ones I’ve found are pretty expensive. I’m open to other ideas as long as they’re certified to be free of harmful gases/chemicals, etc. Thanks in advance!
As you know, any mattress is unique to those sleeping on it, based on their stats(height, BMI, sleeping position(s) and any underlying health conditions) and their PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief and Personal preferences)
Well done on the DIY Latex Mattress! It has a good support base for you and your husbands BMIs and it’s great that you are ‘almost’ there. This bed should last you both many years (as per the [url=Mattress durability guidelines ... how long will a mattress last - The Mattress Underground] Mattress Durability Guidelines) and its great you’ve got the alignment and support you need.
Adding a topper is good way to fine tune your DIY and add a bit of plushness. As you probably know a thicker mattress can have a greater range of compression and is more “adaptable”. Thicker mattress (or mattress-topper combo) will feel softer for most people and in some cases higher weight ranges (or a higher BMI) will sometimes do better with a mattress that is thicker than lower weight ranges or a lower BMI. So on all counts you are going in the right direction with it. I am not clear, however, if in your experiments you replaced the 3" soft Dunlop with the 2" Talalay, or if you added the Talalay on top of the entire 9" DIY. Have you tried it both ways? And if “yes” what was the result?
Most of the Trusted Members of the site use natural or organic latex in their products. You have correctly determined that Talalay Latex is ‘bouncier’ than the more dense denser Dunlop Latex- (the feel is described as angel food cake versus poundcake) Now that you determined what sort of topper you want, you may want to take a look at these:
If you want a cover for your topper, Trusted Member CozyPure has this Pebble Pique Organic Stretch Knit Mattress Protector [/url] which starts at $79. And Naturally Nestled has both Natural Toppers As well as Organic Toppers Another option would be to add a shredded latex topper, it has a different type of feel and performance and distribute weight differently and you may like it. You might just need to fluff it from time to time to rearrange the shreds. Also, FloBeds shredded latex and wool toppers, even though the latex is Talalay, it might just take away enough of the “bounciness” and form that needed cradle to give more pressure relief.
In any event, you have done the hard part, researching, finding, and compiling your DIY bed, +I have confidence you will be able to find a great topper for that ‘finishing touch’!
We have a similar issue. Our 9" mattress has 4" firm, 3 " medium and 2" soft layers, all Dunlop. I find that I get the dreaded pressure points on the hips and am considering getting a 2" topper. This mattress is new. I’ve read that Talalay may be better for pressure point relief but wonder about the 2" Dunlop top layer with a 2" Talalay topper and if it will conflict. The salesperson suggested replacing the middle 3" medium layer with soft but that may be too soft. Any thoughts?
We gave up on the DIY because the next step was trying coils, and they can’t be returned so we wanted to just stop sinking money and energy into it. We live in the same town that Croft Mattress Foreverbeds are made and they promise to adjust the components if they aren’t working for us and have a lifetime warranty. We bought a split king and are overall happier than we’ve been in many years but are going to talk to them about making some small tweaks. Hope they’re as easy to work with as they say they are!