Hi, I’m wondering if I could get some advice on how to tweak a DIY King Latex Mattress I got from Arizona Mattress a few years ago. Here’s the configuration I bought:
6” Dunlop Latex Core 36 ILD (firm)
3” Talalay Latex 28 ILD (medium) Mid layer
3” Talalay Latex 19 ILD (soft) Top layer
I’m a back sleeper 190LBs (6’3", 39 YO) and my wife is a side sleeper 170LBs (5’11", 37 YO). This is great for me but she’s been having a lot of back problems. To try to fix this, we split the two 3” toppers in half (since a king is 2x twins, there was already a seam to make this easy) and swapped her side so the 28 ILD was on top followed by the softer 19 ILD in the middle. This helped some but she’s still having back problems so she’s been bailing back to our old coil mattress.
Would anyone have suggestions for what I could do on her side to fix her back problems? I think I need to swap out the 3” toppers on her side with something firmer while keeping my side fixed.
I see that I can buy Talalay in both 32 ILD and 36 ILD on Arizona’s site. I’ll need to get 2x 3” TwinXL portions to make up the difference in height. Would anyone have recommendations on if I should get 1x 32 ILD and 1x 36 ILD, or 2x 36 ILD layers? Or maybe something else?
We did try an experiment last night where she slept on the 36 ILD dunlop core only. She said that was a definite improvement and she’ll try it a few days to see how it is longer term.
Thanks!
@Arizona_Premium
I’ll preface by saying that I’m sure APM or another expert can weigh in with a more authoritative piece of advice,. That said, just based on your components, would you want to consider just buying one twin xl blended talalay 36 (or 32?) and layer that with the dunlop core and the 28 blended(?) talalay layer you already have? Maybe able to firm it up enough by using the 36 (or 32) as a transition to the 28. If not that doesn’t work, then you could decide to buy the 32 (or 36, depending on what you went with first).
Also, did you consider flipping over the dunlop core to see if the bottom “half” of the core is firmer than the top “half”? My understanding of the dunlop method of baking latex is that the bottom part of the core inevitably gets a little more firm (dense?) in the baking process. If so, then perhaps you can a little more firmness out of the core, and perhaps that would help your wife, but not hinder you? Just a thought. Again, I hope APM or another poster more knowledgeable than I can provide guidance.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that if you want to “signal” APM to see if he can chime in, you can add @Arizona_Premium to the post. I guess he’ll get a notification from my post now. : )
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Thanks so much for the reply and for including APM! That’s a great suggestion of starting with 1 new layer and going from there.
I was wondering whether the previous experiment of having a softer layer sandwiched between a firm and a medium maybe wasn’t actually solving any problems because the soft was negating any underlying firmness of the core. Maybe another experiment could be to layer the medium on top of the core without the soft and see how that feels vs just the core she’s on now.
I’m not sure if sandwiching the soft would negate the firmness of the core. If I remember correctly putting the soft layer under a firmer layer should result in an overall slightly more firm build. Not much firmer, but still a bit more firm.
That said, I would definitely experiment by removing the soft and seeing how it is with just firm core and medium layer.
And are the layers incased in a quilted cover or something more akin to a knit fabric. My understanding is that a quilted cover can make a build feel a little more firm (compared to using a more stretchy knit cover. Just something to think about as an added variable while you experiment with layering.
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I would suggest just going with a #32, #36 might be over the top in firmness. She may have have underlying back issues that need to be looked at as well. The mattress can only do so much.
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Thanks @Arizona_Premium! Would the recommendation be to get 1x #32 twinXL to start and then pair it with the #28 I already have? Then if it needed to be firmer get either a second #32 or a #36 to swap the #28 with?
I appreciate the suggestion of looking for potential back issues- definitely a great idea getting a jump on that early.