I apologize if this is the wrong place for this.
I’ve decided on ordering a SleepEZ, but right now I struggle to keep my current mattress square on its foundation as my frame is inclined 6" at the head and the mattress keeps slipping off
If anyone has encountered this problem or if anyone has any ideas on how to fix this, I’d be grateful.
irongrave:
You could try something like the Gorilla Grip Slip Resistant Mattress Gripper Pad (there are other brands that perform the same function - just pull up the Gorilla Grip item on Amazon and you’ll see similar items), or use a rug runner non-slip rug pad - they’re similar materials. They can be found on various popular online selling sites. With the 6" incline your mattress will still migrate a bit toward the foot of the bed, but these grippers will slow that.
Thanks Jeff, I’ve seen these, my problem is I really need to wholesale prevent slippage as I have an injured back right now and reorienting the mattress is a bit of a struggle.
PS. I called earlier, I was the high-risk COVID caller. I understand your reasoning for not being able to make a recommendation over the phone, it’s just rough because I just cannot come into the store.
Hello Irongrave,
One solution is to get a headboard or foot-board the securely attaches to the frame, and use it to block the mattress from sliding off the frame. I am not familiar with these so I don’t know how securely they would attach to the frame and how well they would resist the lateral force of the sliding mattress.
Another solution is to get a so-called “medical bed” or “adjustable bed” such as the Invacare brand. These have securely attached headboards & footboards which will block the mattress from sliding off, although you might have to place some kind of spacer material in the gap between the footboard and the mattress. These beds cost around $1000 new, or are as cheap as $100 on Craig’s List. I even got one for free the other day! They can be configured so that when you crank the up/down handle, the whole bed goes up/down, or alternatively, they can also be configured so the head and foot of the bed move in opposite directions, so when the head goes up, the foot goes down, and vice-versa. This allows you to very precisely adjust the level of inclination, and allows you to easily change it at will, simply by rotating the up/down handle. If the angle of inclination is insufficient then you have to put the legs on one end up on riser blocks, but you can still fine-tune the inclination with the crank handle. However these beds are relatively large and heavy, although they do break down into smaller parts for ease of transport. But if you have bad back problems, then it’s not a DIY sort of project you want to do, to move one and assemble one.
The solution that might be most practical and economic for you might be to purchase a pair of shelf brackets at Home Depot and a box of self-tapping screws. As long as you have an electric drill or cordless screwdriver, you can drive these screws right into your metal bed frame, using them to screw the shelf brackets to the end of the bed frame. If the shelf brackets are long enough, then they can hold the mattress directly, otherwise you’ll need a plywood board at least 1/2 inch thick, which is screwed to the shelf brackets, such that this board butts up against the end of the mattress. The self-tapping screws can drill into the wood as well as metal. You might need different lengths or diameters of screws than I linked to here, but you get the general idea, and you can experiment to find what works for your application. You might burn through 2 or 3 screws at the most , dulling the cutting edge on the screw, until the screw finally cuts through the bed frame at a given point, but if you apply a reasonable amount of downward force on the screw, it should bite and cut it’s self into the steel bed frame. Be careful to vacuum up the metal shavings that result, because they are sharp. I prefer self-tapping screws with hex heads instead of phillips heads, because the hex driver bits will hold onto the screw better while driving it in, but either one will work.
I hope one of these ideas might be helpful!
Thanks for taking a look.
So, something more recent I’ve realized:
Inclining a bed with risers pretty much nullifies the center support legs unless you can find risers in the specific height the center legs use. Additionally, the center legs are usually not aligned with the head/foot, which means they’ll need different size risers from those. I’m not sure if it’s possible to find a bed frame strong enough to not need center support, I’ve been looking but haven’t come up with much. Considered possibly wrought iron?
I took a look at the Invacare beds, but the only ones I could find were gurney-style medical beds, maybe I overlooked something?
The options I’m looking at now are:
Option 3 is seeming like my best option. Does anyone know if a mattress wedge made of HD polyfoam like this will substantially alter mattress support?:
https://www.avanacomfort.com/mattress-elevator.html
Still open to other options too if anyone has any ideas.
Hi Irongrave,
You’re welcome, but I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean by a gurney style bed. The Invacare beds are for sure aesthetically ugly, and are only available in twin extra-long as far as I have seen. Also, depending on your mattress, if you did use an Invacare bed then you might be well served to place a sheet of plywood under the mattress to isolate it from the spring support system of the Invacare bed. This is a link to the Invacare bed I was thinking about at the Walmart web site.
Regarding the HD polyfoam wedge, I don’t know how compressible or “soft” the foam is, but I imagine that if it is even a little bit “soft” then it could alter the performance of the mattress. Also, because from one end of the wedge to the other there is progressively more thickness of foam, it would progressively have more and more effect on the mattress from one end to the other. However, if you place a sheet of plywood over the foam wedge, this should isolate your mattress from the effect of any sagging or softness in the foam wedge.
Home Depot will cut down a 4x8 plywood sheet to your desired size for no extra charge. Unfortunately the cost of plywood is really high these days, (you can easily spend $60 on a 3/4 inch thick 4x8 sheet) so you have to balance cost with thickness. 3/4 inch is recommended for mattress support, but in my opinion that’s overkill and 3/8 is more than adequate to prevent excessive sagging as long as the plywood sheet is well supported. If it’s a relatively firm foam wedge that you’re dealing with, a sheet of lightweight MDF board might even do the trick to isolate the mattress from the foam wedge.
On the other hand, a 3/4 inch sheet of plywood under the mattress would be strong enough to be used all by its self to incline the mattress, if the plywood was lifted off the bed frame on the end and in the middle with some sort of lumber pieces cut to appropriate height.
The foam wedge you mentioned is 1 inch thick at one end and 7 inches thick at the other, for a total elevation of 6 inches over the entire length of the mattress. That seems like a fairly minimal degree of elevation. It would be nice to be able to adjust the amount of elevation in case more or less elevation is desired.
Spindle Mattress has some suggestions here for suppliers of robust bed frames. Perhaps those suppliers might give you some ideas, although when I glanced at them they seemed rather expensive.
A frame can certainly be strong enough to not require center supports, but this will make the frame more expensive because it will require more material.
One thing you want to be aware of is that on inexpensive metal frames, the legs can break off or can fold over when the frame is inclined, so you kind of have to judge for yourself if the legs and frame looks strong enough to support the progressively stronger lateral sideways force and induced frame twisting that is incurred as the frame is progressively inclined more and more. As for the legs in the middle of the frame, you would probably want to implement some kind of supports for them. Some 4 inch lengths of 2x4 and 1x3 boards stacked up to an appropriate height would provide for an adjustable-height support for the middle legs.
If your bed frame has wheels or can accept wheels, it turns out that you can buy adjustable height bed caster wheels. Meanwhile there are some so-called adjustable or stackable bed risers that allow for some limited amount of adjustment by stacking more or less of these risers together. Combining some risers with the adjustable height wheels would allow you to get exactly the height of riser you need, because the wheels can be fine tuned to exactly the needed height, while the plastic risers can give you some gross adjustments between different amounts of elevation.
Somewhat mid-level on the DIY difficulty spectrum would be to reinforce your existing metal bed frame with some lengths of 1x6 furring boards. Some 1x6 boards could stiffen the steel frame. The boards can be attached to the frame with self-tapping screws or bolts that are run through pilot holes drilled in the steel frame. While this could be done, it would seem to be a lot more simple to just prop up the existing legs of the bed frame with some sorts of risers, adjustable height wheels, and/or scrap pieces of lumber.
There should really be more inexpensive and versatile solutions on the market for inclining a bed or mattress, after all it’s a common need that a lot of people have.
Thanks for all your help.
The issue with the Invacares is I need a queen size bed, I have a large wingspan. Also, I’m 6’4". A twin-size bed is a no-go. Was there a queen version that you saw?
I’m trying to skip most DIY stuff as my back is injured and my mobility is minimal. Like, anything that’s 0-12 inches of elevation from my floor and requires more than 1-2 pounds of force is pretty much off-limits for me right now due to my height.
I’ll keep my eyes peeled on beds for frames with extra-strong legs.
I asked the wedge company for their ILD / foam density and was told “It goes against our production guidelines to give that out.”
The plywood sounds interesting, but the more I think about the wedge and their refusal to provide specs the more I worry about the foam’s longevity and how frequently I would have to move the entire mattress / plywood to replace the wedge.
The adjustable wheels/risers sound good, I also found these adjustable legs:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FKZ8Q16?tag=serpco-20&th=1&keywords=Bed+Risers+For+Metal+Frame&geniuslink=true