Aloha All!
Trying to figure out what would be the best route to go. Have about $800-$1000 mattress only budget. I’m 225lbs, 6’ 2", spouse is about 190lbs, 6’. I have low back & sacrum pain along with upper thoracic pain which is most likely caused by our current junk Serta mattress. Spouse has no issues. In the past we’ve had Sealy ($2K), Sterns and Foster (returned previous $2k mattress under warranty claim, spent another $900 to get sterns and foster) and our current Serta ($500 cheapo, firm) from sams club, all of which went bad within 6months to 1 year. Spent the past 3 years on the junk Serta frustrated and broke from shelling out so much money on junk mattresses. Decided its time to probably make our own mattress (after much research on here and other forums) and almost pulled the trigger when we ran into the Ironman mattress at a local store. It seems to be close to the build we would be building, so I thought I would see what you all thought!
Here are the 4 options we are trying to decide between, all EASTERN King size:
Local store IRONMAN:
Ironman T3.1 (can get for about $941 on clearance)
Ironman T3.2 (can get for about $1200 on clearance)
http://www.ironmanmattress.com/products.html
OR
Custom builds from FBM (http://www.thefoamfactory.com/):
Option 1:
1" Soft Latex 20ILD (FBM): $120
2" Medium Latex 32ILD (FBM): $239
6" Lux-HQ 50ILD (FBM): $250
Option 2:
1.5" HD36-HQ Foam (FBM): $57
2" HD36-HQ Foam (FBM): $83
6" Lux-HQ 50ILD (FD): $250
For the cover on either option above I’m thinking:
13" Sleepez: 4 Way Strtetch Zipper Cover Non Quilted 13,000 Zipper Cover (13"): $165
or
Something from http://www.idealquilting.com/: $120
Total up to this point for custom builds (including custom foundation):
FBM Option 1: $730-750
FBM Option 2: $510-540
I’m getting a 12" encasement to give us room to see what works best for us. This will allow us to add softer layers if needed. Then, if there is still a few inches left to fill the case, I was simply going to add more LUX-HQ to the core support level to fill the case up.
For all scenarios above, I’m going to build my own foundation. I looked at the ironman foundation and it was all lumpy with the slats underneath. I’m going to use 2 layers of 3/4" or thicker plywood cut to shape on top of a universal frame from Costco:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11296078&search=bed+frame&Mo=49&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=bed+frame&Ntt=bed+frame&No=2&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1
Figured we could cover it with fabric. The wood and the frame will run around $100-$150, and be more solid than our floor.
I’m aware of the mixed reviews on FBM. My experience in buying a mattress from a manufacture up to this point is 100% being ripped off!! LOL! So I expect somewhat of the same treatment from them.
I did want to get the latex from somewhere else, but most do not ship to hawaii. And the shipping costs as much as the mattress for the ones that do. FBM ships to hawaii at very reasonable rates, another reason I’m being forced to go with them if I go the DIY route.
My concearn with the Ironman is its unknown quality. I’ve read the few postings on here, and it seemed to have a decent reviews. I have tried out the T3.1 and felt it was perfect for me, my spouse felt it was a little firm. She liked the T3.2 better. The T3.2 felt fine to me also, so we could go that route too. It does put us over budget, but if its a high quality mattress, we are willing to go over budget a bit. I found out it has a zippered cover so it does give us the option of easy mattress surgery in the future if needed. I don’t like how they hide their specs with vague descriptions in their literature, which raises a red flag.
What do you guys think? What would you do in our situation? We eventually want to go 100% latex, but it is way over our budget now. Hopefully sometime in the future when we can get the money together we will go that route. The thinking behind DIY option #2 was to get us by till we could afford better latex. We also really like the idea of being able to modify/fix our mattress whenever we want without having to buy an entire new setup.
Mahalo and Thank you all for your ideas and thoughts. I’ve learned a lot in the forums and am very grateful to you all!
-Alohabob