What would you consider the best king size, solid or split, foundation recommendations for either a DIY latex mattress as from SleepEZ or one that is semi-custom, such as from MyLuxurymattress? SEZ offers a DIY wood slate while MLM has the L&P rigid frame. Pros and cons?
Have read just about the whole forum and we are ready to purchase a latex mattress, but will need to decide on a foundation first most likely. Have not seen any of the adjustable slat ones mentioned here and on the other board online yet.
Foundation would go on a king platform bed. We put our existing Beautyrest queen (8-10 yr old Concerto Brahms) with our 4" 4Lb memory foam topper on the platform without the box spring. That was too firm and aggrevated my shoulders and hips and my husbands shoulders as well. Put the box spring back under it and that has helped some, but still firmer than the mattress and boxspring on the normal queen metal frame.
Over the course of the next few weeks (when I can take off one or two of my hats :)) I plan to add a section to the “mattresses” section of the website connected to “what’s under the mattress” as I agree with you that it’s a “gap” in the information on the site. In the meantime though … here’s a few of my thoughts.
My personal preference between the two is for the rigid non flex foundation with wider and flatter wooden support surfaces. Because with the elasticity of latex I’m not completely comfortable with such a heavy mattress resting on thinner metal rods which don’t distribute the weight over as great a surface area and which are constantly pressing into the mattress.
If I wanted a more flexible foundation with some “give” … I would choose a foundation with flexible slats as they too offer more surface support area. They can be helpful for a thinner mattress where the flexible slats can act as an “active” part of the sleeping system and slightly reduce the amount of foam needed to absorb compression forces.
I especially like the tension adjustable slats as they can “fine tune” the supportive properties of a mattress when it is necessary (create firmer support under the hips or allow the shoulders to sink in more deeply when necessary) and improve spinal alignment much like zoning a support layer. They can also in some cases have a secondary effect on pressure relief. They are also most effective with slightly thinner mattresses. Both types of flexible slatted bases will also somewhat change the properties and feel of the sleeping system itself as overall it will have more “give” and be a little more responsive to movement than the mattress by itself. The larger sizes though which have two sides to them have a firm area in the middle so they may not be as suitable to a single person who sleeps in the middle of their mattress as they are to a couple who sleep on each side and can “zone” each side separately. There are a few variations of slatted foundations such as the Greensleep S300 (which uses dowels rather than slats) that do not have this firm area in the middle because each side of the dowels are supported by flexible anchors on each side rather than using sliders to create firmer areas.
With a platform bed where wooden slats can be placed directly on the bed itself … then a set of plain wooden slats such as the ones from Ikea or similar will work fine without any foundation at all. As long as the slats that are supporting the mattress are about 1.5" - 2" apart … then everything should be fine. The main reason to use a rigid foundation on a platform bed with slats would be to raise the height of the mattress. Of course the center of the bed should be well supported by legs to the floor … especially with wider sizes … to prevent any sagging in the middle.
So in your case … unless there was a desire to raise the height of the sleeping surface or to use a flexible slat system … I would simply use thick wooden slats on the platform bed itself. If it is the type of platform bed that has a solid sheet (such as a sheet of plywood or particle board) rather than slats … then a low profile foundation would be a good idea IMO so that the mattress will sit on slats and be able to breathe rather than on a solid sheet which may trap moisture underneath.
Thank you!. It looks like a low profile wide slat foundation would be our best choice for support and ventilation. We do need to raise the mattress to make it a little less inviting to walk right on the bed to our large dogs.
The platform bottom is 3 solid sheets of 3/8" particle board with a 2 in space on either side of the middle board. We are contemplating replacing them with plywood to close those gaps, but are not sure that is necessary or wise. It might aid in air flow to the foundation (even though that space is totally closed off by the drawer units)?
The bottom boards rest on two rectangular side drawer units connected with 3 vertical cross support boards to the floor (only 1 in the middle). We screwed these in to add stability to the unit. We are thinking of also adding at least 2 additional cross boards. What are your thoughts on this?
Looks like we can go ahead and get a foundation ordered soon and have it in place for a latex mattress before ordering one, once we figure out what we need.
Would there be a distinct advantage to have a split king foundation as opposed to one solid one? We are guessing we would need at least a 9 inch latex mattress given our height and weights. Would a 12 inch give more “give” and be better for a rigid slat foundation then?
I would think that it should be fine as is and with a slatted foundation over it that the airflow should be fine as well.
Is it similar to this in terms of floor support (with the particle board over top)? If so with the support of the drawer units and the extra support to the floor in the middle it will be more than enough in terms of strength.
King foundations will almost always be a pair of single XL’s and this is fine … and certainly much easier to move. In the slatted frame type I’m not even aware of one that is one piece.
A typical mattress thickness would be about 8" - 9" of foam and this is suitable on top of any slatted firm foundation. With a more flexible foundation … even less may work well. Thicker than this would have slightly more “give” (assuming the same ILD layers were used and the bottom layer was just thicker) as there would be more foam to absorb compression. This extra give is not in any way necessary for most people unless someone was over 250 or even 300 lbs and even then it would depend on the actual specs of the layers used how it would affect the suitability for a particular individual. Extra thickness can be an advantage or disadvantage depending on why it is chosen and the layering involved. I couldn’t really imagine any situation where more than a 12" foam mattress would have any advantage. For most typical one sided contructions … 8-9" of latex (or other high quality and suitable foam) is fine and more would be for a particular reason or to accommodate a particular construction.
board online yet.