Looking for Latex... DIY-ing it up.

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Hey folks. Been lerking here a little while shopping for a new matress.

Anywho. I’ve actually pretty much decided on my approach this time around. Amongst my exploration I happened apon the Ikea latex matresses. Which. Save for being a bit too firm, I kinda liked.

Massive amounts of seraching/trying latter, anything I could find tried(tatalay is really plushy o.o… till you go for really firm jeeze), I finally got my back on one step softer latex of the same kind amazingly enough. “Medium” 17.5 - 20.5 ILD Dunlop.

So what I’m planning on is the good ol diy “knock off and improve what you found”.
Aiming for this configuration:
FULL XL (Queens always been a bit too big. But I need the length. And twin XL is a bit narrow.)
6" or 2x3" Dunlop “Medium” (Aka roughly equivalent to C2 Mountain Top being the aim.)
~3" Polyfoam (Tons of suppliers for this locally and not, easy part really. Contemplating the firmness of said. Somewhat firm, ofc.)
Some sort of soft of thin wool? matresspad. And still poking around covers.

Basically a significant up-a-notch with some adjustments of the Ikea 4.7in C3 MT latex over 2in of likely shoddy polyfoam. Forget which one that was at this point, doubt it really matters. Slightly too firm, no Full XL.

As for the general bits:
I’m in the San Jose, CA region, if not already somewhat evident. I’m a hair under 6’ myself, 160lbs. Something of an all-positions-sleeper, with preferences for give with support, without distinct layers. I tend to sleep back or side more… But prefer slightly on the firmer side of side-sleeping I guess? I sleep pretty well on anything unless its too soft. But have before had issues sleeping hot(did get a good 20min on some midly covered latex, and didn’t seem to bother me the way most memory foam mattresses I tried immedatley did tho, so cool that), and I get TO sleep better on things leaning toward the softer end of my range. 1" of soft on top doesn’t tend to work well for me tho. Really feel like trying a foam matress. Dunlop latex seems to suit a lot of my preferences.

I’d honestly probobly SLEEP great on 6in of C2 MT alone. It fit my PPP well when I got to try it. Honeslty, like I said I sleep well on a pretty wide range of firmness… I just find others more comfortable while awake(and hence easier to GET to sleep). It also strikes me the extra 3in of base-layer is sensible as I tend to sit on my bed among other things, and feel a little extra is would be wise if not needing to be the cooshier and more durable latex as an underlayer.

Oh, and this will be going on a platform bed. Thoughts of a little ventilation under are in progress, of course. (Building the bugger myself. Decently handy with wood. ^.^)

TLDR, I am looking for the best price from a trustworthy retailer for the latex part I can find. Full XL.
Thus far I have looked down the list in the DIY matress section.

SleepOnLatex seems to be the most affordable and suitable thus far. But I have concerns with comparing the firmness of their Latexco to MountainTop. Only local places to try I could find to try had either MT Dunlop, or Tatalay. So. Those are what I’ve been able to try. MT C2 18-20 ILD → Latexco ???. “Medium” on latexco sites seems to be 28 ILD, and medium-soft as 24 ILD… But of course. ILD’s use is limtied, and “medium” subjective. grumbles Someone really needs to A: Standardize ILD tests, B: Include ILD at 3 compressions. That’d give you a pretty good idea the properties I’d think. And not take a whole lot more work, given an autoscale like they use…
Nest Bedding and Spindle Matress seem the runners up atm.
Other than sites listing their prices(and asking a few what Full XL costs, usually that of a queen places that don’t say… Kinda like SleepOnLatex for that, they price it the same as a Full AND its on their site upfront. Nice “here’s our source’s cert and name” pic too.)
Been thoughally through this post. https://forum.mattressunderground.com/t/foam-factory-any-good Of course.
Still waiting to maybe hear back from some folks. Particularly maybe some that won’t be shipping it across 2/3rds of the country or more. Sheesh.

Did also spot SeanD on this forum list a really good price from Spindle here for synthetic. But Spindle doesn’t seem to list synthetic as an option on their site. Gave em a poke, yet to hear back. Be a real pity if I just missed them clearing out said. xD… Seeing as said post was late May this year.

Anyway. Them’s about it. Nice site overall. Definitely helpful.

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Hi roguethunder,

I didn’t see any questions in your post so I’ll just say thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences so far.

They no longer sell the synthetic continuous pour latex … only the 100% natural … at very good prices (you can see their blog post here saying "goodbye).

Good luck in your DIY efforts and I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up putting together and how it works for you :slight_smile:

Phoenix

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Hah. Yeah mostly got things figgured. The good old “go out and try freaking everything” method serves well.

I had two questions buried in there tho.

First was actually if there were any known local latex stockers anyone might know of in the SF-Bay or even greater California area? (Nest, despite having stores here. Ships all orders from NEW YORK individually… Seriously.)
Shipping things of that mass thousands of miles is ridiculous when you’re shipping to… One of the most populated parts of the country. But lol, oh well.
Actually getting in contact with one potentially localish importer tomorrow, Latex Global, whom… from what I understand imports Coco Latex. Which seems to be a reasonably certified source of decent quality.

Second, if anyone had any idea the rough equivalency of MT vs Latexco synthetic. Tho. I’m not sure that’s a problem more because…

It turns out, Spindle actually DOES still carry a little synthetic on their ebay store for the moment, as they informed me when I asked(Great response rate btw, few hours into a SUNDAY the night after emailing them.). I suspect its until-its-gone though. The prices are also quite good, much as their natural is. Honestly, they probably won my sale right there, as they are also selling Mountain Top–aka what I’ve been able to experience personally and know suits me well.

And yeah. I definitely intend to pop back and drop my end experience down. Seems like a lot of folks commit and then vanish ;P…

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Hi roguethunder,

[quote]First was actually if there were any known local latex stockers anyone might know of in the SF-Bay or even greater California area? (Nest, despite having stores here. Ships all orders from NEW YORK individually… Seriously.)
Shipping things of that mass thousands of miles is ridiculous when you’re shipping to… One of the most populated parts of the country. But lol, oh well.[/quote]

I don’t know off the top of my head where most of the suppliers in the DIY components list ship from but if memory serves me then a few California suppliers that sell toppers includes Flexus Comfort and Flobeds and Foamorder and Foam Sweet Foam and Sleep Like a Bear and Latextoppers. There are probably others as well that I’m forgetting.

The San Francisco list is in post #2 here and some of these would also sell toppers if you are looking for a local source that you can test in person.

No I don’t. They probably won’t “match” in terms of their rated ILD because the blends are different and the ILD’s may be measured differently as well.

That’s great to hear and you were fortunate they still had some available before they ran out.

That would be great :slight_smile:

Phoenix

5

Alrighty! An update or three. And probobly some useful information too.

Thus far I have the 2 3" C2 Mountain Top Latex layers(from spindle). They’re either 100% Synth or 80% synth. Not sure which. But they do suit me quite well. Good combination of some give, but lots of support. Definitely needs a support layer under, but is pretty good even without.

I’d say the smell should be gone after a full week. Mix of chemically sweet and something else. Not terribly nasty, but certainly wont be missed. Sleeping on said with a temporary cover atm.

As for polyfoam. I’m in the San Jose area. And I couldn’t be more disapointed. Mind. The customer service of our locals was mostly great. The prices… Pretty terrible.

These prices are for 80x54-60x3-4… 1.85-2lb polyfoam. Most of the overpriced ones are for 3in thick. Cheaper of 54 or 60. (Some cutting makes 54 more expensive. Some 60 costs more because it is more.)

Hitting the polyfoam list.
a1foamandfabrics.com/site/index.cfm 140-190$ + shipping. Tho that IS for HR, as I couldnt figgure out what they call HD.
www.albanyfoam.com/ GREAT price. Friendly folks. 80x60x4 ran 150$ shipped clear across the country. ~110$ before shipping. This is 1.85-1.9lb 35 or 45 ild polyfoam…
www.foamonline.com/ Site quotes 170$ before shipping… Dunno if that includes shipping.
https://www.foamorder.com/ Holy craples overpriced. 280$ for their cheapest basic actual option.
www.foamproducts.net/ 161$+22$ SHIPPING. Not terrible. Is noted to be 2lb rather than 1.85lb or 1.9lb.
www.bobsfoam.com/ 260$+, local for me but jeeze. Really friendly tho.
houseoffoam.net/ 240$+, again local, and fairly freindly. Harder to get ahold of than bobs tho.
www.newenglandfoam.com/ (min order $150 last time I talked with them)
200$ min order now. More than I’m looking for. ( fwiw stated clearly at http://www.newenglandfoam.com/quote.html )
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Albany were REALLY nice about things. They normally deal only in bulk. But see no reason to and wont turn away business. Definitely got them on my thumbs up list. Their prices on their website ARE generally up-to-date too apparently, which shows some real coordination.
(Oh, and if orders with them are over $250, they have a policy of covering half of shipping if outside of direct-delivery range. Least as of right now. So that half-reasonable shipping gets even nicer if you want more than I got. Custom cuts incur 30% additional cost from what they said.)

Anyway, will update again once polyfoam and cover are here. Haven’t quite decided on the cover yet.

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Hi roguethunder,

Thanks for the update and feedback and for the pricing comparisons … I appreciate it :slight_smile:

Some of your polyfoam prices may not be apples to apples comparisons if you are comparing different thicknesses, different sizes, or different densities or grades of polyfoam and I couldn’t get your prices to agree with my calculations. I checked some of the sites you mentioned where you can calculate prices online to make some comparisons based on 3" of 1.8 lb (or slightly higher if they didn’t carry 1.8 lb) polyfoam in queen size (60 x 80) excluding shipping. If it’s less to order smaller sizes it would make sense to do so but it’s very easy to cut foam so if 60 x 80 is less than 54 x 80 then it would make sense to cut a queen layer to a smaller size.

The results I came up with are …

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I checked their website and their Everlon firm (1.8 lb) for 3" x 60" x 80" is $96.58 and the same dimensions for their Everlon Dense (2.0 lb) is $110.00

This page lists this as 1.8 lb polyfoam which for queen size is $38.27 per inch which would be $114.81 for a 3" layer and $153.08 for a 4" layer. The next grade up that they sell is 2.6 lb.

3" of their 1.9 lb polyfoam in queen (they don’t carry 1.8 lb) came out to 192.75 (54 x 80 was $173.47)

This seemed to be somewhat out of the range of the others you mentioned but when I checked their site a 3" layer of 60" x 80" 1.8 lb polyfoam was $185. While this is still more than some of the others I think you may have listed the price for their Everflex foam which is a higher performance HR foam (their 34 IFD and firmer is at least 2.6 lb density).

As you mentioned this is 2.0 lb and for me it worked out to $137 in 3" (and 182.67 for 4").

I’m curious why our calculations are so different.

Phoenix

7

Hm. I think I can break these down.

Albany’s site, desptie being up to date could maybe use some organization heh. They can simply get it already in matress sizes. albanyfoam.com/images/Page_03.pdf The second link next to mid-foam. I think their custom mattress pricing assumes custom-cuts occur, rather than just ordering blocks they don’t need to do anything to. Silly, really.
Prices for these pre-sized blocks are really good.
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A1 my problem was figuring out which was which. Sure there’s some page that said it somewhere… Those are decent prices, knowing which is which.

Foamonline we match on, so no confusion there. Just rounded it off as it was above 160$ for only 3" at which point I shurgged.

Foamorder’s site apperently was ignoring my changing of the thickness! Firefox being silly while running too many things. Actually makes them by far the cheapest in the SF Bay area. Still a mite pricy tho compared to shipping.

Foamproducts–ah yeah. Hadn’t bothered plugging the 3in in there. 4in was the 161$. 3in is 121$. Not sure why. Used 3in my first run almost every place… and tat was off my first run sheet. xD Jeeze.

^.^’ Sorry about errors in my compilation there. Been slowly snapping back to a real sleep scheduled. Not 100% when I was typing that up heh.
I think that lines the rest up. x.x…

Edit: To explain a little…
basically, I was trying to compare the cheaper of 53x80x3/60x80x3(since yeah, cutting that ain’t much of a hassle), cheapest 1.8lb+ options at each. ~30-40 ILD. Tho in the end I ended up going for 4in, as with Albany it was… really not a significant price jump. Other than A1, and slipping up on the thickness one place I mostly managed that. That’s pretty apples-to-apples. Some just carry slightly nicer apples in that range. (such as 2lb vs 1.85-1.9lb potentially for some lacking a basic HD-ish option and only stocking 2lb instead)
Seemed appropriate for a good quality support layer.

Edit2:
Looking at it, now that I found the silly popup explaining way down it the different foams A1 offers.A-1 probobly would have run slightly less, being based in so-cal(shipping xD). Same price roughly as Albany for their foam, once ye know which to look at. XD… And that counts having it to exactly you preferred dimensions rather than presized blocks. Not too bad overall though. A1 or Albany definitely run the cheaper end of my grand comparison.
E-MD 4x54x80 from them runs up 108$+shipping. Which is what I’m cutting mine down to anyway. 120$+ship for queen.

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Hi roguethunder,

Thanks … that all makes sense to me now. :slight_smile:

Phoenix

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I just wanted to thank Phoenix and roguethunder for the resources here (in this thread and the whole site).

I’ve been lurking on the forums for a couple of weeks, reading Phoenix’s tutorials and people’s experiences. I knew that I liked latex as a material (from trying a few in person and reading about the material), but couldn’t quite handle the price of a full latex mattress. Latex over foam seemed like a good compromise, but there aren’t many local options and I didn’t like the idea of buying without trying. I was considering ordering the Dreamfoam 12-in-1 and swapping out the top layer for a latex topper, but many reviewers complained that it was too soft even on the firmest configuration.

The upshot is that I just placed an order with Albany Foam for 6" total of their 2.6 density Ultra Foam to serve as support layers (2" each of soft, medium, firm), and I’m planning to visit Spindle on Monday with the intent of getting a latex topper from them. I haven’t decided yet what kind of cover to put over all of this, but it doesn’t seem like there are many bad options there, just varying degrees of good ones. Total cost is looking to be less than $550, excepting the cover, for a 9" latex-over-foam DIY mattress.

So: thank you roguethunder for introducing me to Albany Foam, who I would never have found on my own, but were helpful, inexpensive, and fast.
Thank you Phoenix for introducing me to Spindle, and providing this wealth of information
And thank you to whomever cited diynaturalbedding.com (I think in the pillow thread) where I might end up for a mattress cover, but in any case convinced me that constructing a mattress myself was not a ridiculous idea.

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Hi Celosi,

Thanks for all the feedback … and congratulations on your new “sleeping system” :slight_smile:

I think you are looking at some very good quality/value options and I’m looking forward to your feedback once you have a chance to complete everything and have had a chance to sleep on it.

Phoenix

11

Hey folks!

Checking back in, giving an update a year and a half later.

Beds been great. Pretty much same story as original check-back. Did finally end up gluing the layers, as layers getting displaced was a problem (I’m a restless sleeper at times.) and was making it not as awesome. Bed has remained the best match I’ve ever had in a bed. Sooooo comfy, reminded any time I visit my folks or the sort and come back to it.
Lesson to be said here, observe both what does and doesn’t work in previous beds. It’s what lead me to the right setup for me.

The 4" Polyfoam from Albany has been holding up well, it provides a very good firmer base layer as intended, and doesn’t seem to be showing any actual wear wear being under 6" of medium MT dunlop. Some mild discoloration, but it doesn’t seem to effect it.
The 2 3" synthetic latex has also held up well, no significant signs of wear… No surprise here being MT’s stuff, a durable quality product with a long expected lifespan. Cover seems to be doing it’s job and keeping the latex from oxidizing while still breathing.

I ended up sewing my own cover, cannibalizing a cloth/cotton mattress protector from Bed bath and beyond and integrating it for some mild moisture protection. Does firm up the bed a very tiny bit too, but ultimately that was actually an improvement.

An interesting note! BB&B, can special order many of their sheets in the less common sizes. Including Full XL. Requires doing a phone order, but they can even get these in colors their website doesn’t list available for unusual sizes too. Got a nice dark purple set :smiley: My only criticism is they run on the tight side sideways on Full XL at-least. 0.5-1" more width would make them fit much better. on a proper dimensioned Full XL.

I will say, the poly under latex design makes a nice budget latex bed with nearly unlimited customization to suit. Got the idea off Ikea originally, but couldn’t stand their product (and latter found out the polyfoam they use is of course typically rather poor thanks to this forum and others.).

Anyway, thanks for the forum. Was a definite help. Also glad someone else also found Albany Foam handy. Seriously, great folks over there. Decent product for cheap too. Conveniently. already in the right sizes :smiley:

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Hi roguethunder,

Thanks for taking the time to come back a year and a half later and sharing such detailed comments and feedback … I appreciate it :slight_smile:

It’s great to hear that your DIY mattress worked out so well for you!

Phoenix