Mattress in Atlanta area for limited budget

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Hi,

My fiancé and I will be getting married at the end of the month and are looking to purchase a new mattress. This process has been much longer and drawn out that I ever wanted it to be but I am a very tedious shopper when it comes to big purchases. This is a trait I acquired after my last mattress purchase a little over a year ago from Ashley furniture. I bought a Sealy Quail Creek Plush Euro Pillow top on “sale” for $900. This mattress felt amazing in the store. However it began to sag in NO time and I wake up with a very stiff and usually painful lower back every day. I sleep mostly on my stomach and occasionally on my side. My fiancé is a side sleeper though so I cannot get a mattress that is too firm. I am 6’ 180lbs and she is 5’9" 135lbs.

I was about to pull this trigger on a bedinabox mattress because of the price and return policy. I do not like the idea of buying a bed that I have not even tried out, but it saves a lot of money to purchase online. After doing more research, I read on here that the 3lb density memory foam will not last very long and will probably lead to the same mattress sagging and lower back issues I have now.

I live in the Atlanta area and plan on doing some mattress shopping over the next couple of weekends. Our budget is $1000 or less for the mattress. I am still undecided on latex, memory foam, or innerspring. We really like the OMF’s latex bed (my dad has one that I have tried out) but it is over budget. If we go with memory foam or latex, I will build the platform for the bed myself.

So here are my questions:

My current bed has completely scared me away from innersprings (especially anything with a pillow top), but after doing some research here, I feel that this probably should not be the case, should it? Innersprings are definitely a better fit for the budget.

We really like the latex feel, but OMF is over budget and I contacted Tucker Mattress Company after I saw that you had recommended them before, but they too were over budget. It seems the going rate for a king sized quality latex mattress is around $1400. Do you know of any less expensive options?

We are not completely opposed to memory foam. We tried some out at Mattress Firm (just to get a feel - we will not be purchasing a mattress from them) and really liked one of the iComfort models but I could not tell you which one. However, I absolutely hate a hot sleeping bed and this, along with price for anything 4lb+ density, is a huge deal breaker when it comes to most of the memory foam beds.

An option I am really starting to consider is buying a less expensive (somewhere in the $400-600 range) firm king size mattress and buying a latex topper to go along with it.

And lastly, if we go with an innerspring, is a bedframe a must or can we put the mattress on box spring directly onto the floor? This is a random question and I have not done any research on this yet - just thought I would see what you would have to say.

Thank you very much for the extremely informative posts on here!

2

Hi FranklinC,

Hopefully you’ve read this but just in case the first place I would start is post #1 here which has the basic informtion, steps, and guidelines you will need to make the best possible choices.

Innersprings are just a support component and in most cases the weak link of a mattress is in the upper layers which are above the innerspring. Good innersprings in a suitable design will rarely fail and in almost all cases it’s the use of low quality materials in the comfort layers that are the biggest durability issue. Even pillowtops can be a durable construction if it uses good quality and durable foam (which is often not the case in the major brands). You can read more about innersprings in this article and in post #10 here and you can read a comparison between them and a latex foam core in post #2 here.

If you are talking about an all latex mattress in king size with about 8" to 9" of latex then this would certainly be lower than you would normally find. To get to your budget or lower you would either need to consider a mattress with less latex or a latex hybrid that only uses latex in the top layers. There is a link in the “read first” to a list of members of the site that include many that sell latex mattresses or latex hybrids that are among the best quality/value in the country and can can also act as a “value reference” for a local purchase as well.

The better options that I’m aware of in the Atlanta area are listed in post #2 here but I don’t keep information or lists about pricing of specific types of mattresses (which changes too often for anyone to keep up with) so you would need to call these to see if any of these carry or sell a latex or latex hybrid mattress that is in your budget range.

This can be a very good option and has the advantage of being able to replace just a topper without replacing the whole mattress but I would make sure you have the chance to test the mattress/topper combination in person. If this is not possible then you are dealing with two variables (instead of just a mattress) and it can be difficult to predict how a certain topper will feel on a specific mattress unless you have tested similar combinations of materials in person. Without this … if I was considering this direction I would buy the mattress first and sleep on it for long enough to go through any adjustment period (for you) and break in period (for the mattress) and then use the guidelines in post #2 here and the posts it links to choose a topper based on your actual experience on the mattress.

I would not put a foundation or an boxspring directly on the floor no because it would restrict ventilation and could become a target for mold, mildew, or other “undesirables” such as dust mites.

I would either use a frame or add legs to the innerspring to elevate it above the floor except for very temporary use.

Phoenix