Hi
I have a sagging 10-yr.-old Beautyrest “Middleton” Hybrid pillow-top. For background, the mattress is on a metal frame platform. It improved a lot when I put a bunkie board underneath about 5 years ago, but has now returned to sagging (the bunkie board looks indented now). I replaced the flattened 1" foam layers with a 3" foam layer, but am not feeling any major difference in the mattress. Do I need to do something with the (pocket coil) springs? Would a new bunkie board work? Do I need a new metal platform?
I am hoping to move within the next year or two, so I’d strongly like to avoid a new mattress, but the current one is becoming totally unbearable.
Because you mentioned the indentation in the bunkie board, that makes me wonder if the mattress foundation isn’t part of the issue. If you place the mattress on the floor, does the sagging resolve itself?
Do you happen to know the density of the 3" foam vs the 1" foam? When did you replace the foam (5 years ago, or recently)? Also, would you be willing to share your height/weight?
This depends on how your mattress reacts once on the floor. If the sagging appears to stop, then the coils are good to go and the bunkie board replacement would be a reasonable option. If the sagging continues, then we’d need to determine where that sagging is coming from. If it’s the coils, then you’ll be in the market for a new mattress, I’m afraid.
I’m interested to hear the results of your mattress-on-floor testing!
Thanks so much for your reply. I’ll try to answer the questions.
First, I’m unable to place the mattress on the floor as there isn’t room for it and I also currently have an allergy problem with the carpet.
Second, I just replaced the foam about two weeks ago. I believe it was medium density (it didn’t feel like a slab like some foam does). The old foam was miniscule, almost paper thin when I took it out. The egg-crate part was almost flattened, and I could feel the springs on my hip through the pillow-top. I’m a 5’4" female and weigh about 125-130 pounds. I’ve been the only person sleeping on the mattress for it’s whole life (no partner, kids, dog, etc.).
I tried rolling over to the other side of the (Full) bed and also rotating (not flipping) it, and neither seemed to make any difference. The bunkie board worked great for about 5 years and then pooped out. If the fault is in the springs, is it possible to rotate some of the springs around since they are separate pocket coil?
I also forgot to mention that I tried putting some wood slats across the bunkie board but that didn’t seem to make any difference either.
Thanks again so much for helping me with this!
I’ll try to help a little, but I need more specific information from you in order to provide any sort of educated advice.
It would be really helpful for you to post a photo of the top deck of your metal platform bed base.
A photo of the top deck of the bunkie board would also be useful. Generally these have quite wide slat spacing and don’t improve support characteristics that much, which is why I’m curious about how the top deck of your metal platform bed base is constructed.
This is the one thing that would be the most telling. You don’t have to sleep on the mattress. Fold up your metal bed, place a sheet on the floor, put the mattress on top of that, wear a mask and lie down upon the product and notice what difference it makes. If you’re unwilling/unable to do this, anything we can provide here on the forum will be guesses at best.
Density is not how hard the foam feels. It is the mass per unit volume (represented as pounds per cubic foot here in the USA). Higher density polyfoam is more durable than lower density. The unique thing about polyfoam is that the density of the foam can be quite independent of the hardness/softness. As what you’re attempting to do is a band-aid of sorts, the density won’t be as important. The hardness will make more of a change in the feel. If you added 3" of softer foam, I wouldn’t expect that it would have made too much of a change in the feel of the product. If the mattress is still sagging, it’s just going to be a softer sag.
Nope. The springs are placed in pockets of non-woven material separated by ultrasonic welds, and then these rows are glued together.
Probably not a course of action that would have resulted in any real improvement, regardless.
Much of what you’re doing is a bit of chasing your own tail. I understand you wanting to extend the life of an old mattress that is past its prime, but the support structure upon which you’re placing your mattress really is the starting point. Without this knowledge and being able to compare the feel of the mattress upon the floor, you’re putting a lot of effort into spinning your own wheels here. Hopefully you can provide some of the information we’re requesting to help you out.
The foam is 2" craft. foam with no description of the density. I’ve attached commercial images of the label and of the metal platform. The bunkie board is a very thin piece of plywood or particle board (1/4" ? inside it’s frame). I’m sorry that I can’t put the mattress on the floor but as I said there isn’t room. I’ll be grateful for whatever help you’re able to offer. Since the bunkie board is so thin, yet made a difference for several years, is it likely a new one would help for awhile too? The slats I put down were thicker ( 1") and I placed them at about 7" apart but got no help from them. Let me know if there is any other info I can provide and thanks very much again for the detailed reply.
I’m limited to accurate information that I can provide due to the lack of information I requested from my last note:
photo of the metal platform bed base (the actual one in your home)
photo of the bunkie board (the actual one in your home)
placing the item on the floor (fold up your metal adjustable bed platform and then you’d have space to place the mattress on the floor - it takes up the same footprint)
I don’t think the foam you put in the mattress isn’t the issue. It seems that support has gone out of your product. Opening up the mattress will remove some of that structural integrity and actually make this worse by allowing for more splay of the innerspring unit in the mattress.
Bunkie boards are usually the bottom wood pallet of a foundation. Sometimes they have a cardboard deck on top of them. They’re not usually a solid deck of plywood or particle board.
Placing slats spaced so far apart on top or under the bunkie board wouldn’t make a difference unless your metal platform bed base was severely sagging.
Without any of the information I’ve requested, the only advise I could offer that might make a difference would be to put a solid deck atop your existing metal platform bed. Something substantial, like 5/8" OSB (Oriented Strand Board). No bunkie board. If that doesn’t make a difference, then either your metal platform bed base has some severe support issues where it is sagging too much and is allowing the OSB deck to sag, or more than likely your mattress is shot and trying to rehab it and throwing money at it won’t produce any decent results. You’d be better off buying something cheap online for the 1-2 years you need this to last versus attempting to rehab something that isn’t repairable.
That’s the best advice I can offer with such limited information.
