Hi Elise,
Most of the SleepEZ customers and the customers of the other online or DIY manufacturers (including several members of the site) order their mattresses sight unseen. It is much less common that someone actually lives in the city where they are located and manufactured. They are a very popular choice especially for those who don’t have a local factory direct manufacturer near them that offers similar value and materials that you can actually test in person.
When ordering a mattress like this … you can either go by “averages” or you can actually go and test latex mattresses made by other manufacturers or carried by other outlets in your area to get a more clear idea of the type of layering you need. There are many links in the “mattresses” section of the site and threads in the forum that should be helpful with these guidelines. When you have a “blueprint” of the general layering (comfort layers and support layers) that works best for you, then an online order can be more accurate and the chance of needing a layer exchange is much lower.
I actually didn’t order through SleepEZ when I purchased my mattress a little over a year ago but I did design my own based on many hours of testing different layering combinations in local stores and research and then had a mattress manufacturer build a mattress to my specifications and ship it to me across the country (From Dallas to Seattle). For most people this would have been very risky as my mattress isn’t the DIY with a zip cover type of mattress and if I had “got it wrong” then I would not have been able to exchange a layer and would have had to send the whole mattress back using truck shipping and then have them send me a new one which would not have been feasable. The advantage of a layered mattress in a zip cover is that it can be shipped UPS rather than truck freight and that any mistakes in the mattress can also be “fixed” by sending back a single layer through UPS rather than the whole mattress with truck freight so the shipping costs are significantly less.
When you buy a latex mattress … the best foundation or base is a solid slatted foundation (with slats about 2" or less apart) as they don’t need a box spring. While a box spring (with actual springs rather than a solid foundation) is certainly OK to use as long as it is a flat and supportive surface and in good condition … it will change the feel of your mattress compared to using a rigid foundation.
In addition to a mattress … it is wise to get some kind of a mattress protector to guard against moisture, soiling, stains and accidents. The type of protector used depends on preferences and on how different protectors or mattress pads can change the feel of a mattress. Post #87 here about different quilting and mattress pads, this thread, and post #12 here should help.
Phoenix