We recently looked at a mattress at Sleep Nation. The salesperson said that the entire layer of natural Talalay for latex would be one continuous sheet - with no glued seams - in a king size mattress. While researching Talalay, I read that it is only made in a width that fits a twin, and in order to get a larger bed, smaller pieces would have to be glued together. The article explained that, in order to avoid glued seams, you would need to use Contiuos Processing. Is this correct, and if so, is that different than Talalay?
Hi Sdj,
Welcome to the Mattress Forum!
Almost all Talalay latex layers larger than twin XL have a glue seam (there are a few queen size molds but these are very uncommon) and many Dunlop layers will as well. You won’t feel these if they are glued correctly. They use (or should use) non toxic water based glue.
When a manufacturer glues a seam it is generally glued with the full 6" core and then the layers are slit afterwards so they are glued on the sides not on the top. In the large majority of cases the glue seam is undetectable but on occasion they can use too much glue or overspray or otherwise do a sloppy job with gluing or in some cases with a king size they may not do the best job in “matching” one twin XL to the other and there could be a slight difference in firmness between each side that may be noticeable. If there is a layer in a mattress where the glue seam is noticeable, then I would consider it to be defective rather than being a “normal” experience because a glue seam is something that you “shouldn’t” be able to feel.
The continuous pour process you mentioned would be a type of Dunlop process, not Talalay.
You may wish to go visit your store again for clarification and more specifics of the mattress and each layer.
Phoenix