The Best Foundations or Base for a Latex or All Foam Mattress

Hi MrM1,

Yes … they are both the same product made by Boyd.

You can see my comments about the wire frame platform foundations in post #10 here and there are some options for these in the foundation post here. I may be more cautious than I need to be and the better ones would probably be fine for the medium term and possibly the longer term as well but if I was to use one with an all latex mattress I would personally use one with less gaps between the wires and add a bed rug to even out the support under the mattress to alleviate the risk of any potential issues with long term use.

Phoenix

I was basically thinking the same thing about wire. More Wires, and a Bed Rug.

Thanks

First- thanks so much for all of the information on this site. I’ve found it incredibly useful. I am about to purchase an Ultimate Dreams mattress from Dreamfoam, but am trying to figure out the most economical foundation for it. I would like to get a low profile foundation rather than a platform bed so that I can use it any bed frame. Do you have any thoughts on this option:
BeautyRest Recharge

For reference, I’m just over 100 pounds and am getting a full size mattress. Any other suggestions of cheap options would be great! If it makes a difference, I will probably be able to upgrade the foundation within a couple of years.

Hi rexid,

It should be fine and I doubt that you will find anything that was suitable in a much lower price range.

And congratulations on your new mattress :slight_smile:

Phoenix

If I purchase one of these KD foundations for my king size latex mattress what are the options to use it as the primary bed frame? Do I buy stands that the foundation sits on? I’ve had my mattress that i purchased from Arizona Premium for close to a year now and I’m still sleeping on the floor, lol. It’s time to rectify this situation, but keep in mind that I’m a cheapskate. I have also looked at platform beds, but it seems that is a more expensive option. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Shazb)t,

You could put it on a steel bedframe (see post #10 here) or you could use it with legs attached directly to the foundation (such as the universal bedlegs here).

Phoenix

So looking at your initial post, is the Arizona Premium KD king size at $299 shipped and getting some universal legs to mount to the foundation the cheapest way to get my mattress off the floor?

Hi Shazbot,

I don’t know what would be the cheapest out of all the suitable options that are available to you but if you choose to go with a wood slat foundation then either the bedlegs or a steel bedframe would probably be among the lowest cost options available (there are some relatively inexpensive bedframes as well that would be in a similar price range to the bedlegs).

There are also some steel wire grid type platform bedframes listed in the foundation post here that would be a lower cost option yet and if you add a bed rug to them to even out the support surface (see post #10 here) they would be a suitable choice as well for an all latex mattress.

Phoenix

I think I will go the foundation route. I have read your other posts regarding the wire frame bed frames and the mattress sagging into the gaps and would like to avoid that. I will look into local places and see if a cheap platform bed with proper slats is a better cost option that the KD foundation. Thanks for the help.

I havent found that the width of the slates are listed with the bases. I’m looking for a platform bed base preferably 300 or less and I would hate to order only for the widths to be over the 3’’ allowable.

Hi nrich,

The 3" suggestion is for the width of the gaps between the slats not the width of the slats themselves (although many slats are 1x3 which are .75" x 2.5") and would apply to a mattress that has a latex support core. If your mattress has a polyfoam support core then wider gaps would be OK (although less would still be better and more evenly supportive). The list in the foundation post (the first post of this topic) includes some good options and lists the distance between the slats for most of the KD wood slat foundations.

If you are looking for a slatted platform bed rather than a foundation then you would need to talk with the retailer that sells it (or the manufacturer of the platform bed) to find out the distance between the slats if it’s not listed on their website.

Phoenix

After weeks of research and visiting Mattress Store after Mattress Store we finally came across the Mattress Place Store in Solana Beach, CA. There we found what we think is the mattress we’ve been looking for. It’s the Spring Pedic Beyond Comfort with Natural Latex & Organic Cotton with a Retail Price of $2,199 and Sale Price of $1,899 that would include Box Spring, no tax and a Free Mattress Cover. Would you consider this Mattress to be one of quality and long lasting comfort or should we be considering another brand / manufacturer?

Hi johnehman,

Hopefully you’ve read the mattress shopping tutorial here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you with how to make the best possible choice … and know how and why to avoid the worst ones.

There is more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase in post #13 here and the posts it links to that can help you make meaningful comparisons between mattresses.

Only your own careful testing and experience can know whether any mattress is a good match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) but outside of PPP a mattress is only as good as the type and quality of the materials inside it regardless of the name of the manufacturer that makes it so I would need to know what is inside the mattress to make any meaningful comments about it.

If you can find out the information in this article about the type and quality of all the materials in your mattress and post it on the forum I’d certainly be happy to let you know whether I can see any obvious weak links in the mattress or make some comments about the materials and components inside it that may be helpful.

If you do choose to include other manufacturers or retailers in your research then the better options and possibilities I’m aware of in and around the San Diego area are listed in post #2 here.

Phoenix

I put together the KD foundation from mattress.net that was listed in the OP of this thread. I wanted to save some money on the foundation as well as the metal bed frame since I spent a lot on my latex mattress.

All the wood appeared to be in very good shape and pretty good quality, no instructions where included in the box but I knew the website had them on there. The wood had letters and words on them to easily match up to the proper pieces so that also helped. The version I received only had one bolt for each “piece” as apposed to their website that shows two bolts per piece.

As their website suggested, I tried drilling a sheet rock screw into the slats to secure them but the wood started to split, so don’t do this without pre-drilling holes. I should have known better but I really didn’t feel like pre-drilling all those slats, needless to say that one slat is the only one I used a screw on.

The slats where almost all perfectly aligned, there were one or two that needed to be re-adjusted so the gap was less than 3". Also, one slat had ripped from the cloth that holds them together, but I just used my staple gun to re-apply.

The absolute worst part of this foundation is putting on the cover!!! It took me forever to get the cover on, it was a little too small for the framing. I finally got it down almost all the way to get a little bit under the foundation but not enough to staple it. I guess it will stretch a bit over time and then maybe I can pull it down some more, but I was too exhausted and wasted too much time trying to pull it down even more.

So far after one night the foundation seems fine, I did not notice any noise/creaking coming from the foundation, hopefully that will be the case for a very long time.

Hi Raistlin,

Thanks for the feedback on the Mattresses.net KD foundation … I appreciate it :).

I noticed that the description mentioned only 6 carriage bolts but the pictures show 2 at each corner so thanks for clarifying that the description is the correct version.

Phoenix

Thank you…all this information has certainly been helpful!

If your bed is made of wood and has a head board, foot board, and side rails, can you just screw slats onto the side rails? All of our beds have wood running length-wise along the side rails (inside the frame) where slats (or a box spring) can rest. With our current conventional mattress, we have wood slats supporting a conventional box spring. When we (after FINALLY figuring all of this stuff out!) get our latex mattress, I wonder if we could just use the above method? I realize from reading here and there that with our queen, we’d need to have some center support to the floor but our kids’ twin beds should be okay with just horizontal slats and no center support, right?

Hi Metasequoia,

If I’m understanding you correctly then if the slats are screwed to and resting on the ledge inside the side rails and you end up with a strong, flat, and evenly supportive surface where the gaps between the slats are 3" or less and there is little to no flex in the slats and you have good center support to the floor (in larger sizes) then it would be suitable for a latex mattress yes.

There are also some suggestions that may be helpful to add strength and center support if your bedframe doesn’t have it in post #5 here and the other information it links to.

Phoenix

Hi Phoenix,

Post #5 in that thread is VERY helpful; thank you. I really like the idea of the T-slats. Would we still need to use center support to the floor if we used T-slats?

Hi Metasequoia,

There are a few issues that I would consider here and since I’m not an engineer that knows how to figure out the effect on all the load bearing points my comments are more speculation than fact.

I think that there would be no issues with the slats bending with T-Slats so from the perspective of performance and having a rigid non flexing support surface you would probably be fine.

Having said that … it would put more stress on the outside edges of the slats that were resting on the support ledge because there would only be two load bearing points on each slat rather than three so I would make sure that if the span was that large that you used a strong wood with a high bending strength (see here) and that the ledges that are attached to the side rails are also strong and secure so that the additional weight doesn’t tear them out of the side rails over time or crack or break the outside edges of the slats (which I don’t think is likely but could be possible).

The other issue you may have would be with the mattress warranty. Many manufacturers have a warranty that requires a center beam with good support to the floor (generally one leg for queen and two for king) so I would make sure you check with the manufacturer of the mattress you purchase to make sure that your support system fits their warranty criteria.

Phoenix