Hi Phoenix. Thanks so much for your response. The different options make a lot more sense now. My specs: I’m 5’1" and 110 pounds and I tend to sleep on my side. I’m not sure about the ILD on my mattress or the one that I tried at Escondido but they’re both firm. Mine is the 100% natural talalay from FoamOrder.com (they say they special order their talalay but didn’t seem to want to say where from and I didn’t push it) and the salesman at Escondido told me that they mostly use Sleep Comp natural talalay. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to layer different firmnesses because of the special order rules, so I chose firm vs. medium because I generally like a firmer mattress and don’t like the sinking in feeling. I’m hoping that I didn’t make a mistake because with it on the floor, there doesn’t seem to be any give at all. The pressure on my shoulders is even making my arms fall asleep and I’m waking up with a bit of a stiff back. Plus, it’s difficult to get in a comfortable position to fall asleep. I’d say it feels only slightly softer than actually sleeping on the floor.
After reading what you wrote about the different theories behind comfort options, I think I’m probably most interested in the different foundation types; mostly because I did like the way the Escondido Mattress Factory system felt and because I need a foundation anyway. Adding a topper would not be something I could do right away for cost reasons but I’m open to it down the road if it seems to be the best solution. If I understood you correctly, both box springs and flexible slatted foundations have a similar feel? If this is the case, I guess I should just go with the less expensive of the two? If not, cost will not be the deciding factor because I want to get whatever will be best, since I plan to keep it for a long time. My only other considerations will be adding some height since the mattress is only 6" and it will need to work on a metal bed frame that has a standard Ikea wood slat removable base, although I wouldn’t mind switching the slats out if necessary.
On a side note, are you familiar with a product called FireGard (http://www.firegard.com/)? My latex was put inside this FireGard “sock” under the zipper cover in order to be fire compliant. The salesman wouldn’t come right out and say whether it was made of anything toxic, just that it is a fire resistant fiber and that it wasn’t dipped in fire retardant chemicals. I’m asking because it can be easily cut off if it is toxic but if not, I feel like I might as well leave it. I found it difficult to get a clear idea of what it really is when I looked at their website.
I look forward to any advice that you may have. Thanks again for your help and your awesome website. Not sure what I would have ended up with without it
It’s always a good idea to talk with the manufacturer of your mattress about any fine tuning you may want to do. This is particularly true if they are knowledgeable which Alan at foam order certainly is. They would have good experience in fine tuning their specific mattresses after a sale based on the feedback of their customers.
I don’t have a reference point of the specifics of your mattress or the Escondido mattress or box spring you liked so it’s not really possible for me to make a specific suggestions because your mattress may be different from the Escondido mattress and you may not be able to find the boxspring they used. While a flexible slat system will provide some extra give under your mattress … it may not be the same as the Escondido combination.
My tendency though would be towards the topper because you may not be able to find the combination that matched the Escondido mattress and box spring and the cost of most flexible foundations or adjustable slatted foundations would not be much different from a firm foundation and a topper and this would be much easier to estimate more accurately. This is also because your mattress may still be too firm even with a flexible foundation or box spring.
A good general suggestion for a topper that would apply to many people with a firm 6" latex mattress would be about 2-3" of softer latex. Your weight may do well with about 19 ILD and I would probably tend towards 2" because of your preference for a firmer mattress.
If you do decide on a flexible slat base or tension adjustable base … there are some sources of tension adjustable slatted foundations in the foundation thread here. This one may be a good choice because it is fairly low cost and can be used as a flexible slatted base under certain parts of the body but can also be used a a solid base if that doesn’t work for you. The Idea options are also low cost but they need a base to go under them (such as an Ikea bed).
I don’t have any specific information outside of what is on the website no.
Hi Phoenix. I’m going with your suggestion of the 2" 19 ILD topper. Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding that ILD in a 100% natural Talalay. It seems that Latex International only goes down to 22 (at least that’s what one retailer told me). Are there specific suppliers/online retailers that you can point me towards? Thanks.
-Debbie
19 ILD is one of the ILD ratings for Latex Internationals blended Talalay. Their 100% natural Talalay is rated on a different scale from N1 to N5 and each rating could be a range of ILD’s. Most suppliers don’t carry the N1 and their softest version is the N2 which is in the “range” of 22 ILD.
If you are committed to 100% natural Talalay … then Sleep Like a Bear has all the products and ILD’s that are made by Latex International in a range of thicknesses including the N1 even though they are a little more expensive than some other suppliers. As you can see here, the N1 is between 14 and 19.99 ILD and the N2 is between 20 and 24.99 ILD (with a nominal ILD of 22).
Several of the suppliers listed in post #4 here carry 100% natural Talalay made by both Radium and LI (including SleepEz and Mattresses.net) and it may be worth calling them to find out the softest version they have because they often have layers that aren’t listed on their site although I don’t think they carry the softest 100% natural Talalay layers because of potential durability issues with softer ILD’s in 100% natural Talalay.
Any thoughts or information on this ikea foundation?
It notes assembly is required so I assume the frame and the slats need to be screwed in. Does anyone know if this is solid? Are the slats spaced tightly or far apart? I’d be looking for a king split foundation to go with my new memory foam mattress.
I’m not familiar with it but I would want to make sure that the slats were suitable for the type of mattress you have. It looks to me like the slats are quite far apart and a cardboard surface would not be my first choice either. You can see a movie of it here where you can see the slat distance.
I couldn’t seem to find anything on this after searching for a long time, so I was hoping for some insight. After a ton of research, I purchased an Ultimate Dreams 13" Gel Memory Foam mattress, but I’m trying to figure out what kind of Foundation might be best for it.
I currently have an bed frame with an LP foundation from a 2-year old Simmons BeautyRest Anniversary, but I’m not sure if it would be OK to use this with the new memory foam mattress. Some of the options aside from this I found were:
This type of foldable frame, although I’m not all that convinced of the quality. If I need to buy one, I’d rather it be the Costco one, but I suppose this would be the other option if the gap is no good: www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/DuraBed-Qu...5201282/product.html
If I have to, the other option would be a KD foundation on my current frame… Obviously, I’d like to save some money and use the current foundation, but I don’t really know if that is an option–so I’m not sure what the next best bet would be. I see most of the talk is about Latex mattresses here.
Well, the manufacturer got back fairly quickly and said the BeautyRest box spring would be perfect for the mattress–so I guess that solves that question.
Yes, that is correct. I followed up with Simmons to be sure, but it is the Triton. I believe it is made to be essentially non-flexible.
I’m planning on putting the mattress on it and seeing if there is any sag in the middle, and replacing it if there is–I’m still not entirely convinced the current box spring would be best for it, but I’m hoping it is fine for now.
In any case for reference, do you think that frame/foundation that Costco sells is a bad idea structurally due to the lack of wiring in the middle, or does that really not matter? There don’t seem to be too many structured like that.
I’m Curious about the metal frames sold by Mattresses.net. I read somewhere else that these metal frame bases aren’t the best for a full latex mattress because the thin wires could cut into the mattress, but mattresses.net say they are suitable for their mattresses? Im considering one of these since the price is right and i like the advantage of more storage space under the bed, but if it will damage my mattress i buy from them then i don’t want to take that risk.
I share your concerns about the wire grid foundations and the effect they may have on an all latex mattress over longer timeframes. If I was going in this direction, I would choose a model that had more rather than less wires in it and had the greatest possible supportive surface area and the smallest possible “grid spacing” and I would also put a thick fabric of some type over the wire grid to even out the support and further protect the mattress. With this caveat … they can be a good lower budget alternative even with a slight additional risk (which would be difficult to “quantify”).
While they certainly have their advantages … including cost, strength, and storage area … if i was buying an all latex mattress (vs a mattress that used polyfoam or innersprings in the support layers) I would make sure that the foundation I used had the best possible odds of being both evenly supportive and less likely to damage the mattress over the longer term. At the least in the case of the wire grid type … I would make sure it was covered with a thicker material (even a blanket etc) just because my “gut” tells me it would be better.
Yes, that is correct. I followed up with Simmons to be sure, but it is the Triton. I believe it is made to be essentially non-flexible.
I’m planning on putting the mattress on it and seeing if there is any sag in the middle, and replacing it if there is–I’m still not entirely convinced the current box spring would be best for it, but I’m hoping it is fine for now.
In any case for reference, do you think that frame/foundation that Costco sells is a bad idea structurally due to the lack of wiring in the middle, or does that really not matter? There don’t seem to be too many structured like that.
