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

[phoenix]

Hi Bradbaker1989.

Before seeing your reply to my question I had intended on buying the Zinus Green Tea Memory Foam 6" which has a 1" comfort layer and a “high density” support layer. I considered this is the best price and it is reviewed to be great by commenters and I’ve found articles saying it’s the best mattress in the price range

While you may have read somewhere that Zinus is “the most popular low budget brand”, it wouldn’t have been here on this site. And even if you had read somewhere that someone considered this to be the case, while other people’s comments about the knowledge and service of a particular business can certainly be very helpful, always keep in mind that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and I would be cautious about using anyone else’s suggestions, experiences or reviews on a specific mattress (either positive or negative) as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you. In many if not most cases this can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a larger group of people in terms of comfort, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your own Personal preferences) may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (even if they are in a similar weight range). In other words, other people’s experiences in general won’t tell you much if anything about the suitability, quality, durability, or “value” of a mattress for any particular person (see post #13 here ).

Regarding Zinus… I would also read post #6 here about mattresses imported from Asia or China and which may have been compressed for long periods of time in either shipping or storage before being purchased, and being sourced in China would make this somewhat of a risky purchase IMO. The “High density” they use to describe their product… is a term used for any foam greater than 1.5lbs in density and as Zinus does not freely share their specs it is very likely that they use the lowest end the “high density” spectrum. They do not list the firmness (IFD) of either the 1" memory foam layer or 5" base support foam and the 6" Green Tea appears to have a “egg crate” cut on the top of the 5" base foam. This will soften the base foam, at least on the top section that is cut this way. All in all they use mostly low / mid quality materials although they are CertiPur certified. They are most commonly sold under many brand names in big box stores and elsewhere. Whenever you see “green tea” you can assume the manufacturer is Zinus.

It is certipur certified which is important cause I have 4 pets and I don’t want any kind of unhealthy smells coming from the bed and make any of them or myself ill

You are correct Zinus is CertiPur certified but just to clarify a few things about your prospective purchase from Zinus. CertiPur is a testing standard that tests for harmful substances and VOC’s in the polyfoam and memory foam used in mattresses. They have a list of mattress manufacturers here which are certified (which includes Zinus) and the foam producers that are certified are listed here. You can see what they test for in more detail here and here The foams are certified to not be harmful to the environment in regards to ozone depletion, not use certain chemicals and have low VOC emissions. It does not guarantee a foam/memory foam mattress will be without odor.

The reason I want to build the bed is because I have invested 400 in this topper that I can’t return and I want to use it and don’t want to pay so much out for a mattress and just want to use the same density base layer used in a bed that I find to be supportive and that way it’s not so much money. The topper is brand new.

You may wish to peruse and compare with some other low budget options, better quality options that you may wish to consider.
Sedona Sleep sells a polyfoam base mattress (Trusted Member of this site)
www.addable.com/ sells a memory foam mattress.
Nest Bedding has their Love & Sleep mattress. (Trusted Member of this site)
DouglasBed From site member Novosbed. Canadian-only. Memory foam over polyfoam layer and polyfoam base.
Christeli has one memory foam option (Trusted Member of this site)
LuxiSleep has a low budget option as well. (Trusted Member of this site)

I will say that laying this topper even on the floor as hard as the floor is it makes the topper so much more comfortable cause of course the floor doesn’t sink… So I’m thinking I need a base layer that is pretty firm… But I’m sure I’ll benefit from a little bit of give. It’s just I need a base layer that won’t sink too much. Would the Zinus’ 1" of comfort foam cause the same kind of sink that my pillowtop does and just I end up with the same problem?? I feel think if softer it should give more comfort to my topper and then a relatively hard layer below would definitely get the job done…

If the topper works well enough for you on the floor, then you are correct that a firm enough mattress under it will help with both adding some comfort and to raise it off the floor. I am not sure on which part of your personal value equation your mattress selection was based, as you mentioned mostly price and other people’s reviews or opinions, but If you are working with a more restricted budget, post #4 here and the posts it links to also include many of the better lower budget online options I’m aware of (Zinus is not on this list). If you chose to go with this mattress for different reasons keep in mind that depending on your needs and personal preferences the mattress could work as a base for your topper but I will have a shorter useful life. If the product does not perform as well as you are hoping for at least you’d have 100 night in home trial (which is standard in the industry for most bed in the box mattresses)

Some of the mattresses from Ikea may also be worth considering (see post #3 here and the posts it links to) There are also some lower budget latex and latex hybrid options that are listed in posts #3 and #4 here that are in “relatively” lower budget ranges (although some of these may be more than your budget). Some of the new “simplified choice mattresses” that are also in relatively low budget ranges (from $600 to $1000 queen size) are also listed in post #2 of this topic and may also be worth considering.

Hope this helps.
I’m looking forward to finding out what you end up deciding … and of course any additional comments or questions you may have along the way that I or any of the Expert members of the site can help with.

Phoenix