What kind of foundation to choose?

Discussions General Mattresses Questions
1

Hi all,

I’ve been in a bit of struggle for the past decade or so getting my sleep in order. I’m a very dense person… everyone always undershoots when they guess my weight by like a quarter of my actual weight… and my fiancee and I combined are ~300 lbs.

I’ve tried some expensive memory foam options installed by a pro only to find that they begin to sink and give me pains after a year or two. I moved on to a 100% wool stuffed 7 inch mattress only to find that they exact same problem happened.

With the wool mattress I used a platform bed I bought off of wayfair. It had wooden slats that were approximately 4 inches apart. I read the specs and installation instructions and cut some identical slats and even installed more center support beams in the foundation so that the slats were now only about 1" apart. I’d guess they were app 7/16ths of an inch in thickness too.

When the mattress failed, I bought a brentwood home crystal cove dual sided hybrid mattress and sleep on the charcoal (lol) foam side. Right about a year later when the warranty expired, I’ve been getting the exact pains I got with the wool mattress.

The slats were buckling down, even with the center support and creating a sort of ‘hammock.’ I freaked a bit and ripped my entire bed frame apart (by hand) and threw the mattress on the floor.

Which has been GREAT. Which is making me distrust just about all the advice I find online regarding wooden slat foundations. And also sort of makes me think the problem isn’t really the mattress.

Either the wood in the wayfair was simply not thick enough or the design is extremely bad at spreading pressure evenly, which is very important for my specific problems.

In any case, my partner detests the mattress on the floor look, so we bought a brass bed frame. Problem being that we have to decide on a new foundation.

I’m not sure if maybe I should trust that the wayfair slats were thin crap (the frame sure was) and try the slat thing again and trust a different company can pull it off differently?

Maybe I should craft a homemade torsion box?

Maybe a modern box spring is the way to go (I live in New Jersey and I’m not sure there’s really any companies making anything here)?

Interested to read some opinions.

2

Hey davemascera,

Welcome to the Mattress Underground :slight_smile: ! Thanks for your question.

Sorry to hear about your ongoing struggle realizing a good night’s sleep, that must be endlessly frustrating for you both! Glad that you found the TMU forum though; there’s lots of solid reference material here for your research, as well as a whole lot of folks who have shared similar journeys.

You have shared a lot of great details to support your central question of what type foundation would be a good one for your new brass bed frame. For clarity, which mattress will you use, the 100% wool stuffed 7 inch mattress or the Brentwood Home Crystal Cove hybrid? Also, as you have created a DIY before, are you leaning that way at all? Can you add a pic of the brass bed for a view of its support construction or is the mattress currently installed? Any other particulars you want to share?

Thanks,
Sensei

3

[quote=“Sensei” post=85580]Hey davemascera,

Welcome to the Mattress Underground :slight_smile: ! Thanks for your question.

Sorry to hear about your ongoing struggle realizing a good night’s sleep, that must be endlessly frustrating for you both! Glad that you found the TMU forum though; there’s lots of solid reference material here for your research, as well as a whole lot of folks who have shared similar journeys.

You have shared a lot of great details to support your central question of what type foundation would be a good one for your new brass bed frame. For clarity, which mattress will you use, the 100% wool stuffed 7 inch mattress or the Brentwood Home Crystal Cove hybrid? Also, as you have created a DIY before, are you leaning that way at all? Can you add a pic of the brass bed for a view of its support construction or is the mattress currently installed? Any other particulars you want to share?

Thanks,
Sensei[/quote]

The brass bed isn’t set up currently. I can attach a picture of it from the listing where I found it.

I’m using the crystal cove. The wool mattess is currently being used as soundproofing in my recording studio after it beat out owens corning 703 in empirical tests (lol).

The crystal cove is on the ground and we are very satisfied with how it feels there. My fiancee simply prefers the bed to be raised.

I wouldnt say I had a DIY setup more than that I modified a commercial product. I’m extremely handy, but time has been at a premium for me the past few months. I would consider this route if it could truly offer the best results.

Thanks for responding

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4

Sounds like you would like a metal foundation. Something like this may work.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0725SYNSR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

You can search for different types on Amazon and see if it looks like the dimensions will fit within your existing frame.

5

I definitely like the idea of the rigidity, but i’m not sure having gaps that wide would work well with my mattress that contains springs. Do you have any insight concerning that?

6

I think gaps are more of a concern with full foam mattresses. When we bought a wood version we ended up adding wood in all the gaps to get to to what they recommended for our latex mattress. You could ask the manufacturer if the gaps are OK for your mattress.

7

Hey davemascrera,

Apologize for the delayed response and thanks for uploading the pic, it’s a beautiful brass bed :slight_smile: .

Excellent use of the wool mattress, lol. I love a good “repurposing” tale, happy to hear it’s getting a second life (sounds like a fun one at that).

[quote]The crystal cove is on the ground and we are very satisfied with how it feels there. My fiancee simply prefers the bed to be raised…I wouldnt say I had a DIY setup more than that I modified a commercial product. I’m extremely handy, but time has been at a premium for me the past few months. I would consider this route if it could truly offer the best results.
[/quote]
I dropped by Brentwood’s site and did some investigating on your Crystal Cove hybrid. As you probably know, the CC is a dual sided, flippable mattress, perhaps somewhat changing the feel to one slightly firmer upon flipping. As far as added support goes, you should get the desired feel for your mattress using either a slatted wood foundation or torsion foundation. I know you weren’t happy with the Wayfair slatted wood foundation but there are definitely better options out there, many of the TMU trusted members offer quality slatted wood RTA foundations that would be more supportive, you may want to ask questions directly to them for more details. You may also enjoy Phoenix’s post #1 “The Best Foundations or Base for a Latex Mattress”, offers good information that is helpful for your research.

Hope this helps a little, davemascrera. Good luck with your decision and hope things work better with your new brass bed frame configuration. Interested in hearing a future report on how your experiment goes… :wink: .

Thanks,
Sensei

8

Hmm, so that post makes mention to slatted foundations with multiple center beams, but I checked every single one of those links and they look like they all just have one. It also seems like some exaggerate the lack of distance between slats and don’t really go into detail about the hardware involved (like for example, if the slats are actually screwed in, or if they are expected to hold still due to the weight of the bed).

I’m a little confused about how these could truly be ‘better quality’ than the one I bought from wayfair, so any elaboration would be great. Pine is more or less the default wood where I come from, so if pine is the preferred wood for this job (not sure why it would be, considering it is relatively lacking in stiffness, and is relatively bad with rot resistance compared to more colored woods), I’m not sure where or how wayfair would be skimping. It’s just difficult to understand how I wouldn’t end up in the exact same situation if I’m purchasing what more or less looks like the same exact foundation made out of the same materials.

I think I really might be leaning towards the DIY torsion board after reading that post and thinking about how well I’ve slept with this mattress on the ground. Maybe drill some holes and install a bunch of computer fans to create an active ventilation system :lol:

9

Hey davemascera,

Thanks for your reply :slight_smile: .

Without having a product link or images of your Wayfair foundation, I can’t speculate on what “quality” level product it is; however, your comments suggest that its performance was disappointing. That said, if you want to approximate the feel of the mattress being on the floor, a slatted wood foundation will be the closest way to get there. And many of TMU’s trusted membersoffer them, including:

U.S. Box Spring

Arizona Premium Mattress

Sleep EZ

FloBeds

Foam Sweet Foam

Latex Mattress Factory

Luma Sleep

Mattress To Go

Quality Sleep Shop

Sleeping Organic

Spindle Mattress

I highly suggest consulting with any of these TMU Experts, they would be happy to discuss your particular needs and offer suggestions for your DIY build.

Yeah, that’s a great idea, davemascera; we’ve all got a few of those outdated towers stacked in a closet and that would be a most practical way to repurpose them…;). Looking forward to hearing your next steps.

Thanks,
Sensei

10

[quote=“Sensei” post=85792]Hey davemascera,

Thanks for your reply :slight_smile: .

Without having a product link or images of your Wayfair foundation, I can’t speculate on what “quality” level product it is; however, your comments suggest that its performance was disappointing. That said, if you want to approximate the feel of the mattress being on the floor, a slatted wood foundation will be the closest way to get there. And many of TMU’s trusted membersoffer them, including:

U.S. Box Spring

Arizona Premium Mattress

Sleep EZ

FloBeds

Foam Sweet Foam

Latex Mattress Factory

Luma Sleep

Mattress To Go

Quality Sleep Shop

Sleeping Organic

Spindle Mattress

I highly suggest consulting with any of these TMU Experts, they would be happy to discuss your particular needs and offer suggestions for your DIY build.

Yeah, that’s a great idea, davemascera; we’ve all got a few of those outdated towers stacked in a closet and that would be a most practical way to repurpose them…;). Looking forward to hearing your next steps.

Thanks,
Sensei[/quote]

Just to follow up: we bought the Luma foundation and applied it to our frame.

The difference between that and the wayfair is absolutely astounding. It almost seems like non-sense to me how much better it is considering how similar the materials seem. We’re very happy with the choice and don’t feel the need to take other measures.

11

Hey davemascera,

Welcome back to the forum and thanks for your update :slight_smile: !

[quote]Just to follow up: we bought the Luma foundation and applied it to our frame.
The difference between that and the wayfair is absolutely astounding. It almost seems like non-sense to me how much better it is considering how similar the materials seem. We’re very happy with the choice and don’t feel the need to take other measures.[/quote]

Congrats on your new slatted wood RTA foundation, Dave and thanks for your support of expert trusted member Luma Sleep :slight_smile: ! Indeed, quality materials and good workmanship do make a difference, especially in a mattress foundation’s performance. Happy to hear that your foundation riddle is solved and that your current mattress now sleeps correctly, saving the time and expense of replacing it with another. Wishing you both continued good rest and keep in touch :wink: .

Thanks,
Sensei