A) cut carefully above the welt
B) cut carefully below the welt
C) unstitch the welt


It seems that people have used all 3 methods so it would be particularly interesting to hear whether people would do it the same way again.


I think I'm going to follow someone's previous suggestion of attaching velcro straps so the mattress top can be secured and yet have easy access for making refinements, or replacement of layers in a few years.

C) Unstitch

I've done this myself on a king.  Unstitching is the quick and easy part -- sewing it back up is much more time consuming.  I used pretty coarse stiches and knocked it out in sections.  For what its worth, I later moved this same mattress up a flight of stairs and into the guest bedroom and had no problems with the re-stitching breaking.

But, if you don't care about having the original mattress top back on it, I'd consider cutting it above the welt leaving a bit of a border and then just using a CuddleBed or something similar to act as the cover, like Jimsocal did.

If you go the velcro route let us know how it works.  I can't envision how you'd attach the velcro in a way that would come undone after months of use.  I guess if you stitched it in perhaps.

In my view it depends on
a) how picky you are to have it real "nice" and
b) whether or not you plan to keep the top part on, the part with those quilted "tufts" sewn to foam

If you want to open it on 3 sides and keep the top on, just open it up like a door to replace the foam inside or change it when needed - then it's probably best to cut below the welt

If you plan to take it off, cut it above the welt.

Every time we do it, we wonder the same thing, and we end up forgetting which is best and have to guess all over again! (I know: dumb!)

I think from now on we'll cut it above the welt, as it seems to hold up better that way, look a little better, and I always throw out the top part because I hate it. (love the way it looks but hate the way it feels). I think when it is all sewn in place, the tufting gives it a little more firmness, maybe. But after you cut it open it serves no purpose except to add a cheap layer of pu foam to the top.

By the way, sometimes I don't use the Cuddlebed topper and I just have the foam laying there on top, under the sheets. It's no problem at all, and as I like to say, "No one sees it except the wife and me... I HOPE!"

LatencyMachine wrote:

Last September I took the plunge and performed mattress surgery. I made the cut under the welting since I wanted to keep the top intact. After I removed and replaced the foam elements inside the mattress I stitched velcro tabs in place so they would hold up to repeated opening and closing while I experimented with foam, and also to keep the cover snug and firmly secured while I was lying on the mattress. So far--a year later--they have held up very well.

How you go about making the first cut is really up to you. Just think it through first and decide what you are trying to achieve. I weighed the pros and cons of each approach and I'm glad I took the time to do that before I got my X-acto knife out. If I had to do it again I'd do it exactly the same way.

I cut mine below the welt, for the same reason as Cloud...I wanted to keep the top intact.  If it wasn't late at night and the surgery was due to complete desperation, I might have unstitched the welt, but only if I had a way of restitching it later.   At that point I didn't much care.  I was NOT going to try to sleep one more night in that back-breaking misery, no way.
My step-daughter has the bed now and it is still going strong.  Enough so that she and her ex-boyfriend are arguing over who gets to keep the bed anyway.  They've had it almost one year now.
Kait

So, I think the consensus is:
If you want to keep the top and use it as part of your mattress, cut below the welt.
If you want to get rid of the top piece with the stitching, buttons, etc., then cut above the welt.

I will add my own little unasked-for opinion here and say that the top piece may actually cause the mattress to sleep hotter and also to cause you not to get the full advantages of your high-quality foam or high-quality topper. I am using a wool mattress cover instead, and it makes the mattress much better than if I had the mattress top piece intact. I do like the "LOOK" of having the mattress top intact but after much thought and experience  I made the decision to cut it off. Just my 2 cents.

I actually find that the top part of the mattress makes the foam inside sleep cooler. But I say that with one caveat... It can also make the high quality replacement foam feel too soft unless you do what I did and go to the trouble... and it's A LOT of trouble... to remove the super soft squishy foam inside the quilting. I had close to 2" of foam in the quilting. One piece of convoluted super soft foam and another sheet of unconvoluted foam. When I removed it I was amazed at how different the mattress felt. Much more supportive and far more comfortable. After the foam was gone I was left with a smooth, flat top with no more dacron batting than an average mattress pad. But it really is a lot of work to remove the stitching that creates tufts out of foam and I can see why most people wouldn't bother or will just prefer to go the quick route and remove the top entirely.

cloud9 wrote:
Cloud9, that's a great idea, I kind of wish I'd done that, because it IS nice to have a built in "top". BUT it sounds like too much work for me! Sounds like a good idea though if you have the patience.

I think the thing that bothered me the most about that mattress was the tufting. I could never get used to the lumpy feeling of lying on those hills and valleys. I knew they  had to go. I also knew it was going to be a huge project, so I did a little bit at a time. Each week when I changed my sheets I removed a little of the stitching holding the tufting in place. It took me about a month of Sundays to remove it all. Then I cut off the fiber paper backing that covered the soft foam and removed it. Voila! Much better. But yeah, I couldn't agree more--only for those with lots of patience. Very tedious work.