HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Jan 12, 2011 3:38 PM
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Points: 18
Hi, I am 40 and 6'2" and about 190 lbs.  I equally sleep on back and skid and like a firm mattress and have lower back problems.  I don't have disc, etc. problems but my muscles get fatigued very easily when doing any activity and they will also go out and spasm easily.  I don't have much selection in my area, I liked the extra firm Simmons beautyrest at couple of stores.  This weekend I plan on going to Minneapolis to try some all latex in dunlop and taladay.  

I am using a queen waterbed foundation and right now using a 5" extra firm Poly base that is from JCpenney and an old 6 inch Poly foam mattress my parents had which is surprisingly still in decent shape.  I like the feeling of sleeping on foam and like feeling of the tempurpedic beds and all latex bed that I tried in store before.  I did try a 3" memory foam topper on the PU foam few years ago and didn't like the sinking in by end of night.  

I am on a limited budget and hope to keep total as low as possible.  I plan on buying a 3" latex and put it on my poly base and sometime later in next year replace the base with a 6" lux 50 ILD poly from foamdistributing.  Or I could get 6" of latex in two 3" layers and just sleep on that but I am not sure if that would be thick enough but it might be?  I could get another 3" down the road when my budget allows for it.  If I did that I could get bottom layer of 44ILD or 36 ILD dunlop and top layer of 31 or 36 dunlop.  

Right now I am looking at few options.  Either 3" 32ILD from foambymail or a 3" 31 ILD or 36 ILD dunlop from foamorder.  If I get 3" latex over 6" poly I also worry that the 36 ILD poly from foamdistributing wouldn't be firm enough but that the 50 ILD lux might be too firm?  But I have seen a few people happy with a DIY mattress using 3" 32 ILD from FBM over 6" of 50 ILD.  

Anyone know why the dunlop from foamorder shows it as 2.8 inches?  Also I wasn't really looking at dunlop after seeing that video on flobeds showing a piece of dunlop that was compressed for 4 years as seen here http://www.flobeds.com/TalalayVsDunlop.htm.  But I think I may like the dunlop and will have a better idea after trying some in store this weekend.

So to summarize:

1) Use 6" premium poly of 36 or 50 ILD as base

2) 3" of foambymail 32 ILD or 3" dunlop 31 ILD or 3" dunlop 36 ILD over the 6" poly base

3) Forget #1 and #2 and just sleep on 6" latex with idea of getting more latex in future.  Would either use 36 or 44 ILD dunlop in bottom and 31 or 36 ILD dunlop on top or the          32ILD from foambymail.  

I would appreciate any opinions and suggestions.  

Re: HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Reply #12 Jan 16, 2011 10:11 PM
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Points: 18
Phoenix, Thanks for replies!!  I am still reading your responses in detail.  The 2 configurations at savvyrest that I liked were definetly all 3 layers of dunlop.  They said for extra money you can get any of the layers in talalay and that it would give softer feel.  The ILD's I got for savvyrest came from post below and another one that I can't find right now. 

 

http://www.whatsthebest-mattress.com/forum/savvy-rest-report/1815-0-1.html

Re: HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Reply #13 Jan 16, 2011 10:13 PM
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Points: 18
Also, here is a blog talking about firmness by the owner of Savvyrest.  I wish they would tell customers what ILDS their layers are. 

 

http://www.savvyrest.com/blog/guide-to-firmness

Re: HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Reply #14 Jan 16, 2011 10:17 PM
Joined: Oct 3, 2010
Points: 809
I've read pretty much all of the Savvy rest site ... and it has good information ... but doesn't mention the specific ILD's I believe for competitive reasons.

There is just no way that I believe that the ILD's mentioned in the post are accurate as I do not believe Savvy Rest would mislabel or misrepresent their latex that badly.

They may be relatively expensive but I believe they are reputable and not prone to that kind of misinformation (the information was probably a "bad guess" from someone not connected to Savvy Rest)

Phoenix

This message was modified Jan 16, 2011 by Phoenix
Re: HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Reply #15 Jan 17, 2011 1:48 PM
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Points: 18
Phoenix, well I made a decision.

 First of all what you said about getting 6" firmer with 2" supersoft on top makes sense... like you said a lot of the extra firm coils have supersoft foam on top and that is what I may end up doing.  What I did was order the dunlop three 3" layers from foamorder of 31, 36, and 44 for $1000 with shipping.  BTW, they were very very pleasant to talk to on the phone and answered all my questions.  I have 90 days to return any layer, although there is 25% restocking since I bought clearance items.  Now I know what I did goes against what you said a bit but let me explain.  Since I have spent this much I am planning on also getting a 1.5 or 2" soft latex from somewhere.  With 4 layers then I get try every possible combination to see what I like.  I can also fold a layer in half so, for example, can fold any layer in half to make 6" and put 2" soft latex on top and see if I like that, etc., etc. 

 I don't think it would hurt or tear the 3" latex to fold it in half to try out layers that way for few nights? 

So now I would like to get your opinion on what to get for soft layer to have for testing.

Should I get a 1" or 1.5" or 2"?  Foamorder has a 1" or 2" dunlop in 25 ILD which is their softest for $100 or $150.  Or do you have any recommendations for source of a soft talalay to use?  I think I would like to stay away from convoluted latex.  Also I was looking at a 1.5" or 2" talalay on Amazon....link is below.  The nice thing about amazon is it is risk free since there is free shipping and they have free returns since this topper is sold from them.  The bad thing is the one I am looking at has no specs.  From pic it looks like talalay and says queen shipping weight is 31 lbs and I would think it is a softer ILD but again it would be risk free to try it out.  Again if you have any other places to suggest.  

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FPY21Y/ref=s9_simh_gw_p79_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=002AV7BGZJ64WKV3WP2Z&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Also, a minor thing I think.  But I am planning on just getting a terry cloth tempurpedic style zipped cover.  This is to save money and also I think I don't want thicker cover to be as close to the latex as possible.  I am wondering if I should get inch more or less in depth to be looser or stretched tight.  I read that tight/loose cover can affect fell of the top latex, especially when top is soft?  Would tighter give feel of finished store mattress?  

Also, until I decide on layers and finished height, is it ok to wait on getting cover and just make sure the latex is covered with blankets to keep the sunlight out?  It is just sunlight that degrades and not exposure to the air, right? 

Thanks and I will make sure to update down the road on what works for me, etc.  

 

Re: HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Reply #16 Jan 17, 2011 2:42 PM
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Points: 18
So would a 25 ILD dunlop not be soft enough for a 4th layer for testing?  I am thinking for soft top I should go for really soft.  Below is link for a dunlop in 16-18 ILD.  But maybe I should get a talalay super soft which would be even softer feeling than dunlop?

 

http://www.rockymountainmattress.com/latextopper-p-45.html

 

 

 

Re: HELP building DIY mattress with 3" latex over 6" Poly foam base or just get 6" latex
Reply #17 Jan 17, 2011 5:34 PM
Joined: Jan 12, 2011
Points: 18
Well I tried some more latex beds today which reinforces that I think I may like a firm core with like 2" of really soft on top.  There were a few mom and pop matress places I found in my city so I figure I better look at them to be able say I tried them all to feel good about my decison on buying my layers....just had time to go to one today but will try others that have some Natura beds later.....The one store had:

1)  Sealy Springfree - salesman had absolutely no clue about latex...I was educating him, lol....anyway it was an older model and had cutaway of the latex core.  It was 7.3 of firm latex, 1.6 plush latex, 1" sealy supersoft poly foam topper,  quilted cover with 1.5" by .5" soft convoluted poly, and .5" poly....why ruin all that latex with poly top...anyway I did really like feel of this, nice firm core and really soft on top...I think I would like smooth soft top over quilted, which I will have when I get all my layers

2)  They had two Sealy Embody's...one with 7" poly core and 3" latex which felt little firm on top and one with 5.75" poly core and 5.75" latex which felt not too soft and not too firm

3)  They had a Health Care with 9" 30 ILD poly core, 2" latex, 3" memory foam, and 1" quilt....memory foam does feel nice in store but from research I ruled it out over latex

So bottom line is still not sure if I am going to prefer firm feeling on top or little bit of really soft over firm.

But definetly know that I need to add 2"  or so of soft with the other 3 layers I got for testing purposes to figure out what I will really like after sleeping trial. 

Like I said in previous posts, just need to decide if 2" be enough or get 3" and how soft of ILD and talalay or dunlup. 

Phoenix, just side thoughts....when I called Flobeds other day because was just curious what they suggested as layers for their bed, he said firm/xfirm/superfirm and of course as you said before they have that supersoft topper.  Also, in reading how much of range in people's preference in layers it makes me think of posts by Lynn, I think that is her profile.  She is petite and has her flobed at  36 over 36 over 44 and doesn't use the convuluted topper and loves it.   

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