My new latex mattress DIY from Arizona premium mattress completely solved my long standing sleep problems. I’m a 155 lb side sleeper. I have a soft (28 ILD) 6’’ blended talalay core and two soft (19 ILD) 2’’ talalay toppers for a total of 10 inches. I don’t have a mattress cover yet - i wanted to wait until i know how thick my final mattress will be before buying one. I started with the toppers on top, it was glorious for 3-4 weeks until they softened and i lost the support, sorta like im sinking too far down, and i started waking up sore again, sleep problems came back. So, i put one, then eventually both toppers on the bottom and so i was sleeping on the core. Glorious again for another month or so, then even that softened and caused similar issues. After that, I removed the soft toppers completely and slept on just the 6’’ core, which I only did for 1 night because the pressure was very bad on my shoulders / hips as a side sleeper, presuming just not enough thickness between my bones and the platform bed frame. I dont know if i should try to go for a firm topper, or a medium topper (medium topper is the same ILD soft core), or maybe just try to get a quilted mattress cover for my current set up as i hear that can add a decent bit of firmness. I want to salvage this if i can but i don’t know if its plausible to put firm toppers on a soft core and expect good things to happen. I’m worried that i chose the wrong cores and that this was a really expensive DIY fail…I have a feeling i should have went with a medium core with medium toppers and broke it in very well but…what would yall do to try to salvage this situation? Thanks a lot.
Hi Plecabra,
Seems like you have had quite the journey with your DIY. One thing I know about APM, is that when you collaborate on a project with their team, they tend to nail it right from the start. I suppose there is that outlier that happens, but in situations such as yours, their team is the best at solving these issues.
A more in depth conversation, even though you are a DIY, would likely lead to a long term positive outcome. Dont worry about what you did or did not do right in this scenario. Sometimes the logic and direction folks do within their profession may not always align with the outcome when trying to jump that hurdle into another.
Rest assured that taking a pause, making a phone call or perhaps, a response from @Arizona_Premium here, can help you solve your issues in the most economical way possible, so you are not randomly making costly selections leading you back here in another month or two.
If you have not already done so, let @Arizona_Premium work with you to solve this. That is what they do best.
All the best,
Maverick
I’m no expert but that sounds like a LOT of latex. Very soft latex. What I see when I compare prebuilt mattresses is the comfort layers are usually only ~2-3" thick, maybe 4" in some cases. Of course I’m looking at hybrids, which is said to add flexibility and cooling. From what I understand, you want firmness in the support layer and pressure relief in the comfort layer. A common build I’ve seen for someone of your size is 6" coils with 4" soft talalay. If I weighed less this sounds ideal for side sleepers.
I’m not sure what you can do with your current materials as it seems you’ve committed to one type, however I will say I’ve read expert advice on here say putting a firm layer on top of a soft layer does change it quite a bit. Totally something you can try, but the answer might not be even more layex.
Thanks for the responses. I agree Ken has been great, i’ve talked to him a few times. He recommended I try to sleep on just the 6’’ core and see how it goes, and that i might need to go more firm after that. Thanks for the input on the coil configuration, i’ll keep that in mind going forward. I was worried about motion transfer with springs and also heard that latex is pretty durable and should last a long time, and saw lots of people going all latex. I think its just too soft and I didn’t intentionally break it in by walking on it during the trial period which i am now regretting, it just felt so perfect at the start and i was so relieved to be sleeping again.
What is the mattress sitting on top of? Have you tried the core with just one topper on top? I personally sleep on this same setup and do not experience at all what you are describing. A cover will firm up the feel a bit as well.
Hey Ken, thanks for the reply. It is on one of these bed frames, the slats are 2.75’’ wide and the gaps between the slats are 3.5’'. I just have a mattress protector on it right now because I was waiting to make sure I knew what thickness of mattress cover to buy. I did try the core with just one of the toppers on. I have tried a few arrangements that feel great until the 3-4 weeks break in period passes (both toppers on top, then both toppers on bottom) where it will lose its springy supportiveness and i sink down and end up waking up with sore lower back.
Do you think one of the quilted mattress covers would make it feel more like before the break in period? I’m a little hesitant on the cover because of how uncertain i am about how thick the mattress will end up being.
Do the slats have any flex to them or are they rock solid? The cover will firm things up a bit. What you ordered originally is too soft for most people. Did you say you tried the core by itself and that was too firm?
The slats do have some flex to them, they look like 0.5’’ pine most likely. The slats span 36 inches from center support to side since this is a king. Now that you mention it, when i put my hand below under the slats and press down, the latex does squish inbetween the slats quite a bit. When i slept on my side on just the 6’’ core, I could only do that for 1 night because it was very uncomfortable with lots of pressure on my hips and shoulder - i dont think 6’’ is enough material to have between me and the bed frame.
Thanks for drawing my attention to the frame Ken. This is the exact frame i have
@Maverick @Arizona_Premium I am not sure whether the flex in these slats is too much, but i moved the existing slats 2’’ apart and that seemed to help with the firmness last night. Generally speaking, have yall used or know of people that use a frame like this with an all latex mattress? I am considering going to the hardware store and picking up some extra boards so I can just use this frame with more slats to get a 1 or 2 inch gap length between them, but i’d rather not do that if these Zinus frames have any sort of reputation for sagging / flexing too much. thank you!
I am not sure what Ken’s take on this will be, but the 3.5" spacing is too wide in my view. I like to recommend less than 3" spacing. The 2" spacing that you converted to should definitely help, but you should move up to 3/4 to 1" thick slats. These at home depot are 3/4, and they make 1" in whatever size frame you have. It may add a little cost and you have to check how much the lip is below the side rails that hold the slats is.
It may be as much as a hundred or two, for replacement slats, but in the overall scheme of things, you will have a bed frame that will last forever and you will not worry about compromising a mattress system that will continue to lack the performance you are looking for. Plus, you will always wonder what is causing the problem, the frame/slats combination or the mattress set up. With a sturdier more supportive frame/slat system, you effectively eliminate one source of concern.
Of course if you wanted or needed extra support you can add these
(scroll down) to be placed under each sleeper’s side of the mattress rather than rely on the center supports. Usually on a king, there are closer to 5-7 under the length of the bed, rather than 3 as shown in your picture.
Insofar as the foam layers and their arrangement, Ken is the man on that. So, whatever his says, you would want to believe him.
All the best,
Maverick
My frame is almost identical and it was easy to add slats. I bought 4 “1x4” Lowe’s “furring” strips to use in the middle portion for extra support and clustered the existing flimsier slats on the head/foot areas. I only ended up spending about $12 for the 4 strips. The Lowe’s near me cut the wood to length. If you’re lucky like I was, they might even have a staple gun and staple the Velcro pieces (which I cut from the excess from the original slats) to the ends of the cut wood to better secure them on the frame. I also used twisty ties to secure a .5” strip of scrap foam on top of the entire center metal support bar so the slats would not hit the bar. The wood: https://www.lowes.com/pd/1-x-4-x-8-Premium-Furring-Strip/3504442
Great idea! If the slats are too thin, and bowing, that would be the only issue here. If the slates are thick enough not to bow, it is a home run.