I’m posting this because the way current major mattress manufacturers are creating throw away products and charging outrageous prices in the process is putting the consumer at a major disadvantage. I wanted to create a DIY page just to document what I did to fix my mattress in the hope others can save big $$$ by doing something similar themselves. The problem is that no matter the amount of money you’re willing to spend these days, in many cases you can’t even buy a good quality mattress anymore. The marketing makes it almost impossible to compare what you are actually buying and in many cases it’s seriously inferior to mattresses made even a decade ago. There’s probably not alot of people who would dare cut apart an expensive mattress that is only a few months old but in the end it actually turned out even better than I could have imagined.
The problem I ran into is that as a big guy (I’m 6’2 and 250 lbs) and my wife a foot shorter and half my weight, we have dramatically different mattress preferences. The problem boils down to density of each person (not overall weight or height). Think of it like 2 identical size bowling balls but the weights are very different. The heavier ball will obviously sink further into the mattress than the lighter one or said another way, the lighter bowling ball will find the same mattress firmer than the heavier one. We bought a Simmons Beautyrest Gavin Eurotop mattress around 8 months ago after our prior Kingsdown mattress (from Sears) we used for 8 years started giving me lower back problems. The new Simmons mattress wore out very fast and caused such hip pain I had trouble sitting or even rolling out of bed. So instead of just buying a new mattress I decided to modify the one we had just bought so that it actually works as intended for the long haul.
Here’s the mattress we got (king was around $2100 + tax) :
One of the keys I found in the past was to make sure to stick to (core) innerspring mattresses since they tend to be more durable for larger folks like me. We originally started out with a firm version of the Beautyrest Gavin mattress but even after using (2) 3" layers of soft dunlop latex on top I was still not able to both get support as well as relieve the pressure points on the hip and shoulder (it was either or but never achieved both). It was obvious that something was too stiff on that mattress (I’m a back and side sleeper). On the Simmons Beautyrest higher end models evidently they do change the coil spring gauge between models. Sleep Country gives you a 100 day trial so after nearly 90 days we exchanged it for the Luxury Firm (middle softness) as the Plush (softest) was clearly not providing the support I needed even after trying it for just 30 minutes in the store. So we have been sleeping on the Luxury Firm (Eurotop) version with a 3" soft (20 ILD) dunlop latex topper and it has been fairly decent until recently it began to break down and create depressions after being just a few months old. You could see depressions forming but often I would roll from side to back to side again many times during the night. One night I was especially tired and slept entirely on my side only to wake up almost paralyzed from pain of being bent sideways all night at the hip joint (clearly a support problem). I tried to use pillows to help separate my legs or prop up my hips the second night but nothing worked and the pain was getting worse. I barely slept a wink and once morning came the engineer in me said enough is enough and I was determined to fix this properly once and for all. The scariest part is that as bad as the mattress was it was nowhere near being able to qualify for warranty since the bed needs to have 1.5" of depression before it is considered no good and that’s only if they don’t find a technicality (wrong bed support / box spring, staining on bed, etc) to get out of the warranty too.
Having already rebuilt my box springs to be solid (glued 2x4 and 1/2" plywood, recovered in the box spring fabric) I knew the box spring was flat and definitely not causing my body alignment issue. First thing I did was to start pulling apart the seams so I could see how the mattress was constructed and hopefully see what needed to be corrected for our situation. This video below is a great help in seeing how they manufacture them as well as disassembly. If you watch at the 7:50 mark you’ll see how just cutting a few stitches and pulling on the thread at the seam causes it to come apart like a zipper.
On first impression I was pretty stunned they charge $2100 for this sort of construction, I expected to see alot more memory foam technology in there. Second, what I found was that the mattress was built in 2 main parts; the base and the Euro/Pillow top. The firm mattresses only have a base and are often matched with a stiffer coil innerspring system. Once it was opened up it was very obvious that the Eurotop on my mattress had failed. When you pinch this 2" layer of foam (felt like very light poly foam, there definitely wasn’t any memory to it at all) between your fingers it provides almost no resistance to compression (unlike my latex topper). Most the the foam/fabric inside are either glued or stapled together so when separating things make sure to get your hand into the joint and use your fingers to help separate the parts. If you just pull the foam it will rip apart leaving big chunks you’ll have to clean up later. The staples are splayed at the ends but can be pulled out and discarded. You can use a contact adhesive to stick any foam/fabric you need back together during assembly or sew zippers on both size to make servicing easier later.
Mattress top seam
Foam from Eurotop
New 3" Dunlop (20 ILD) latex topper installed
Eurotop seam
Separation between base layer and Eurotop
Base layer with covers removed
Pocket coil innersprings inside base layer
Once I checked the level of the base layer foam it looked straight (no depressions and good resistance to pressure) as did the pocket coils under it. So all I did was to remove the Eurotop foam and replace it with the king size 3" dunlop (20 ILD) latex foam (mine came from Sleep on Latex but I’m sure there’s many sources of quality latex foam). Once I did that within 2 days my hip was perfect again and I slept so soundly it was like I was staying at a hotel. The bed is now very supportive yet provides just enough cushion to remove any pressure points (just like a hotel bed does). I was a bit worried about it being too hard for my wife but she was also very happy with the change and said it slept much better than before. The best part about it was that it really wasn’t a very hard job at all to do and the good night’s sleep you get is worth every penny. Later if something still bothers you or your spouse the mattress is fully tuneable so you can unzip it and tailor the feel exactly to each of your preferences (different firmness side/side or even create zones).
I’m currently working on sewing on #5 YKK zipper tape to close the seams on the mattress cover and make it all look like factory while still allowing me to tune the mattress in the future as needed. I’ll post pics of that once I complete that step as well. I have the zipper tape and HD Singer Sewing Machine on order now (call me crazy but I like a good challenge). Overall super happy with how it all came out so far and really hope this helps someone else do the same.
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