Mattress Forum

My wife (5'4", 105#, back sleeper) and I (6'2", 240#, side sleeper) purchased a Simmons (cal-king, pillowtop) 'Exquisite Ultimate Plush' in October 2001, and it's been on it's last legs for a few years now  

Initially I was going to buy a whole new set, and then I stumbled across this site and all of my plans went up in smoke!   My new plan is to perform surgery on the Simmons (I've alread made a 12" incision to examine the internals), and place a mix of latex and memory foam on top.  If the Simmons coils are completely shot (they're almost 10 years old), I will buy a Sealy Alanson from Costco (mattress only, $520), and excise any foam from that model.

So, from my research I think I have determined we would like a 2" layer of 32 ILD latex over the coils, followed by the 2.5" Novoform Gel topper from Costco (which we already own), and topped off with 1" of 19 ILD latex.

I've read several posts regarding Foam By Mail's quality control issues, but most of those threads appear to be a few years old.  How are things currently?  Are they delivering proper sized and correct weight/ILD items?  I understand some of their pieces 'look' a bit rough, but if it's just cosmetic I'm ok with that. 

(If FBM is still having some issues I'm thinking of ordering just the 2" 32 ILD base from FBM, and then ordering the 1" 19 ILD from a more reputable (and expensive) company, like Sleep Like a Bear, SleepEZ, etc.)

For the record, my wife and I visited a SoCal Custom Comfort showroom last weekend -- the Tradere smooth-top model with a separate 2" latex topper was amazing!  So was the price!!  But, I don't remember ever lying on a showroom bed and immediately thinking it was the best mattress I've ever been on.  And, it really sold me on the idea of latex over coils.

Thanks for reading, and looking forward to any input on suppliers or ILD mixes.

Joe B.