Mattress Forum

I think you are probably headed in the right direction.  The 22 might have been okay, but possibly just too thick.  Your wife might be sinking in a bit too much while on her back, resulting in the back pain.  Headaches might be the result of the wrong pillow for the mattress.   I was having neck & upper back pains with headaches until I went to a firmer shredded latex pillow.  But first you have to get the mattress right, and then try to get the pillows right.

You say the 14 was too soft.  What issues does it cause?

1" by itself will probably not be enough, but 2-3 1" increments might work.  I consider 28 closer to medium, so if the top 4" are already medium, then I am not sure I would go with any more of that.  Perhaps 24 would be a little better?  So possibly 1" of 19 and 1" of 24 as a starting point.

If you are trying to stick with 100% natural, then maybe you would want something like 1" (or more likely) 2" of 22-24 100% natural talalay.   If that is too firm, then add 1" of something softer like 19.  Softer than 20 will probably have to be blended though.

Who makes the latex you can buy?  Is it dunlop or talalay?

Sleeplikeabear carries a wide variety of latex, and they have a 30 day return policy.  I think you will lose shipping costs and a small handling fee.

One issue might be getting it right for both of you.   You can consider buying twin XL pieces and cutting them to size, to be able to customize each side of the mattress.  That is not the most desirable solution, but maybe the only way to get it rigth for both of you.

Good luck!

we purchased the lago from omi at the start i called omi and they said the 6 inch firm is a 40 and the 4 inch is a 24. that makes up the 10 inches. that mattress was way to hard for us so we ordered the terra 3 1/2 inch topper to put on top, but after 2 weeks trying to adjust our upperbacks and shoulders we killing us. this is when my wife decided (since we can not return it or get a refund) to take off the outer mattres cover because it is padded with 2 inches of wool. ( i couldnt believe it either) but it did seem to help ..  we did a very good job taking it off so putting it back together will be easy we purchased 10 yards of zipper to redue the cover if need be.

omi is 100% talelay they say but im not certain of it. we purchased the 14ild queen 2 inch from sleeplikeabear and it was very nice on my shoulders and head but misaligned our backs not giving us enough support.

so here is what we have:

6" xfirm 40 ild

4" medium 24"

3 1/5 inches of 22ild

if i purchase a 1 inch 24 and a 1" 19              ( return the 2 inch 14) yes or no? hmm

i would have 12 combinations to choose from

40/24/22/19 or 40/24/24/19 or 24/40/22/19 or 24/40/22/24/19 or 24/40/24/22/19 ect ect

would like cut out the shoulder like you did with your 32 under ur hip and 24 under ur shoulder im thinking of how to do this the cheapest way .. i found there is no cheap way . as far as the mattress pad we r using omi flannel 100% organic pad that just lies on the top it does not cover the sides or front or back. so it does not constrict the latex.

on a side note the latex that we got from sleeplikeabear came from latex international says so right on the latex and is far more nicer than what we found under OMI cover the omi latex was cut glued and chunks missing ut of it. cant believe they are advertising that there company is the best that u can buy...  i will be adding pictures on here as soon as i find out  HOW  lol

thanks aaron

Ok, so it seems like you have a very firm base.  Possibly too firm, but nothing we can do about that.  4" of 24 + 3.5" of 22 seems like a lot of medium foam, and it probably would be better to have part of that a bit firmer like 28-32, but not much we can do about that either. 

When you used the 2" of 14, was that without the 3.5" of 22 or was it on top of it?

So, with the current configuration of 6" + 4" + 3.5", does it feel okay in the hip area and just too firm in in the shoulders?   If so, the ideal solution would be put a softer zone under the shoulders.  Blended pieces tend to be about 0.9" or 1.8" for what is called a 2" piece.   One thing to consider, if the hips are right and you just want it softer in the shoulders, is to buy some twin pieces to cut up.  Perhaps something like 1.8" of 19 and 1.8" of 14.   Or .9" 19 and 2.7" of 14 if you want it even softer.   Maybe 2 1" pieces would be enough, we would have to do some calculations.

Then you would cut off the top part of the 22, and put in the 2 new pieces.   You can also custom order reasonably good PU foam to put at that level.   

I have to run, but think about what you think works under the hips and shoulders seperately and consider how you can get to that combination.  You may want to measure the thickness of the pieces as well (especially the 3.5" piece) , so we know exactly what we are dealing with.

so we got up and put on a 1.5 piece of 3 lb memory foam that we have had forever form wally world and it was good for me on my shoulders but lost the support on my back again not much but enough to notice my wife ended up taking her memory foam off in less than an hour.

so here is the problem i think that a 2 " piece of 19 would prob work for both of us but than we prob never use the 3 1/2 inch terra topper. my wife thinks by trying a 1 " 24 and 1 " 19 on top of the terra it might work. money money money

the 1 " 19 and 1' 24 will be 344.00 and if we buy a 2 inch 19 it will be 314.00 plus we could return the 14 and get about 280 back.

question? should we be trying to see what will work with the 3 1/2 inch 22 ild or forget it all together and work with just the lago buy adding 1 " layers on top of it. im afraid that we will end up wth more money spent and a 18 inch mattress that wont fit any sheets.

if the 2 inch will work for both of us on top of the lago medium side up we might get lucky because the 14 inch is so close but the 24 and 19 we will have more options to play with .  this is so hard it cost to much to just keep guessing.

how much difference is there between the 14 and the 19, if the 14 is really close than will the 19 be ( do u think) good?

any thoughts

thanks aaron

udate i think if this 3 1/2 piece of latex that is 22 ild with one side being flat and the other being sculpted surface doesnt work out we will being trying to sell it on the forum or craiglist it!
 

OK, when you used the 14 ILD before, I thought it was instead of the 22, not on top of it.  I can see why that would have been too soft.

The 22 is a convoluted piece, and have you been using it with the bumpy side up?  If so, then it should effectively be softer than 22. 

One thing you may want to try is the 14 below the 3.5" 22.  That is not an optimal setup, but you never know.  That should be softer than the 22 by itself, but firmer than with the 14 on top of the 22.

My guess is that you need 2-3" above the 4" of 24.   Not sure what combo, but it might 2" of 19, or 1" of 19 + 2" of 14, or 2" of 19 + 1" of 14.  Really hard to guess, and you probably only will be able to tell with trial and error.   If you bought 1" of 19, you could try that with the 2" of 14 (above and below it) or folded in half to see what 2" of 19 would be like.  Or, as you suggest, go straight for the 2" of 19, then add 1" of something else later if needed. 

You seem to be sinking through the 2" of 14 and bottoming out below, so you might just need 1" of a bit firmer (19) transition piece below.

I really don't think you need any more 24, since you already have 4" of that on top.  Therefore, I would try to work with some 19 before and more 24.  There is not a huge, but it would be noticable difference between 14 and 19.

The 3.5" 22 piece might not fit into the mix at all.  If you really wanted to keep that, you probably should only add 1" above or below.  It is possible that 1" of 14 on top if it might have worked better than 2".

Good luck!   I think your case (and many others) shows the advantage of going with a sleepez or flobeds where you can exchange layers and also have each side different.  There is a lot of value to that because it is very difficult to get it right without some trial and errro.

anyway thanks for your help sandman your insight and past experience with this stuff helps people like us, and we do appreciate it.

for all of you readers out there please learn from our mistakes my wife and i have purchased a temperpedic, a simmons nxg 400 and now a OMI  all of these mattress are well into the 4000 mark a piece and none of them have been right. i could have gone to sleeplikeabear.com a purchase the same latex for under 1000 or went with a flobed for 2500 so its not how much money you spend its the right combination.... thats all for now ....thanks again sandman

will update when we recieve our 19

aaron

That will make a difference if you are putting these toppers over 2" of wool which is over the 10" of (24 & 40) latex.    That makes it a bit harder to figure out, and it probably makes it firmer. 

Are you going to be able to keep the 14 until you get the 19 ILD latex?

so we are now using the just the lago the way it came just as it says on the OMI website and we took apart the terra topper and are no longer putting it into the mix.

we put the 14 2 inch on top of the lago and it was very close but my hips and shoulders still felt to firm and my wife was complaining about the same . thus i guessing it was just to soft.

so today we ordered the 1 inch of 19 and a 1 inch of 21 to put on top of the the lago hoping that in fact it will bring a slight new feel giving us enough support that our hips dont bottom out put still soft eough on our shoulders that it will be just right. plus we will have the option of using the 14,19,21 all thre or just 2. in any case i still think we just  need 2 inches of 19 but figured the 21 was a little extra option plus we can fold over the 19 to see what 2 inches would feel like or fold over the 21 to see what that would feel like. we are now on a mission, i remember the movie the money pit with tom hanks and we are not far from it. but at least talking to sleeplikeabear they are willing to help us evelyn said we could return up to three so im hoping that at least one of these combinations will work for us. we are getting close really close and we might end up cutting the queen down the middle with an electric knife if in fact she likes a different combo than I.

will update you when we recieve the 19 and the 21 they said we would get it thursday so i will give you an update.

thanks aaron

Have you tried memory foam? Thanks.

thanks

So, you have always been using the Lago with the wool on top?  I assume it is sewn shut and you cannot remove it.   I think having some wool on top is a good thing, but it makes it more complicated when you are adding toppers on top of it.  If you can take it off, I would suggest trying the 14 directly on top of the 24 if possible (or even the 3.5" 22).

It seems like the 14 might be pretty close, and maybe you will just need to add 1" of the 19 or 21 below (or above) it.   I guess you will have some combinations to try.  It probably adds some softness that you want, but maybe not quite enough depth to keep from hitting the firm surface below.  

Good luck and keep us informed!

 

http://img402.imageshack.us/slideshow/player.php?id=img402/5576/1296511255jgh.smil

well if this works here is what weve done so far

we started out with the 21 on top of the 19 on top of the medium lago but this seemed a bit to hard for my shoulders so we then switched to try the 21 on top of the 2 inch 14ild ... way too soft ( i new that would happen) so we put the the 21 under the 19 on top of the lago and at first it still seemed hard on my shoulders.. ( i know im a picky "insert profanity here" person) but as the night went on . Now about 1 am with all the switching, i was able to fall asleep.

when we awoke the next morning i felt fine a little sore from all the different configurations that my body has gone through in the last month, but all in all not bad. my wife....... another story she says its still to soft.. SO....going to cut... :" i know i know if i cut a cant return" but cant sleep either so .. cutting :"( the 21 and the 19 so my wife can put the 21 on top of the 19 and i can still remain with my 19 over the 21. we will try this for about a week before we make any more adjustments. i still have time to return the 2 inch 14 to SLAB .. wife still loves the feeling of the 14 but we cant throw it into the mix unless we went to a 24 then maybe we could get away with a i inch 14 on top of that.. but.... then i would have to rob another bank.. still wanted for the other bank robberey so i dont think we will go that route.

and yes 2 one inch layers made a HUGE difference one inch buy itself a big NOT .. but combine the 19 and the 21 and wow.!

so im off to cutting the latex with my new electric knife!!!

thanks aaron

open to comments plz

thanks

my wife and i have been sleeping better in the last couple of days we ended up putting a 1 inch memory foam on top of the 19 over the 21 and it seems to have made it better for both of us my wife no longer has back pain. i will still have pain because of my nerve problems, however we are sleeping better, the 1 inch memory foam is cheap and from wall-mart so im waiting to get the 4lb hopefully this week and the 1 inch sensus that sandman recomends from overstock, hoping to try either the 2 inch over just the 21 or 19 or the 1 inch 5 lb memory foam over the 19 and 21 we will test all of these until we get it right. we ended keeping the 2 inches of 14 ild queen are will probably sell it it on the forum its all one piece not glued and is new condition we only tried it a couple times.

will update you guys when we get the new memory foam

thanks

http://www.selectfoam.com/cat-Toppers.htm

thanks

Did you use the 2" memory foam with any of the latex toppers?  Maybe put 1" above it or below to add some depth.  That should help reduce the bottoming out. 

It might work on the bottom side.  You probably will need the 2 1" latex pieces + the memory foam.  One varation again to consider is the memory foam between the 2 pieces of latex if it seems like there is too much cratering into the memory foam. 

I thought you were going to get just 1" of memory foam?  I am currently using 1" 5.3 from foamorder.com.  I measured it at 5.9 density.  The higher density does seem to help a bit, since I seem to prefer it to the Sensus.  One of these I should go back to the Sensus just to get a comparison, but I have not wanted to change.
 

last night we put both the 21 and the 19 under the 2 inch 4lb memory foam and it was the best night we have had since all this started but my wife still woke up with mid back pain and i was still a little soft it the hip area so tonight we are putting the 21 on top of the 19 then the 2 inch 4lb memory foam.

we are convinced that we need something a little denser than 4 lb so we oredered the 5.34 so we can compare thankfully we have the option of returning either the 4lb or the 5 lb if one of the other does not work. both have a 90 day free trial period so that is good because our storage unit is starting to get full.

we are selling the 3 1/2 22ild queen size so if anybody would like it we will let it go for around 200 we also have the 2 inch 14ild that we are prob not going to use either so we are thinking of selling that one too. hopefully we can try and help others by not buying new we only tried these on the bed for maybe 3 or 4 nights so they are in perfect condition.

anyway we will prob try the 21 on top of the 19 tonight to see what that feels like and wait for the 5.34 lb before we give another update thanks for all your help sandman

thanks