Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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Okay, now I have a real plan (though obviously it's not finalized - that's the purpose of this thread). Let me know if this sounds reasonable. Remember that I have problems in my shoulders, neck and arms. I think the lower back problems I have had are clearly from the mattress, not the accident. So I want to concentrate on making the mattress soft for my shoulders and arms, and just "normal firm" for my back. Here's the plan: 1" layer of VERY FIRM HR foam on the bottom right on top of the springs of the Fenway Sealy. (My question here, is: Is 1" best or would 1/2" or 3/4" be enough? Or two x 1/2" layers just in case I want to experiment with just one layer, or two?) Then I'll buy enough HR foam in various densities to experiment with 2 x 1" layers of HR medium and firm foam over the bottom layer. That's 3" of foam total. Then, over that, IF needed, maybe the 1 and 1/2" memory foam layer OR just one 3/4" or 2 x 3/4" medium soft latex as a comfort layer. Then, I plan to divide the bed into 1/3's and buy enough pre-cut pieces of 1" HR foam to be able to play with 2 x 1" of HR foam layers for a total of 2" over the bottom firm layer. Or should I go with 3/4" for these 2nd two layers for a total of 1 and 1/2" instead of 2"? I'll buy these layers in pieces cut for zoning in Firm, Medium Firm AND Medium, so that we can play with the placement of all those: firm over medium, medium over firm, medium over medium, etc. depending on the zone. For my shoulders I'll probably actually use some of the 2" soft latex and/or memory foam that we already have. If this works at all (i.e.; if the mattress feels anywhere near "good" over those springs, with these various layers of HR foam) then after awhile we'll experiment with some Dunlop latex. Oh, and also I'm buying one of those latex "toppers" from Brylane in a Queen size so we can cut it up for zoning for the twins. Comments? DIfferent ideas? Thanks. Had it not been for you guys I'd have never thought of taking apart the Sealy! And hopefully it will turn out to feel good once we get the right combination of foam over those springs! By the way, the Sealy sewn-on topper fits right back over the foam on its "hinge" (where we didn't cut that side) and it wouldn't take much to create a velcro seam to fasten it down with, or something like that... |
Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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Depending on how firm the basic coil unit is you may find the mattress feels pretty firm even with softer (but better quality) foam on top, although I would definitely start with a 1/2 to 1" foundation of firm PU on the bottom. I'd go with 2 layers of 1/2". That way you can add or subtract as needed. It's always best to work with small increments of foam, Then just build up to suit your comfort level without adding so much foam that you compromise the support of the innerspring. This message was modified Feb 3, 2008 by cloud9
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Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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Jim, I just saw this 2.75 inch zoned latex topper from foamforyou, an EBay store: http://cgi.ebay.com/2-3-4-Queen-Luxury-Natural-Latex-Flexible-Foam-Mattress_W0QQitemZ260073824097QQihZ016QQcategoryZ37647QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting It's a blend (not sure if Talalay or Dunlop) but might be worth considering as a layer in your mattress reconstruction. They claim it's 32/35.5/32. You might e-mail them and find out where it's from if you care. Could be a good middle layer... |
Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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Thanks cloud9 and Kim, those are helpful comments. I am going to check out the latex topper, that sounds good if the price is right, and I will write and ask if its Dunlop or Talalay. I have decided to go with all pre-cut zoned pieces of 1" HR foam in various ILD's in order to maximize my options for zones. I am buying the latex topper from Brylane (my wife can try it on her bed, too. - we're going to gut her Sealy too and so we'll be re-building both mattresses. So by using one or two 1/2" layers on the bottom, then various ILD's of two 1" zoned layers on top of that, we should have quite a bit of flexibility. Once we find the right combination we may glue the zones together... And then we may replace some of the zones with Dunlop latex if and when we find a good source of it at a good price. |
Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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<BR> jimsocal wrote: By the way, the Sealy sewn-on topper fits right back over the foam on its"hinge"; (where we didn't cut that side) and it wouldn't take much to create a velcro seam to fasten it down with, or something like that...<BR> <BR>Great! That'll teach Sealy! You can customize your OWN mattress! Good luck with your zoned layers! I have to give you credit for taking so much time getting it "just right". As my mattress guy says, "Finding the sweet spot" might be a challenge sometimes...but it's well worth it when you finally get to that point. And, the good thing--you can always change it around if it doesn't work for you as well anymore. This message was modified Feb 3, 2008 by BeddyBye
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Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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BeddyBye wrote: <BR> <BR> Great! That'll teach Sealy! You can customize your OWN mattress! Good luck with your zoned layers! I have to give you credit for taking so much time getting it "just right". As my mattress guy says, "Finding the sweet spot" might be a challenge sometimes...but it's well worth it when you finally get to that point. And, the good thing--you can always change it around if it doesn't work for you as well anymore.
Last night for the first time in a year, I had NO lower back pain! I am half-way reluctant to even get rid of the CARDBOARD over the springs! Not sure if it has any impact at all on the feel of the thing, but my lower back felt great just the way it is. I slept about 9 hours. However, my tingling arm problem was just as bad as ever. This may or may not have anything to do with the mattress. I'm not sure. But today I got rid of all the extra padding I had there (memory foam) and replaced it with just some of that super low ILD PU foam they had in the mattress. So right now I am just concentrating on changing around that top zone to see if I can have any good effect on my tingling arms problem... |
Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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Congratulations on a good night's sleep! I've also had two decent night of sleep last night and the night before. My sacroiliac pain has been better during the day, too. Not sure why, but I won't question it! Tell me, you said you had cardboard over the springs? Did you add this after you opened up your Sealy mattress? Or was it there originally? I don't think you'll need to worry so much about the actual Sealy coils. They're probably made by Leggett and Platt. If not, I have a feeling they're still made well. Again, I think it's mostly the PADDING they use OVER those springs that makes it feel so crummy after TOO short of a time. Good luck with your custom mattress! jimsocal wrote: Right. I have my doubts about these Sealy springs. But we'll see... </p><p>Last night for the first time in a year, I had NO lower back pain! I am half-way reluctant to even get rid of the CARDBOARD over the springs! Not sure if it has any impact at all on the feel of the thing, but my lower back felt great just the way it is. I slept about 9 hours. However, my tingling arm problem was just as bad as ever. This may or may not have anything to do with the mattress. I'm not sure. But today I got rid of all the extra padding I had there (memory foam) and replaced it with just some of that super low ILD PU foam they had in the mattress. So right now I am just concentrating on changing around that top zone to see if I can have any good effect on my tingling arms problem... |
Re: Building my mattress up over the Sealy springs - comments please
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BeddyBye wrote: Congratulations on a good night's sleep! I've also had two decent night of sleep last night and the night before. My sacroiliac pain has been better during the day, too. Not sure why, but I won't question it! Tell me, you said you had cardboard over the springs? Did you add this after you opened up your Sealy mattress? Or was it there originally? I don't think you'll need to worry so much about the actual Sealy coils. They're probably made by Leggett and Platt. If not, I have a feeling they're still made well. Again, I think it's mostly the PADDING they use OVER those springs that makes it feel so crummy after TOO short of a time. Good luck with your custom mattress! Sorry I did not reply earlier, I just saw this. No, we added the cardboard after opening up the mattress, only because we had NO firm foam on hand to make our mattress with , so it was our way of attempting to make the mattress firmer, since all we had on hand at THAT time was soft foam. Now we have replaced the cardboard with 2 very hard (62ILD!) foam layers of 1/2" inch foam (1" total as a bottom layer). However, after my first 2 nights I think the bed is now TOO firm for me, so I'm going to remove one of the 1/2" bottom layers, and also put more medium foam in instead of very firm foam. (We bought various ILD's of foam in 25" zoned pieces so we can experiment not only with firmness overall, but firmness in 3 zoned areas of 25" each. Right now we have the bottom 1" of very hard foam and then 2" of medium to very firm foam over that. I'm going to now try only 1/2" of the extra super firm bottom layer, and some less-firm layers over that, and then a 1" memory foam layer over all that. Also, some more soft foam replacing medium foam at my shoulders. This message was modified Feb 6, 2008 by jimsocal
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