My Foam By Mail / Foam Distributing Experience
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My Foam By Mail (FBM) order arrived last Thursday, however we had hurricane Ike to deal with so I've been delayed in getting this post. On the recommendation by several people on this forum, I weighed the foam before unwrapping the plastic wrap. My order consisted of these East King (76x80) layers: Two 1" HD36-HQ foam 2.8 PCF, 35 ILD ($82 for both) 5" Lux-HQ foam 2.8 PCF, 50 ILD ($201) I ordered these costlier "High Quality (HQ)" variants via FBM's http://www.foamdistributing.com site. Shipping was included in the price. I received a confirmation e-mail, and within a few days a UPS tracking number. Upon reciept, the outer box of the 5" Lux-HQ was beat up very badly, and I could tell that some papers had been torn off the outside. However, the foam was wrapped completely in plastic wrap and incurred no damage. The 2 1" HD36's were in a second box that was still intact. I removed the foam "cylinders" from their boxes and weighed them on the digital bathroom scale. The Lux-HQ weighed in at 46.4 lbs and the 2 HD36's weighed in at 17.6 lbs. According to my calculations, this is close to the 49 and 19.7 lbs respectively that these cuts should weigh. The "Regular (R)" versions are 1.8 PCF so would weigh much less. I have not measured the actual dimensions of the foam, but suffice it to say that the dimensions are more than enough to consitute E. King size. They appear to meet or exceed the 76x80 spec. Overall I am very satisfied with my FBM ordering experience. I moved the rolls of foam upstairs into a free room and unwrapped them to let them expand and air out. They stayed there during the hurricane. After the hurricane, we were very fortunate to get power restored later on that day, so my parents who were not so lucky came to stay with us. My dad is a big guy and has been complaining of neck and shoulder pain and his sagging 5 yr old pillowtop mattress, and my mother complains of back pain every day when she wakes up. So, I asked them to try out the firm HQ foam bed. We had the 5" Lux on the bottom, and the 2 1" HD36 on top, with a velour ticking cover, and a polyfill mattress pad over that, then the fitted sheet. I wanted to see what their thoughts were on the firmness, and a told them about jankdc on the forum here sleeping on just a block of Lux after a back injury. They slept great. Both slept very soundly and had no pain when they woke up. The second night one or both of them could have slept on the pillowtop queen in good condition in the guest room, but they both chose the foam stack. They described the bed as "plenty firm" and did not experience pressure points or numbness. They now want their own. The big 5" block of Lux-HQ is FIRM, but different than what springs feel like. If you lay flat on your back, your lower back does not touch. The HD36 is a little softer, I would consider it medium-firm. I intend for this stackup to comprise my base layers, to replace the function of innersprings. It is too firm & rigid by itself, as I expected. We placed the layers in the ticking cover along with a 3" 4# memory foam topper from Overstock.com over our existing Sealy box springs, fine tuned the positioning, then zipped up the 360 zipper. We've slept on this rig for 2 nights now, and it is VERY comfortable. The memory foam has a very different feel now that its on the very solid foam foundation. I kind of like it. My wife is very happy, sleeping well, and not feeling any stiffness or pain. Same for me -- very little tossing and turning. The bed feels flat and highly consistent no matter where you lay. It is very comfortable. We are officially done sleeping on the Sealy innerspring. We are sticking with this for now, and I plan on ordering some latex from FBM to replace the memory foam. 2" of 32 ILD and 1" of 20 ILD. I want to experience sleeping on this boingy Jello stuff. If we don't like it, I can put the memory foam back in. Trying it all out -- that's what this is all about, right? This message was modified Sep 17, 2008 by LatencyMachine
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Re: My Foam By Mail / Foam Distributing Experience
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Hello to everyone again! As promised, I'm here to follow-up on my final build. We have been sleeping very soundly on our new DIY bed for a week now. My wife has no back or neck pain at all, and neither of us toss and turn. In fact, my wife has awakened an hour earlier than usual a few times feeling like she's gotten a full night's worth of sleep. So, I'm tentatively declaring victory! I really felt like I've "beat the system". Here's the rundown for the King (76x80) mattress: · Cuddle Bed (Costco): $49.54 · 1” Soft Latex 20ILD (FBM): $98.99 · 2” Medium Latex 32ILD (FBM): $194.99 · 2x 1” HD36-HQ 35ILD (FD) : $82.00 · 5” Lux-HQ 50ILD (FD): $201.00 · 10" Velour 360 Zippered Ticking (eBay) : $40 · Lumber (Lowes) : $64 · TOTAL : $730.52 All prices are shipped w/tax. FBM = FoamByMail.com. FD = www.foamdistributing.com. Here are some photos:  This is the 2" of 32 ILD latex from FBM for anyone curious about what it looks like. I have one end folded over so that you can see the back side. I'm guessing that I got the top or bottom of the core, because the one side shown on the bottom has a solid "skin" whereas the other side looks like a sponge. This is supposedly Talalay, but I'm not staking my life on it (nor do I care that much). Anyone with expertise care to comment on what they see here?  These are the 4 side rails that I cut from 2x10s. The cutouts are simply to reduce weight. The one full of holes was my first one that took entirely too long, so I opted to go with jigsaw cutouts on the other 3 that went much faster.  Here they are attached to my bed frame's hardwood rails. This is where the box springs used to lay down in. There's one of the 1x4 slats attached to the head of the right side.  And here's all 28 1x4 slates attached. I could have done a little better job on the spacing on the right, but wasn't too worried about it.  Then we pinned the bedskirt in place to conceal all of the ugly rough lumber.  And here's the final product with all of the foam, ticking, Cuddle Bed, sheets installed! You'ld never know there was a homebrewed bed under there. So thank you to everyone -- old posts and new. Reading this forum helped me a lot, and I'm extremely happy with my new bed. Now time will tell if it holds up! I'll be checking this forum occasionally to contribute back and share my ongoing experience. Good luck to everyone out there, and I hope that you are as successful as I've been. |
Re: My Foam By Mail / Foam Distributing Experience
| I was looking at old pictures, and I thought this looked so nice, and wondered how the bed was still feeling? |
Re: My Foam By Mail / Foam Distributing Experience
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You bet, I've been meaning to post an update... We're still sleeping great. The mattress feels like its performing the same as it did 5 months ago, so that's a good sign. My wife no longer suffers from neck and lower back pain. I no longer have problems walking from the bedroom to the bathroom when I get up in the morning. I used to limp like an old man until my leg and back muscles stretched and warmed up, now I don't. Another improvement, and one I did not expect, is that my feet no longer get cold. I used to have to place a heavy blanket over my feet even though I was under a sheet and comforter, and this is no longer necessary. Recently it dawned on me that this is quite likely due to improved circulation. As the months get warmer, I'll decide if the CuddleBed needs to come off. I'm concerned that it may be too warm/hot, although I admit so far that doesn't seem to be the case at all. One problem that I did run into, was with the foundation that I built. I've concluded that 1x4 slats are not sufficient foundation support. Even with the close spacing, the slats in the pelvis and shoulder regions drooped about 1/8" to 1/4" or so. Even with just an 1/8" droop, you can feel it. This slight droop was enough to cause "mild unpleasantness". I experimented with a floor jack and used it to jack up one slat until it was straight, just to see if I could perceive the difference and I definitely could. To correct the problem, I cut 1x4s just short of the slat length, and then glued and clamped them to the problem slats perpendicularly to straighten them out and provide rigid support. I did this from underneath the bed without removing the mattress or any of the slats. This corrected the problem. If I were to build the foundation again, I would make some design changes. For now however, the reinforcement 'fixes' will do. |