Mattress Forum

I am building a 12" Eastern King mattress to be placed upon a 14" solid platform bed frame. I've spent hours reading on this forum and researching assorted options with various online vendors. I've come to the following conclusions thus far.

#1 — I think I'll take a shot at latex (though I must confess I've been very tempted to try to recreate the Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme after my wife and I tried one at a mattress store a few weeks ago and she really liked it). I'm drawn by fact that good quality latex mattress components seem to last a LONG time.

#2 — I want LI "Talatech" Talalay blend latex for at least the top portion of my latex.

#3 — Any PU foam used will be 2.8 lbs/cu ft density from foamdistributing.com. They have a 36 ILD medium foam and a 55 ILD firm foam.

What I can't decide upon is how much latex to use. I have basically come up with four price points using four varying levels of latex/PU foam. I'd love to get your opinions/feedback on what you think. Here are the options, with the proposed layers listed from the bottom up. BTW, my wife and I are 5'10" and 6' respectively, we each weigh 160-165 lbs. and we're both side sleepers.

Option #1, $779 (9" PU, 3" Latex) — 4" 55 ILD PU, 2.5" 55 ILD PU eggcrate (for airflow), 3" 36 ILD PU, 3" 24 ILD (soft) Talatech latex

Option #2, 1042 (6" PU, 6" Latex) — 4" 55 ILD PU, 2.5" 55 ILD PU eggcrate (for airflow), 3" 32 ILD (medium) Talatech latex, 3" 24 ILD (soft) Talatech latex

Option #3, $1209 (3" PU, 8.5" Latex) — 3" 55 ILD PU, 5.5" Dunlop Latex 3-Zone Core (32/36/32 ILD), 3" 24 ILD (soft) Talatech latex

Option #4, $1473 (11.5" Latex) — 5.5" Dunlop Latex 3-Zone Core (32/36/32 ILD), 3" 32 ILD (medium) Talatech latex, 3" 24 ILD (soft) Talatech latex

Because I'm concerned about whether my wife and I will really like sleeping on latex, I'm very tempted to go with option #1. If we really like it, we can always replace those foam components when they wear out in a few years or so with latex. Also, according to SleepEZ's web site, their latex mattress components (made by LI) have a 30-day money back guarantee, so this makes any of the four options a little less scary in case we don't like latex or we need to change some firmnesses, etc.

Options #3 and #4 would use an affordable 100% natural Dunlop latex core from Arizona Premium Mattress Company. I'm really concerned, though... wouldn't 3" of soft latex on top of either 5.5" of medium latex (#3) or 8.5" of medium latex (#4) simply be too soft? I talked with Shaun at SleepEZ (he's very helpful, just as so many of you have attested) and he recommended 3" soft/3" medium/3" firm top-to-bottom. From what I've read here on the forums, some of you have found even this combination to be too soft, so I don't know what 3" soft over 5.5" or more of medium would be like. Maybe 2" soft over the 5.5" medium would be better?

By the way, the 3" latex layer(s) in options #2, #3 and #4 will actually be a 2" layer plus a 1" layer of the same density totalling 3"... this will allow considerably greater flexibility in configuring the mattress. Also, do you think the LI Talalay blend is the way to go, or should I pay the premium and get the LI Natural Talalay? I'm not convinced that the natural is necessarily better than the blended.

Well, that's it. If you got this far, you probably have some input for me, so fire away!