FBM Foam & Latex 1 year update
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My wife and I have been sleeping comfortably for over a year now on our FoamByMail/FoamDistributing custom foam bed (E King). From bottom to top I have 2x 1" HD36-HQ, 5" LUX-HQ, 2" Medium Latex, 1" Soft Latex, CuddleBed. I originally had the HD36 over the LUX, but as the bed wore in, we felt that the HD36 softened up too much, so we moved it to the very bottom. If I were doing this build again, I would omit the HD36 and just get another section (2") of LUX. I'm 5'8 165# side, back and stomach sleeper, my wife is 5'7 125# side sleeper. All issues I had last year with tossing all night, waking in the morning and limping to the shower because I was all stiff, etc, have been gone since sleeping on this bed. An added bonus that I did not expect, is that my feet no longer get cold. In the winter I usually have to pile on heavy blankets along my feet. I did not have to do this last winter, and so far so good this season. I attribute this to improved circulation. The CuddleBed was a little too warm over the summer. We did remove it for about week and replaced it with a conventional polyfil mattress pad which resolved the temperature issue, but we missed the plush feel of it and put it back on. Next summer I intend to do something different. Perhaps a wool pad or a convoluted latex top layer and the thin polyfil pad. The bed did break in a bit during the first 3 or 4 months. What I mean by this is basically a softening of the foam... a reduction of the ILD, if you will, where the most weight is exterted on the bed. This is experienced by laying in the middle, and feeling the firmness, and then moving to the sleeping position and feeling as if your butt and back are slightly less supported. This concerned me the most, but has remained the same as far as I can tell (it did not progressively get worse). The extent of this is nowhere near as bad as the Sealy we had. I don't want to send the wrong impression -- I'm not talking about full-on body impressions or hammocking. This is nothing like that. It's a very subtle, but certainly perceptable, loss of support. I did discover that 1x4 pine slats, no matter how closely spaced together (mine are about 2"), are not adequate as a foundation. As crazy as it sounds, just an 1/8" of deflection (downward bending) of the slats can be perceived. I got the idea of using a bottle jack to experiment with adding support to the different slats. This felt great! In fact, I've found that jacking up the 2 slats under the butt area ever so slightly (about 1/16") creates a very comfortable support mechanism. I accomplish this with a short piece of 2x4 and 1 bottle jack. I believe this concept to be the secret to foam bed fine tuning and achieving ideal support. This is very akin to Euro style slatted bases, but the idea is to not let the slats flex down at all, and have some of the slats actually bowed upward just a bit. So, I plan to redesign my base that I built. I have an idea that should allow for adjusting the upward deflection of certain slats from under the bed (sans bottle jack) without moving the mattress, while the other slats are supported by a center spine that runs down the center of where you lay. The key is not allowing any slat to sag, while allowing some slats to press up more against your body. If/when I complete construction of this base, I'll post all of the pics. In summary, I have no regrets about this bed. It has been a very enlightening experience. I have ideas to make it even better, but it certainly has been very comfortable. We are reminded how great our DIY foam bed is every time we travel and have to sleep somewhere else. Thanks for reading my post! I hope this helps anyone currently on the fence. This message was modified Oct 13, 2009 by LatencyMachine
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Re: FBM Foam & Latex 1 year update
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Eagle, I remember my waterbed from back in the 80's. It was real simple, but the foundation probably would have held a truck. I recall that it was a solid sheet of OSB that layed over top of these large X forms of OSB that provided solid support all the way to the floor. So basically, the flat sheet was fully supported underneath. The problem with conventional king size builds (and I suppose others) is that where you actually lay is unsupported. Even a solid sheet of plywood or OSB I think would flex ever so slightly... I suppose with enough thickness this could be minimized. It's a big improvement to run a perpendicular support 'spine' down the center of where each person lays. This is totally necessary for slats, and I think it would be a good idea even for a plywood/OSB base. I know I feel a difference when I attached a 2x4 with its narrow edge running along my spine beneath the slats and support it with a floor jack. It certainly 'tightens' up the feel of the bed and sure makes it seem that my skeleton is more in proper alignment. My trial and error attempts using the jack on different slats have given me some insight on how adding upward pressure on certain places improves comfort. For this reason alone, having a slatted base that is fully supported down the center of the body PLUS the ability to have some slats push up is where I'm going to focus my effort. A scheme where the slats can be adjusted to push up more over time could possibly be the answer to any slow loss of ILD in foam. |
Re: FBM Foam & Latex 1 year update
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LatencyMachine: You might want to give this a look, http://flobeds.com/slats.htm the Euro Slat Foundation might have some advantages. But I am like you, I prefer a much more solid foundation for my latex mattress. I like the idea that all "conforming of support" comes from the latex and not from some flexibility in a foundation. I think we should keep in mind that we're talking about an entirely different mattress experience, when we think about latex, as opposed to the old innerspring and boxspring arrangements. This is also true with a waterbed. We tend to think that the solid foundation for a waterbed is there because the water weighs so much. And I am absolutely, positively, sure this is a fact. However, it is also a fact that the waterbed manufacture wants you to get the full effect of the water! Not some flexibility built into a foundation. I more or less come from the purist school about this latex business. I tend to think that if you get your latex layers correct, as far as firmness is concerned, and as far as numbers of layers is concerned, that you should get the benefits of natural botanically grown latex and not have a lot of layers of wool and cotton toppers separating you from the latex. Naturally I have the mattress cover which contains my latex. On top of this I only have a very thin cotton batting mattress cover that came with my waterbed. My guess is it is no more than 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch thick. I naturally have a sheet over this and then... me. I like this just fine. I really appreciate your post and your efforts in trying to establish your firm foundation. You are the only person that I know of that is doing this. Therefore I believe your information is invaluable!  Thank you again for sharing this information with us.This message was modified Oct 23, 2009 by eagle2
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