|
Hi folks. Mattress Surgery initial report. I cut the top off my queen sized Serta Perfect sleeper today. It was really easy, and just as JImsocal and sandman described. Thanks to their encouragement and documentatin here, I hope to be sleeping better soon! Took about 15 minutes with a sharp utility knife. Punched through and just held it up and slice slice slice and the top was off. I am very encouraged that this is going to work out well, and that I will be recomending it to everyone. I have already arranged my first trial stack and it feels really, really good. If I don't get it the first time, I am guardedly optitmistic that some fiddling will get me to a good night's sleep.
If someone can recommend an easy to use picture webhoster, I will put up the pictures I took. My Serta mattress had from top down: 1. approx .75 inch of soft foam sandwiched between top fabric and a layer of fabric underneath. 2 1 inch Poly foam just like foamdistributing.com's HD36 on top, oddly enough. This is ;pretty firm stuff. 3 1 inch polyfoam just like foamdistributing.com's "supersoft foam" ... next to the springs. 4 A thin layer of carpet backer like fabric (less than 1/8 inch) on top of the springs. 5, foam encased edge coils which helps to hold the form. The spring system is a bit of a misnomer... it is closer to a box spring than "springs." All the accommodation of your back bone must be accomplished in the comfort layer, and I understand why I have slept better with beautyrest mattresses. For sure, those individual coils provide a good bit more accommodation. I may ultimately have to get one of those and do the surgery on it, but for now:
My first stab at comfort layers will be, from top down: A. 1 inch of 14 ILD extra soft latex from sleeplikeabear.com. This is quite soft & the softest I could find on the internet. B. 1 inch of 20 ILD "soft" latex from FBM. This piece is considerably softer than the 2 inch piece below, which is supposed to be the same material. This feels like perhaps 60-70% of the ILD or resistivity of the 2 inch piece... so a good bit softer. C 1x2 inches of 20 ILD so called "soft" latex from foambymail.com It is really dense,firm. When I lie on 2x2 inches on the springs on my back, I only have five contact points: calves, butt, shoulder blades. D 1/2 inch of fairly firm foam from foamdistributing.com to protect the latex layer As soft as this sounds, while lying on my back, it is quite supportive. I do not penetrate the latex surface much. My whole back is in contact, but I do not sink in much. ( 170 lb back and side sleeper with lower back pain.) I actually expect it may not be quite soft enough for me, and will add 1 inch of 4 lb eco friendly memory foam (overstock.com green streaked stuff... quite good quality)... or 2 layers of the 14 ILD... etc. Firmer.... replace 14 ILD with second inch of 20 ILD.... I will report how this works out and the evolution, and will put up pictures if someone can point me to a picture hoster. Update 9-13-10 After two more failures at storebought mattresses out of frustration with little progress on stacking my own surgery mattress, I had more pain from the bought mattresses and had to come back to DIY, and have some interesting progress to report. Taking this to a new thread with a possible breakthrough for we lower back sufferers, as well as some do's and don'ts . This message was modified Sep 13, 2010 by shovel99
|
|
Sandman, I did keep all the Serta parts.. but as noted, I already had identical pieces of the two 1 inch PU foams.. and tried every combination. If bought mattress doesn't work.. not sure which direction! shovel99 |
|
One problem I had with the Sealy is that the foam ("Sealy foam") seemed too low of density to support me. I measured one piece at 1.2 density. So, it might have started off feeling firm, but by the end of the night I sunk way in. It was also too hot, witth the PU foam tufted into the cover. So, I feel that my current situation (using latex, memory foam and wool), while not perfect, is much better than the Sealy Reserve Cushion firm that I started with. I still deal with a tradeoff between comfort and support, and there probably is no perfect solution. You may have liked the Simmons due to the individual (and probably higher quality back then) coils. Maybe they provided most of the support and body contouring, and the foam had less of a role. Possibly the foam (or whatever they used) was better back then as well. I would think the 3-4 pound density memory foam would be soft enough for your needs. This place sells custom foam down to 10 ILD Let us know how it works out! This message was modified Sep 10, 2010 by sandman
|