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I'm in charge of replacing several boxspring/mattresses at my family's cottage; they are 20-30 years old and are very mushy and sag in the middle. Here's my Q: all of the beds are these very nice hand-crafted wooden things...but they don't have any "slats" that run horizontally from the left edge to the right...I don't know much about beds, but my understanding is that it's always best to have good support underneath a boxspring/mattress so that it doesn't sag in the middle...kind of like this:
My noob question is whether supportive 'slats' like the above (or heck, even just a single horizontal metal frame like below) is necessary to prevent sag/droop over time, or is that basically what the boxspring is there for? If it's a high-quality wooden box-spring, will that provide all of the below support needed to prevent mattress deterioration or is it wise to still have some sort of slats or frame below? |
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Mattresses always have to be on either a platform bed with lots of wooden cross slats, a platform foundation, or 'box spring' type foundation if you want mattress up higher. Obviously can't have a mattress straight onto a metal bed fram. . Some cultures sleep on mats on the floor, but most don't like that here. I suppose you could put a foundation on the floor, but most put them on a slatted bed frame or a 'Hollywood' metal bed frame. With Queen beds, must have at least 5 legs for center support of the foundation. King beds have dual twin xl foundations, then king mattress on top. I tried a slatted wood foundation with pine slats spaced a little under 3" apart, and I really did not like it at all - major increase in pressure into my shoulder blade and shoulder. Sometimes you can look through the cover on bottom of foundation to see the construction. I read another site saying a modular grid foundation is just about the best you can get for a mattress. I know Stearns and Foster sells and 'Ultrasteel' foundation with their Silver Dream line. Those foundations would be expensive. This message was modified Aug 23, 2011 by slpngoc
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Thanks for that reply, very helpful. At the end of the day, I'm just trying to ascertain whether my wooden bed frame has proper support. I lifted up the current mattress/boxspring (as I mentioned >> 30 yrs old and needs replacing), and the wooden frame looks like the following picture, and has 4 little "ridges" that jut out in the 4 places I've circled in red below:
The "ridges" (I'm sure there's a technical name for them, although I don't know it) do NOT run the entire length of the frame...they're only about 6-inches in length, and jut out around 1 inch. As in the picture above, there is NO center support beam of any kind. Even with no support in the center, will a boxspring and mattress combination have enough support? Just want to avoid any sort of droop in the middle...I'm only dealing with 1 twin and 1 full size bed...my thinking is that as long as the wood in the box spring is of a decent quality, there should be more than enough support. |
| Looks like our old bed. We had 3 boards (1/2 x 6 as I remember) that we laid across the frame horizontally - top, middle, and bottom. Box spring rested on the boards. |
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I've read that regular slatted founations firm up the feel of a mattress.
Thinking about regular wood slats, they will flex the most in the center of the slat, and less towards the edge. I don't think that is the best thing because I would think you want to try to get even flex all over the mattress. I heard about 'modular grid' foundations, and I've seen a model of a few of them. I think they are sold with expensive beds like Stearns and Foster Silver Dream and such. I would imagine those foundations sell for over $500 in Queen size. Funny thing is that pretty much every foundation is 'S' brands is this type of 'semi flex grid' pattern. It's basically a grid of rods connected to V shaped supports that go down to the wood cross slats on bottom which sit on a center wood spine. So, just about every low to mid grade S mattress has the same foundation. Maybe the guage of rod is a little thicker in more expensive 'box springs'. This message was modified Aug 23, 2011 by slpngoc
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Since all box springs look the same these, pretty sure they all use Legett and Platt semi flex 'springs' inside. They look like this - http://www.beddingcomponents.com/semi-flex.asp If my Serta icomfort / Stabl base has the L&G innards, they bent within 4 weeks. This message was modified Aug 23, 2011 by slpngoc
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