Mattress Forum

When I look at that Royalpedic picture, it looks like she is sinking in at least 2" at the hip area and compressing the coils about 1/3.  If you are sinking in 2.5", that does not seem that different.  Are your shoulders not sinking in enough?  Some of the mattresses make the midsection firmer, so maybe that is what you want in order to get better alignment.

That might be the problem; I'm not sure.

When I'm on my side, the bottom shoulder feels crunched. If I push down on my bottom shoulder to raise myself up, then my spine straightens. 

I'm wondering if the springs -- even if they're in relatively decent condition overall -- could have started to wear down unevenly, since the mattress was resting on what is essentially a slatted foundation, not a real box spring. Dunno; just a thought.

The problem might just be that these offset coils are not the right kind of coils for me, and either pocket coils or old-fashioned Bonnell would be better.

The L&P 3-zone "Body Print" pocket-coil system uses 15.5-gauge wire for the top & bottom thirds of the mattress, and 15-gauge wire for the middle third. I don't know if that's enough of a difference to matter, and I don't know if 15-gauge would be too thin a wire to be durable. But it looks like Gardner Mattress uses these springs, and my impression from what I've read here is that Gardner makes good mattresses, so maybe these springs would be OK. (I don't live anywhere near Gardner; just using them as an example.)

No idea if the pocket coils in Simmons or Sealy mattresses are any good. (Never mind the rest of the junk in those; I'm just wondering about the coils themselves.)

Hard to say if that section is more worn out.   It will wear out faster because of the greater weight on it, but 2.5 years would be pretty quick.  If the wires holding the coils together are substandard (too thin or bad metal) or not fastened well, then when they go bad you would lose support from the surrounding coils as well.    Do the center of the coils feel softer than the head and feet?  

Are you sleeping on just the foam?  How is that working out?

Seems to be a common problem on this forum, anyway.
 

I thought they did, but I'm not sure I can trust my perceptions about these coils at this point.

I couldn't stand having mattress parts & foam layers filling up my bedroom, so this weekend I finally put the mattress back into its case and shoved it under my bed, just to get it out of my way for now.
 

I am. It's not the most comfortable -- I have some lower back pain, so if I stick with all foam (latex or otherwise), I might still need some zoning.

Hope not, though. I have no time to mess with zoning right now; I have to get back to the projects I was neglecting all the time I was fiddling with that mattress & toppers. (I think I'd try an inch or two of 5lb memory foam before trying the zoning again.)

I need to get some plywood to completely cover the foundation, so the slats are out of the equation altogether. Then I'll need to either try another innerspring or get some HR foam to use as a temporary base. (I don't think I want to spend the dough for an all-latex mattress right now... but I reserve the right to change my mind .)

Those latex mattresses are heavy, especially the Dunlop ones, and if I go this route -- doubtful, but possible -- I'd get Dunlop cores.

I'm using my grandparents' old bed frame -- your basic hardwood frame with wooden rails and slats (used to have just 4 slats but I added 4 more). It's a full/double, so no center rail. I don't know how old the frame is, but I'm 50, and my grandparents used it for years, so... just wondering. I think it's well made and holding up well, but it was designed to hold a boxspring & an innerspring mattress (+ people), not heavy slabs of latex (+ people). Maybe an old-fashioned box spring, with real coils, + old-fashioned low-gauge innerspring would be near the equivalent weight of a wooden foundation (no coils) + latex mattress?

Thanks.

You  might be better putting a foundation on it.   You can see how many slats a Flobeds foundation has.    Plus the slats are attached to the sides of the foundation which will help keep them from dipping down.  Adding more slats might help, but I think with enough weight they will still dip down (since they are not attached they can pull away from the sides an bend), and that seems to be an issue for you already.  Of course the more slats you have and the thicker they are, the less dipping you will get. 
 

I was thinking of using my current wooden foundation (the one that came with my innerspring) but putting a sheet of plywood over it to add stability and help prevent dipping.

Don't know if that would be enough, or if I'd still need to rig up some sort of center rail that could still be unscrewed when the bed frame needs to be taken apart for moving.

Since I've got 5" of medium to medium-firm latex here (1" 24 ILD Talatech, 1" N3/27 ILD, 1" FBM 20 [more like 28-30 ILD], and 2" med.-firm Dunlop), I might be able to add a 3" firm Dunlop base and have a good start there. 

The 2" Dunlop that I have is the Overstock topper that I had stopped using because I thought it was cratering (assumed it was cheap synthetic stuff). I don't see evidence of cratering in it now, but I've been using it for only a few nights, so at this point, I don't know whether it will crater eventually or whether it was actually the mattress under it that was cratering before. Either way, it's useful right now. 

If the curent slats are dipping, then you'll need to replace them and add a center brace. If the current slats are straight, I'd add as many additional slats as you can keeping a maximum distance of 2.5" between each one. I know there's plenty of debate as to whether or not latex needs to breath. I could not find anything other than some people's opinions as to whether or not this is true, but decided myself to err on the side of caution and stick with slats rather than plywood. My Home Depot sells 1x3s (actual size - 3/4" x 2.5") in untreated yellow pine for less than $2 per 8' board. If you add 12 sticks, you looking at less than $25 worth of wood. If you don't have a saw, you can even get them to cut it for you for something like $0.50 a cut.

I don't think they're dipping, but I'd have to get under the bed with a flashlight to check, I guess.

Thanks for the suggestion. Home Depot is where I got the extra slats a couple years ago; I have a hand saw, but had HD cut the lumber for me (faster & easier). Still have a couple extra slats in the basement.

If I go the foam route, I'd prefer a solid base under it, but need to have a sense of whether this old frame could handle the weight. (I know no one can tell me without actually seeing the thing.) It's held up this long, so it could well hold up another 50 years. The dressers have certainly lasted well.
 

Same here.  

Either way I'd bet an old solid wood frame is sturdy enough for whatever you stack on it.