Mattress Forum

Just wanted to share an important update on my search ofperfect sleep through mattress surgery.

1)  The cotton blanket I was using in place of expensive cover like St. Dormier isnt working.  It stiffens the top layer (memory foam 4 lb) so much that it negates the conformative shaping quality and value provided by mem foam.  It is my most critical layer.

2)  My nearly perfect for me combo of (top to bottom)   1 inch 4 lb eco green memory foam (overstock.com), 2 x 1 inch 20 ILD latex foambymail.com, 1 inch of supersoft poly foam from foamdistributing.com on top of Serta Perfect Sleeper Auburn Firm (springs only, cut off the top and took out the 3 foam layers)... was temporarily:

Made unsleepably, uncomfortably firm... by changing out one, one inch bottom layer, 3 inches down from the top!!!!!!!   Just for experiment, I swapped a 36 HD (firm, the supersoft poly ( this is about 20 ILD and I use it to protect the real latex layers from the springs) ... with the 36 HD poly.   That was the 4th inch down from the top of my stack... and made the bed HUGELY MORE FIRM.  I CANNOT OVERSTATE THIS.

To understand, as an engineer, why, I took off the top three layers and sat on just the 36 HD (I believe they call it this to alert you that it is approx. 36 ILD).  It was pretty hard.  The springs did not bend.  I then took off the HD 36... and sat on the springs.  Surprise, they actually bent under my weight and conformed to the pressure of my sitting on it .

The 36 HD, only one inch... was as if I had placed a piece of plywood on the springs... and completely negated their bending ability!

So everyone "building" a DIY stack mattress beware:  those firm layers... even way down... will be affecting the feel and firmness of your mattress substantially.

This is for sure the reason why Sandman and I find that putting a comfort layer on surgically opened mattress springs preferable to a full latex or poly foam "stack".

Good luck to all in finding something that works.

shovel99  Paul