Mattress Help

[John]

Need a better mattress for our spare bed apparently.

The bed base (cheap) has metal tubes at a 6 inch pitch to support the mattress.

Any thoughts on how this may influence a mattress choice?

[Fredxx]

A very, very thick one.

Have you considered attaching plywood to these metal tubes?

Or getting a new bed base. The existing mattress might then be fine.

But 6" spacing!!!

[Pancho]

Board it over with thin MDF. Maybe 3mm or 6mm dependent on mattress thickness.

I bought an IKEA foam mattress last year. It is very firm and a little different to a sprung one, I like it, but mattresses are very much a matter of personal choice.

[harry]

Foam mattresses are much warmer than spring ones.

[polygonum_on_google]

I have been sleeping on a Millbrook mattress for many years.

Not sure which one but it does have a wool layer and pocket springs. Possibly excessive for a spare bed - but we have one of their less expensive ones on our spare!

Before getting one, had tried a foam-based mattress topper - made me violently sick.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Almost not at all. You MAY need to add a sheet of ply with air holes in it

[tabbypurr]

Space supports make a mattress feel harder, but this is not solved with a softer mattress. Improve comfort by putting sheet wood down. 3mm is far too thin. You can improve it further by omitting the slat where your bum goes, letting the sheet dip a little there, and can improve it again by arranging the centre to dip more than the sides. So ideally you want a sheet that holds up but sags. Thin ply might do, eg 6mm or 9mm, I tend to do it with ungapped slats which gives more control.

NT

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

Probably not at all shove a bit of hardboard over them grin. Brian

[GB]

Which? recommend 3 Ikea mattresses, all v cheap. I assume you won't want to spend a fortune on a spare bed. These are Ikea, Malfors, Harmavik, and Morgedal.

I have an embarrassing tale to tell of the Morgedal. We tried one of those, but it was incredibly hard, and we sent it back to Ikea. It was only as I was attempting to wrap it up that I discovered that we had had it upside down! What should have been the top was much softer than the side we were lying on. The very very firm base was probably designed to be absolutely fine on bars or slats spaced six inches apart.

[ARW]

And buggers up the advice about turning a mattress.

[Andrew]

Some people just book into a 'modern' hotel and nick one from there.

[ARW]

I'll admit to pinching the extractor fan.

[Pancho]

Yeah, I've got one of those. it is hard to tell which side is up. I couldn't find IKEA instructions.

Mine has 1 cm wide channels cut out across the top of the of the foam, width wise. The cut outs across the middle of the bed are a lot deeper. Also the cut outs across the head and foot of the mattress are slightly deeper. I figured this was the top side and is designed to make the mattress softer in those areas, i.e. bum and shoulders.

[spuorgelgoog]

I robbed a bank once.

One of those pens-on-a-chain.

Owain

[GB]

One side is completely smooth. I figured that that must be the side for lying on. :(

[tim...]

mine has 6" spacing - would appear to be standard

FWIW, I have a knackered sprung mattress on the bottom, with an Ikea foam mattress on top of that.

just using a single mattress makes it difficult to tuck in the sheets properly

tim

tim