TOPIC:

Glad my advice was put to good use and you were able to conquer this challenge.

I've attached some photos of the finished bed and you can see how I sewed the zipper onto the top and bottom to make the whole thing adjustable. I really like the design and I'm sure happy with how it all came out. Beats the pants off any chain store mattress or bed in a box you can buy online.

The only thing I did want to change was to see if there was any places that sold very thin latex toppers (say 1/2" or so). When I pick up the end of the mattress its a bit harder than it should be to manipulate because you feel the springs on your hand. If you could lay a very dense sheet (ILD 40-50) of 1/2" dunlop latex across the bottom I think it would be darn near perfect IMHO. If anyone knows where to get that thin of latex, I'd love to know.

Looks good, great job. Can't help you on the 1/2" however. Might have to get polyfoam for that.

After quite some time I thought I would update everyone on some tweaks I've been making in trying to build myself the perfect mattress (for my needs). Now I did sleep on it for a a few months like I last updated earlier this year but eventually I ran into an issue yet again where I started to feel the springs on the base layer. Then of course Covid happened. So having spent good money on this pocket coil setup from APM I desperately tried various methods to engineer and make things work. I used more 3" soft (20 ILD) latex foam on top and this helped with feeling springs but then I ran into alignment issues again. So I also tried using various items under the latex layers like a plastic sheet (hockey shooting pad) or thin plywood and that still didn't help the alignment. It soon became apparent that springs were not the right solution so I realized I would need to rethink this a bit. I thought about a solid latex mattress but then again the issue was trying different combos of ILDs which might work but finding the perfect setup could get costly and frustrating. Next I tried sleeping on a 6" thick camping air mattress right on the floor. This helped greatly with my alignment but it wasn't super comfortable (mattress was blown up very stiff and created pressure point soreness). In order to try and solve it I took some stiff (40 ILD) latex foam and placed it over the top of the air mattress. Suddenly the mattress felt incredible, I knew I had hit on something that might be the final solution. So right now I have basically created a custom Sleep Number bed by taking the bottom part of an SN mattress (basically a complete C2 bed minus the mattress outer cover), I amassed all the parts I needed off eBay for a fraction of the price of a new Sleep Number. I'm in the process now of combining these with my own latex comfort layers to build the bed. This will allow me to adjust the air mattress firmness for alignment and also tailor the comfort layers to both mine an my wife's needs independently. I'm still in the process of building it but I will post photos when I get it all finished. Anyway, I thought those that find this thread might be interested since it's not fun waking up with a sore lower back/hips every morning.

It's been a long journey to figure out what works best to get rid of the pain in my lower back/hips and more recently my shoulder as well. I can say I finally figured it out and it's been a godsend to allow my body to start healing again. As I indicated in my last post the pocket coil layer just wasn't working for me after trying to make 2 different designs work. So I scrapped the entire idea and decided to look at other options. After experimenting with an air bed I was able to get some immediate pain relief so I decided to go that route for my latest build. I also figured that having an adjustable layer would help tremendously in making the solution work for both my wife and I (since we are very different sizes) and this turned out to be key for a few reasons. It certainly took a while to source all the parts since I'm in Canada and obviously Covid makes it harder to get them across the border. Anyway, here's my final design and I'm very happy with it.

The comfort portion of the mattress has 2 separate layers of Dunlop latex, a 2" layer of firm (ILD 44) that goes across the entire king bed and a 3" layer that is medium (ILD 30) on my side and soft (ILD 20) on my wife's side. I got them all from Sleep on Latex but I did have to go through a few combos to figure out those worked best for our needs.





The base layer is essentially a Sleep Number setup with a custom foam border. The Sleep Number materials (air chambers, air pump and remote) all had to be bought used because SN does not sell new parts to anyone unless you already own one of their beds. Also the new SN 360 beds don't have the hoses in the right place (since they now want you to buy their bases too) so you need to buy older parts to make this all work. If someone was doing this from scratch it might be easier to buy a used P5 (10" height) or P6 (11" height) to give you the parts you need to build the bed. The foam surround came from www.airbedrepair.com and I got both the surround as well as the foam that goes in between the two air chambers. The foam surrounds they offer are a much better design than what SN puts in their beds because it solves 2 important problems, lack of firmness and sides bowing. Their design is very firm and there's no issue with the sides bowing because they are connected with fabric. You will need to make a hole in the fabric for the hoses to pass down through the bottom of the mattress near the headboard on each side. I just used a cutting board (protects the box spring below) and a sharp knife to slice the fabric/cover for the hoses to pass.

This shows the foam surround and one of the air chambers


Here's the remote to control the pressure in each side


Now I sleep perfectly well all night and don't wake up with anymore pain in my joints (still a bit stiff as I'm still recovering from being in pain so long). One big thing I noticed was that the settings I used for the air mattress are different when I'm on my back versus on my side. Most of the night I sleep on my side but in the morning if I want to look at my phone I need to adjust the bed to be comfortable in that position. I hope this writeup helps others to get to a place where they don't experience pain anymore either.

Hey Mattrebuild,

Welcome back to the forum and thanks for your updates !

Now I sleep perfectly well all night and don't wake up with anymore pain in my joints (still a bit stiff as I'm still recovering from being in pain so long). One big thing I noticed was that the settings I used for the air mattress are different when I'm on my back versus on my side. Most of the night I sleep on my side but in the morning if I want to look at my phone I need to adjust the bed to be comfortable in that position. I hope this writeup helps others to get to a place where they don't experience pain anymore either.

For brevity, only the final paragraph of your post has been quoted here for comment. Excellent work on your DIY mattress, Mattrebuild! It sounds as though your patient process of trial and elimination of different materials and layerings have finally paid off; congrats on achieving a pain-free nights' sleep . Thanks for carefully documenting and sharing your process with product specs and pics, as well as details of the resulting efforts along each step of the way. You have demonstrated a good example of how performing extensive research, consulting reputable manufacturers (thanks @KenHightower/ AZ Premium Mattress for your support), and using a little creativity and patience finally paid big dividends in finding the balance of comfort and support you seek. Thanks too for your mentoring of other TMU DIYers as you have set a good example of how to comment using fact-based outcomes of a process rather than using emotionally -charged generalizations that don't add value. Your DIY has been a year+ in the making and that's a great deal of work; hope you enjoy many restful nights of sleep for your efforts .

Drop in with updates when you can, it would be nice to have an ongoing account of your project.

Thanks,
Sensei

Sensei wrote: Drop in with updates when you can, it would be nice to have an ongoing account of your project.

Hi Sensei,

Glad you and others have enjoyed the build and hopefully others will also benefit from all the experimenting I did along the way. Funny you mention updates as just last night I made one more tweak to the bed on my side. It still felt a bit too firm on my side (I was still waking up somewhat stiff, it was not healing my hip/back as fast as I thought it should) so I tried my wife's side two nights ago and it seemed to be just right so last night I decided to change my side to match hers. I did have to reset my Sleep Number again but after that I slept perfectly and woke up with no pain or stiffness. So now the bed has a comfort layer of 2" firm (ILD 44) underneath and a 3" soft (ILD 20) on top across the entire bed. If I make any more changes I'll definitely be sure to update the thread but I think that last little change will likely be about as close to perfect for us as I can get under normal gravity.

I promised to keep updating this thread until I have found the magic sweet spot for both my wife and I so we can both get that perfect night's sleep. She seems to have a low enough BMI that she doesn't have any issue with almost any of the combos I tried for her since I switched the base to an air bed type. I must say I have been very happy with the ability to adjust alignment using the air mattress but the issue I'm still running into is the comfort layers. As a big curvy side sleeper no matter how I arrange the latex layers right now it just doesn't seem to cradle me enough to get rid of all my hip/shoulder pain. I recently switched to a 3" soft (20ILD) over a 3" medium (30 ILD) and it feels great when I just lie on the bare latex but as soon as I zip up the mattress it seems to not conform as well and I end up with pressure issues again. If I let enough air out of the base to allow it to conform properly, then it starts to give me alignment problems which I feel again mostly in the hip area.

So at this point I can really only think of two possible ways to tackle it but I'm not sure at this point if the problem is the mattress ticking (cover) not stretching to allow the materials underneath to conform or if the latex comfort layer is just not conforming/supporting enough. I have been looking at the design of the Purple beds and I wish I could find someone with a used one that would let me experiment with that purple gel grid layer as well as their super flexible ticking (if Purple sold a mattress topper that would be ideal, but they don't......at least yet). I also noted that Purple even sells special stretchy sheets and mattress protectors which some people have commented that it does make a difference. If Purple is THE most conforming bed and they feel it's important to carry this stretchiness through all their layers, it really makes me think that maybe the upper layers (pillow top) on my bed are stopping it from conforming too. I also considered changing the upper comfort layer to a heavy duty memory foam (in either 4lb or 5lb versions) or possibly HQ polyfoam but I sleep so hot already I'd be very concerned about going that route. I also have not tried different ILD talalay latex layers (I have a very soft 2" talalay toper but not currently using it since it takes almost nothing to compress it) so that could be an option too. Obviously it gets very expensive to try lots of talalay latex combos since up in Canada it's hard to return stuff to the US right now so I'd like to see if I can narrow down exactly what's going on and find a targeted solution to the problem. I even looked at buying a body pressure monitoring system so I could visualize the problem but unless you are in the business of selling mattresses the prices are out of this world.

So does anyone know where to buy the stretchy knit mattress ticking you see on all the new mattresses (Purple, Tempurpedic, etc)? Looks like it is various compositions depending on the manufacturer but primarily it seems to be made of polyester, viscose (Rayon) and lycra (Spandex). I found alot of them on Alibaba but I don't want to buy 200-500 meters of fabric just to experiment with. I thought about maybe buying a topper that comes with matching mattress ticking (such as what Layla sells) but that seems like a bit of an expensive option too.

I'm all ears if anyone has suggestions on what might work best since this thing is quickly becoming a full blown R&D project.

Mattrebuild wrote: I have been looking at the design of the Purple beds and I wish I could find someone with a used one that would let me experiment with that purple gel grid layer as well as their super flexible ticking (if Purple sold a mattress topper that would be ideal, but they don't......at least yet). I also noted that Purple even sells special stretchy sheets and mattress protectors which some people have commented that it does make a difference. If Purple is THE most conforming bed and they feel it's important to carry this stretchiness through all their layers, it really makes me think that maybe the upper layers (pillow top) on my bed are stopping it from conforming too. I also considered changing the upper comfort layer to a heavy duty memory foam (in either 4lb or 5lb versions) or possibly HQ polyfoam but I sleep so hot already I'd be very concerned about going that route. I also have not tried different ILD talalay latex layers (I have a very soft 2" talalay toper but not currently using it since it takes almost nothing to compress it) so that could be an option too. Obviously it gets very expensive to try lots of talalay latex combos since up in Canada it's hard to return stuff to the US right now so I'd like to see if I can narrow down exactly what's going on and find a targeted solution to the problem. I even looked at buying a body pressure monitoring system so I could visualize the problem but unless you are in the business of selling mattresses the prices are out of this world.

So does anyone know where to buy the stretchy knit mattress ticking you see on all the new mattresses (Purple, Tempurpedic, etc)?

You can purchase a zippered mattress cover directly from purple, just tell them which one you want. I have bought the purple hybrid premier (.4) cover from them. It was $181 in the twin xl size and it fits a 13" thick mattress. You could get the original 9", purple hybrid 11", hybrid premier (.3) 12".

Intellibed makes a topper which is made by edizone llc which is owned by purple so purple sort of does make a topper. I have it, it was $762 but this was the older cal king topper without the 1" serene foam on top. I didnt want the foam on top to maximize breathability. I cut it down w/an electric knife to fit my twin xl bc I didn't all the polyfoam that surrounds the grid. The polyfoam does serve a purpose though it gives the topper edge support. That's why I left a little on both sides. I've been reading up on serene foam & it's supposed to be more open cell than regular polyfoam & more breathable so maybe the new style "luxury toppers" from intellibed don't sleep too hot. I know the new version in twin xl is $699+.

If you want to experiment with the purple grid from purple mattresses you can find many trial returns on eBay for a fraction of the cost of a new one. I decided I wasn't comfortable buying used bedding so I bought 3 new ones (two hybrid. 2's) and one original. You can pull the grid out of a brand new one quite easily & experiment with it.

The intellibed topper is phone order only btw, it's not listed on thier website. Just know that unless you buy a bigger size than you need and cut it down there will be a lot of foam surrounding the grid. Its 12" at both head and feet and 6" on both sides.