Fixing My Pillowtop Mattress

I bought my mattress 10 years ago from a place called Memory Foam Source (which is no longer around), but I found out that the manufacturer of the mattress is Park Place and they are still around. I loved that mattress from day one. I mean LOVED IT! It's their Sleep Therapy 4000 which is 6" of foam then 4" of memory foam topped with a foam pillowtop. 

Well, after 10 years it started sagging. And since I knew it was in layers, I was wondering if I need to swap out the memory foam layer. You can buy memory foam almost everywhere these days. I thought I would just have to cut into the case to find out. Well, it turns out that I would have to cut OFF the case to find out. That sucker was extremely well made. Each layer sewn into it's own box and sewn to the next layer. And the pillowtop was glued to the memory foam. So I went in with a seam ripper (which broke) and finished up the job with fabric scissors. I just cut the casing off and pulled the memory foam from the topper (it's not pretty in some spots — that glue was still holding on!) It turns out that the bad layer was the pillowtop. All that foam was compressed in the middle where I sleep. The other layers look fine. I tested each one individually and they seem to be holding up.

For right now, I just put the 4" memory foam (which is a nightmare to move, it's like moving a big sheet of jello) on top of the 6" base foam. I put mattress pads on it and it's good to go. Honestly, I didn't like sleeping on it that much. And here I thought that I loved memory foam! It has a rather stiff feeling. I guess what I really enjoyed about my old mattress was the cushion of the topper. So I've decided to replace the old foam pillowtop with a latex topper. I found a natural one from SleepOnLatex. 

I'm waiting for a 2" soft latex topper to come in. I spent hours debating the firmness of the latex topper. I thought was I liked about my mattress was how firm it was, but I think what I am now missing is the softness of the foam topper, so I finally picked a soft latex for the new top layer.

I've also purchased a 12" mattress cover with a zipper. I really liked having a "mattress" and not a collection of foam pieces so I think the cover will give me that feeling again. Plus I can move it as a whole when I need to move my bed and I can just unzip it and replace a layer when one of those layers gives out. I'm thinking the memory foam may need replacing sooner than later, but I'm going to see how everything feels with the latex topper before I make that decision.

I'm pretty excited. For about $260 I'm updating my mattress without creating a lot of waste. Hopefully it will be like new again.