What Is A Bed Frame

Big Mattress, Little Room

December 10, 2007
In the Bedroom

When it comes to moving no one wants to do it but the job has to be done. Well, you finally rounded up enough of the biggest strongest help you could find to get the job completed and bribed them with a case of brewskies and your everlasting friendship. These great friends and family members have gone the extra mile to move every single one of your possessions from your old house to your new one. Unexpectedly during the process of trying to get the mattress and boxspring upstairs, everyone finds out to their surprise that the mattress does not fit. That’s right big items don’t fit in small places and a round peg won’t go into a square hole.

The problem of a mattress not fitting where you want it to go is quite common in old houses that have converted the attic into a second floor. This problem also arises with homes that do not have outside access through a basement stairwell or walk-out basement. These houses often have an inside staircase with a dead-end at the bottom or a built-in handrail that cannot be easily removed. Of course, even brand-new houses are not exempt from furniture that won’t fit. You know it if you live in one poorly designed using tight narrow stairways and small landings and impossible sharp turns. In a number of these stairways, a person would be lucky to get twin or full-size mattresses and box springs up much less king or queen. It’s unfortunate but many builders today just don’t seem to keep this in mind when laying out the house floor plan.

So what is a person to do? First, before you decide to fold your mattress in half or 90 degrees you better be prepared to void your warranty. There is a border rod that shapes the mattress that shouldn’t flex more than 20 degrees.

Mattresses can be built more flexibly for just such bends an example would be adjustable mattresses. Other types of mattresses that can bend and flex even fold in half without damage are foam mattresses. Great examples of this are memory foam mattresses like Isotonic and Tempur Pedic sometimes called NASA foam. Latex or foam rubber mattresses are extremely flexible as well. Last but not least bed kits, soft side waterbeds, and airbeds like The Smart Bed. These all are disassembled for an easy upstairs or downstairs carry.

Ok, we talked about the flexible stuff, but how do you intend on shoving that rigid box spring through that tight spot? Don’t you simply contact your local mattress retailer to get expert advice about your mattress’s flexibility? They will also explain to you the option of a split box spring or foundation. Manufacturers have essentially redesigned and engineered a one-piece box spring unit by cutting it in half making it more transportable up those impossible stairs and through those tight hairpin turns. All of the beds and flexible mattresses mentioned above should have available a special mattress base that will not only fit where you need it to go but will support your back and your mattress just the way you would expect.