A good bed base is a non-negotiable for anyone who desires to experience great comfort and adequate support when sleeping. It is also an extreme necessity in guaranteeing proper ventilation to your mattress, therefore lengthening the life of your mattress.
Counter pressure
A good bed base exerts the right amount of counter pressure to your weight on the mattress. Without a bed base, your mattress will be like a car without wheels. You therefore need both a good bed base and a good mattress.
Health challenges
A good bed base serves to avoid many health problems that are known to arise out of use of an inferior bed base and bad mattress such as muscle aches and body pains. It guarantees you adequate and quality sleep whenever you hit your bed.
Height
A good bed base gives height to your bed, and the height in turn gives the bed an elegant and appealing look. A mattress placed on the bedroom floor is unsightly even when dressed with beautiful beddings.
Aesthetics
A good bed base allows you great ease in getting on and off your bed. There is great discomfort in trying to lie down on a floor to sleep besides the fact that the closer a person is to the bare floor, the more prone they are to come into contact with allergens and to inhale dust arising from the floor.
Again, any accidental spills of liquids such as water can cause great mess to the beddings and mattress.
Quality
A good bed base is one of high quality. It guarantees that your mattress will last much longer. A low-quality bed base negatively impacts on the performance of the mattress on it.
What is a bed foundation?
A bed foundation is a solid support base for a mattress and is made of wood or steel. It serves to raise your mattress above the ground. A bed foundation is also known as a bed base or a mattress foundation because it is on this foundation that a mattress is placed.
What is a bed flat foundation?
A bed flat foundation is a solid bed base that has no gaps, holes or slats in it. It is fitted with clothing material that covers it completely and is thick by design.
The other name for a bed flat foundation is a box spring. This bed base comes in a variety of sizes, allowing you to vary or change the height of your mattress.
Types of bed bases
Slatted bed base
The slatted bed base is made of elastic slats. The slats are a series of flat wooden planks or bars that are connected to each other and which lie horizontally across the width of the bed-frame.
They provide support to the mattress and come in two types – solid slats and sprung slats. This bed base is suitable for foam mattresses as well as pocket-spring mattresses. You can also use an auping mattress on it.
Auping mesh bed base
The auping mesh bed base is made of mesh and consists of braided steel. It is the preferred alternative to a slatted bed base because it has an 80% open space. This ensures that it allows for adequate ventilation, far better than a slatted bed base does.
It is rated the best in performance when it comes to air circulation. It is also more durable than a slatted bed base.
The stretched mesh is placed diagonally, providing great support on every square centimetre. It is advisable to use an auping mattress together with the auping mesh bed base for optimal support.
It is also worth noting that some manufacturers of this bed base will not accept any liability for a customer’s dissatisfaction with their bed if the bed base was not used together with the recommended mattress.
Box spring bed base
The box spring base is a mattress support that is designed to be of the same size as your bed. It consists of a wooden frame fitted with metal springs.
The springs are located inside the wooden frame and the frame is then wrapped in fitting fabric. It sits directly on the bed and the mattress is then placed on it. The bed too comes fitted with the same fabric and in matching fabric colour.
A high-quality box spring bed base gives great comfort to the user and has great resilience and strength. The downside to it is that the outside doesn’t reveal what is inside, making it impossible to ascertain the quality of springs and other materials used in its manufacture.
Vlavro bed base
A vlavro bed base is made of a thin board that comes with holes designed to allow ample air circulation. However, despite this, it hardly allows for proper ventilation due to the thinness of the board and the few holes in it.
This causes it to get extremely warm and uncomfortable especially during hot weather such as is experienced in hot climatic regions of the world.
The upside to this bed base is that it provides adequate and even counter-pressure to the user as the support it provides is evenly spread.
Flex bed base
The flex bed base is a heavy-duty bed base made with Advantech material that does not break or squeak. The material also never warps. This bed base is operated using motor technology.
It comes with wired or wireless controls that allow for perfect adjustment of sleeping position especially for the upper torso and the feet. Some modern flex bed bases are controlled using a smart phone device.
The ability to raise the head of your snoring partner is a plus for this bed base as it helps to alleviate snoring without waking up your partner.
What type of foundation is best for a mattress?
The best foundation for a mattress is the type of foundation that adequately raises and supports your mattress. Without proper support, your mattress will be prone to sagging even when new, leading to body pains and aches.
A good foundation must therefore be one which does not slide, sag or sink and one which provides you with optimum support when you sleep at night.
This gives longevity to your mattress. The type of mattress foundation you need also depends on the kind of mattress you have.
How long does a bed base last?
The lifespan of a bed base is determined by several factors such as type of bed base, the care given to the bed base, usage of the bed base, overall weight of the user or users and the number of users of the bed base.
Most bed bases have a lifespan of 7 to 10 years. However, one cannot talk of the longevity of a bed base without factoring in the type of mattress used on it since both are used together.
- Quality of the bed foundation
Bed bases are of different qualities depending on material used in their manufacture. For instance, a high-quality box spring base can last as long as 10 years, while a bad quality box spring base can last for just about 5 years.
Hardwoods such as mahogany, camphor and oak as well as softwoods such as pine are known to produce high quality bed bases and bed frames which are capable of lasting for many years.
- Type of bed base
The type of bed frame and base one has matters a lot and also has a bearing on its longevity or durability. All bed bases are made of different materials such as wood and steel. Some are rigid while others such as the flex bed base are flexible.
Different types of bed bases vary in terms of their longevity. Always make inquiries with a manufacturer before making a choice on the bed base to settle for.
- How you take care of your bed frame
Any bed base requires care irrespective of its type or quality. The kind of care given to a bed base also determines how long it will last. Any bed base experiencing poor care will have a short lifespan.
A bed base made of wood or steel must be kept free of contact with water to avoid rust in case of a metal bed base and decay in the case of a wooden bed base. A bed base must also be handled well.
Rough or careless movement of a bed base can cause damage to it in the long term.
- How the bed is used
Usage matters when considering the longevity of a bed base. If the bed base is used for any other purpose other than the support of the mattress and weight of the user, such as placing heavy items directly on it or on the mattress above it, it will not last long before the need to replace it arises.
The frequency of use also impacts the longevity of the bed base.
- Weight and number of users
The lifespan of a bed base is also determined by the body weight of the user/s and the number of people using the bed. The greater the weight of the users and the higher their numbers the lesser the time it will serve your needs.
