How to Fix a Bowed Mattress
When your mattress bows downward in the middle, you are guaranteed a poor night’s sleep. If you share your bed with a partner, you will roll into each other all night long. If you sleep alone, you’ll be trapped in the lowered center of your bed, unable to roll out to a more comfortable position. You will wake up in the morning feeling stiff and sore. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Adjust the Bed
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1
Flip your mattress over, so you can lie down on what used to be the underside. Sleeping in the same area night after night breaks down the supportive structure there. Test it to see whether the new side of the mattress bows or not. Rotate the mattress 180 degrees to see if switching it around fixes the issue.
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2
Pull the mattress off the foundation. Check the box spring of a king or queen mattress and see if the two halves have separated, creating a gap. Push them tightly together so there is no space between them.
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3
Examine the slats of the bed frame, if those are what directly support your mattress. Replace bowed or missing slats. Rearrange slats in good condition so they are evenly spaced to provide consistent support to the entire mattress. Consider replacing the slats with a box spring or sheet of plywood to provide more even support.
Raise the Center
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4
Slide one 2-by-4 underneath the center of your mattress, where it bows down to its lowest point. Add another board, then another until the middle of the mattress no longer sags.
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1
Tips & Warnings
If you can’t fix the bow in your mattress even by adding boards directly beneath it, the support in the center of your mattress has completely broken down. It is time to replace your mattress with a new one. When purchasing it, get a new box spring. It will be designed to provide the most consistent support to the underside of the mattress.
References
- Don't Throw It Out: Recycle, Renew and Reuse to Make Things Last; Lori Baird
- Home comforts: the Art and Science of Keeping House; Cheryl Mendelson
