Weekend Project – Bed Repair

So, waking on up Sunday, I had a house with no AC.  That wasn’t the only problem.  My mattress has been developing a pit.  I was sorely disappointed in this, because I had a new Purple mattress and surely, this modern marvel could not have developed a pit in six months.  Some part of me thought maybe I had broken a slat or two in the bed frame.  I have heard it cracking, so it seemed likely.

I pulled the 140 lb mattress off and was amazed at the damage underneath.

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After a brief consideration, I realized how this happened.  While the quality of the support beams for the slats is clearly inferior, the real damage happened when the GF and I moved the bed closer to the wall.  The vertical support legs were dragged on the carpet (weighted down with 140 lbs of mattress.) and were thus bent at a sharp angle.  Getting on the bed after that just finished the job and they collapsed sideways.

So, then, upgrade time!  The quality of the bed frame has been 2nd-rate at best.  I recall the day after the frame was installed, I upgraded the screws on the front wood strip because they barely got into the wood of the frame.  I did some shopping for mattress foundations.  I could get one for under $200.  But I didn’t like the idea of having this box on the floor, preventing anything from being put under the bed.  Other foundations were all too tall, with each bragging how much higher they would hold the mattress.  I didn’t need 14 inches.  I needed something like 8.

The more DIY plan would be to replace the support beams.  I could do that, I think.  I went to Lowes and picked up two 2×8 premium pine boards for $15.  The quality difference is substantial.

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After cutting them to length and mounting the end brackets and midway supports, I did a test fit of the slats.

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There wasn’t really any way around it.  I had to drill all the holes for the plastic mounting brackets.  I lined up the old support beam with the new one and marked lines for each hole.  Because I just wanted to drill part way into the support and not all the way through, I learned a trick to use a spacer block to keep your drill bit at a consistent depth.  You can see the tip of the bit coming out the bottom of the block.  You can also see all the lines I need to drill holes in.

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Although tedious, it worked as well as I could have hoped.  I mounted the middle slats with the brackets in all the drilled holes, then finished up with the outer slats.  The testing of the bed afterwards was much needed and the mattress had no sag at all.  And spending $15 instead of $200?  Excellent.  I’m going to need that money for the AC repair.

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