Platform Boxes & Supports: Lesson 11
Through the years mattress boxes have become less integral to the sleep environment. It used to be that the springs in the box combined with the springs in the mattress, creating a complete support system. Mattress companies found that consumers would replace the mattress and not the box when they were worn out. However, the box springs had worn out at the same rate as the mattress. People put their new mattress on top of the old box, and they would complain that the new mattress felt soft in the same spot as their old mattress (because the softness of the box would telegraph through the new mattress).
Mattress companies responded by making boxes more and more stout; unfortunately, making heavier duty boxes increased the cost to the consumer, and made them increasingly less likely to replace an old box. Eventually boxes became cheaper when mattress companies settled on fabric covered slat systems covered with cardboard built up to look like a box spring. Most boxes no longer have springs. This “innovation” has lead to the rise in popularity of platform beds. Why spend money to buy a potentially squeaky box (cardboard in the top of boxes squeaks when the glue attaching it to the slats fails), when a well designed platform bed can provide equal or better support.