Cushion/matress underlay foam

erbster

erbster

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Hello all,

Whilst I was at the London Boat show, I spoke to a nice lady on a stand selling some sort of very firm, thin, open-cell sponge. The idea was to cut it to size and put under mattresses and seat cushions to allow air flow and reduce (eliminate?) dampness.

Last season, on our small boat, damp under the cushions was a bit of a problem on our longer trips, so on the face of it, the foam seemed like a good idea. Wasn't sure of dimensions, so didn't buy any.

My questions of anyone with any experience of this stuff:
1) Does it work?
2) What's it called and who sells it? I could not find the leaflet I got at the show

Thanks
Charles
 
I've made up a lot of curved wooden bed slats to fit under my matresses. I attached them to fore and aft strips of wood - but loosely so I can fold them up into a parallogram to make them easy to shift. They give plenty of ventilation and make the beds marginally more comfortable.

But what does anybody know from actual experience about the Foli Bed Spring system? Does it work? Does it last?
 
erbster said:
Hello all,

Whilst I was at the London Boat show, I spoke to a nice lady on a stand selling some sort of very firm, thin, open-cell sponge. The idea was to cut it to size and put under mattresses and seat cushions to allow air flow and reduce (eliminate?) dampness.

Last season, on our small boat, damp under the cushions was a bit of a problem on our longer trips, so on the face of it, the foam seemed like a good idea. Wasn't sure of dimensions, so didn't buy any.

My questions of anyone with any experience of this stuff:
1) Does it work?
2) What's it called and who sells it? I could not find the leaflet I got at the show

Thanks
Charles
Click to expand...

One I know of is Vent Air Mat.

Hawke House ltd sell it but their new website is still under development http://www.hawkehouse.co.uk/upholstery-curtain/foam/vent-air-mat.html


Toomer and Hayter aslo sell something similar http://www.toomerandhayter.co.uk/products/?cat=20
 
I've used dry mat and haven't been over impressed.

Dogwatch...not seen him here for a while, IIRC installed the Froli system and waxed lyrical about it, and he has bad back problems.
 
There is a sort of coir material which was used under car seats. You can still buy it at woollies trim. We cut loads of holes in our bed bases then used the coir on top. The coir allowed air to flow from the mattress through the coir then through the holes.
Much cheaper than boaty products.
 
I think a lot depends on the design of the bed. Dri-mat can work well, but it does need somewhere for the humidity to escape. On a lot of boats, the matresses are fully enclosed between the cabin walls on two or three sides and a wooden rail that runs along the remaining sides. The Dri-mat (or other similar solution) will hold the matress up away from the bed base, but there is nowhere for the humidity to escape, so it just stays there and festers. On our previous boat (Jeanneau SO33i), there was a section of a couple of feet on one side of the matress in the aft cabin that was not enclosed by either wall or rail - we found that the Dri-mat worked very well. On our current boat (Beneteau), the matresses are completely enclosed and we do get some build-up of moisture. We overcome this by lifting one corner of each matress each morning and slipping a pillow under it - that raises it clear of the fiddle rail and permits some airflow from outside - stays dry and fresh now.
 
maby said:
I think a lot depends on the design of the bed. Dri-mat can work well, but it does need somewhere for the humidity to escape. On a lot of boats, the matresses are fully enclosed between the cabin walls on two or three sides and a wooden rail that runs along the remaining sides. The Dri-mat (or other similar solution) will hold the matress up away from the bed base, but there is nowhere for the humidity to escape, so it just stays there and festers. On our previous boat (Jeanneau SO33i), there was a section of a couple of feet on one side of the matress in the aft cabin that was not enclosed by either wall or rail - we found that the Dri-mat worked very well. On our current boat (Beneteau), the matresses are completely enclosed and we do get some build-up of moisture. We overcome this by lifting one corner of each matress each morning and slipping a pillow under it - that raises it clear of the fiddle rail and permits some airflow from outside - stays dry and fresh now.
Click to expand...

Do what HR do. Under berth boards unvarished raw ply, with 25mm dia holes at abot 150mm c/c gives plenty of under berth venting.
 
mick said:
I use Dry-Mat from www.shipshapebedding.co.uk. Works well.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the replies folks.
Yes, it was dry-mat I saw.
Not sure whether it will help on our little boat. My proto-teenager daughter spent many hours laying on her berth and that was considerably damp. I do try to bring the cushions (we don't have any mattresses) up to air, but that is not always easy in our climate.

Not sure whether dry-mat will help, as I'm not sure if the design of our boat will allow enough air circulation.
 
I'm considering the dry-mat but I'm conscious of the less than wholehearted recommendations it has received on this forum - and alarmed by the price (6 berths to do)

What do we think about Turf Reinforcement Matting:

http://tinyurl.com/qhge96k

Is it likely to be as effective?

You can get 10-12mm stuff on a roll.
 
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Look............the moisture comes from you and into the mattress, if it has nowhere to go the mattress will become wet. If you put a layer of dry-mat stuff between the mattress and the board base then the moisture still has to 'escape'. If you then cut some holes in the boards ( or replace with slats) then the moisture has somewhere to go and you have half a chance of a 'dryish' mattress our use of coir helped by allowing the moisture to get to the holes.

Apologies............just checked Woolies trim and cant see that coir stuff. It was like loose and very open rubberised horsehair, like those very open dish scourers but stiffer, it was cheap and did the trick, someone of my vintage may remember it ( and the proper name
 
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