Can You Put A Mattress On The Floor?Can I put a mattress directly onto the floor without issue? July 19, 2009 SubscribeA question that is posed of me and our staff quite often is, "Can I just put my mattress on the floor?" Of course you can put your mattress on the floor, its your mattress! The Alexander Signature Series Foam Mattress However, the answer really isn't that simple. While the floor can make sense for some, depending on the type of mattress, the type of flooring, the environment in your bedroom and the part of the country you live, there can be many reasons why it is not the best place to put your mattress. Putting your mattress on the floor can make for an inexpensive solution as to what to place your mattress on, but it can be a really bad idea depending on the factors above. Let's look at those factors: If you have a foam mattress, putting it on the floor can lead to mold beneath the mattress, and that can ultimately cause severe health issues.
Even coil mattresses can provide mold with a great place to grow. Basically, mattresses need to breathe, or, air out. We all sweat in our sleep, some more than others. That moisture needs to go somewhere, and gravity pulls it to the bottom of your mattress. When your mattress is on the floor, that moisture is retained, and combined with a lack of light, provides the perfect breeding ground for mold. A spring mattress with the springs encased in foam is another example of a type of mattress that needs to be on a surface that is breathable. A regular spring mattress can allow airflow through the fabric sides. If you live near the water or a very humid environment, placing the mattress on the floor could allow for mold growth. If you have old hardwood floors, mold spores can be dormant in the flooring and lead to mold growth.A low bed surface lends itself to a simpler, less cluttered room design. You don't have to follow any rules in the bedroom except your own, so it's as OK to leave your box spring and mattress on the floor as it is to mount your bedding into a conventional bed frame.
Before you decide which choice best suits your preferences, consider the advantages of each. Argument for Bed Frames Bed frames raise your box spring and mattress away from the floor, which better isolates your sleeping surface from cold drafts in the winter. That elevation also can protect your bedding from moisture, mold, bedbugs and other vermin. The empty space it creates under your box spring can serve as storage space for out-of-season bed coverings or slippers. But most importantly, the bed frame and its support slats add another layer of resiliency to the bed. Argument for Flooring It A conventional bed frame with a pillow-top mattress set may force you to climb 39 inches off the ground at nap time. By comparison, a standard box spring and mattress elevates the mattress a mere 16 to 18 inches off the floor -- a little beneath the height of a chair seat. Homeowners who enjoy visits from children or pets at night may find that height more accessible. The lower sleeping surface stays cooler during the summer months, which may allow you to save on your air conditioning bill.
Kids on the Floor Devotees of attachment parenting sleep with their infants, which means the parents and baby should share a sleeping space close to the floor for the first months of a child's life. After a few months, the baby transitions to a regular mattress in the parent's bedroom -- ideally, at the same floor height as Mom and Dad. As a similar school of thought, the Montessori method recommends allowing children to sleep as close to the floor as possible to encourage safe freedom of movement. Designing a Lower Bedroom Minimalist decorating schemes embrace the notion of designing a bedroom around a bed that's close to the floor. Other furnishings such as nightstands and dressers should match that low profile with a low horizontal shape, and long vertical wall hangings help emphasize the room's spacious visual contours. In keeping with a minimalist theme, avoid cluttering the room with excess furnishings -- which means leaving the box spring and mattress on the floor is a good fit for young people who are just starting out.
References City of Portland Health & Human Services Department: Bed Bugs: Guidelines for Best Practices in Prevention and TreatmentNest Bedding: Can I Put My Mattress on the Floor?STL Beds: What Is the Typical Bed Height?The Baby Sleep Site: Are Montessori Floor Beds Bad for Your Baby? Photo Credits Digital Vision./Photodisc/Getty Images Suggest a Correction but apparently all it takes to "say no to traditional beds" is to put your "mattress on floor in bedroom corner" ...weak...sauce. The Mattress Matters Not just any springy platform will do. Daehee Park, co-founder of Tuft & Needle, suggests to check your manufacturing tag before laying it down. "Most mattress brands will not honor product warranties if you don't use a specific setup, so take a look at the fine print." It's also key to know if you have a foam versus a spring product. The two are, surprisingly, not always easy to tell apart. Joe Alexander, CEO at Nest Bedding, says a foam bed directly on the ground is denser, and a spring model can allow for more air flow.
If you're a heavy sweater (sorry, but we had to go there), you should reconsider putting it down altogether. "Sweat from overheating, which is a natural occurrence during the course of a night's sleep, needs to evaporate. The mattress on the floor will prevent that from fully occurring," Alexander says.Surface Dictates ComfortLindsay Kaplan, VP of communications at Casper, says you may find your bed feels mushier on a shaggy carpet, compared to placing it on a sturdy, hardwood floor. A firm structure will help it seem more stable and secure. "All mattresses benefit from direct support, but that may be the floor, a foundation, a platform bed, or wood slats," she says. However, it's a myth that all mattresses need a box spring. If you do place yours on carpet, Park says synthetic materials tend to be better because they don't absorb and hold moisture, which can lead to mildew or mold if you're not careful: "Make sure it's a synthetic carpeting rather than natural material like wool, and a hardwood rather than a composite wood."