Just wondered if anyone has any advice for a decent bed purchase. Budget around £5,000.
I was looking at Vispring Herald Superb from And So To Bed, but it could be bought from many places, even including Harrods, for the same price. Vispring seem ok, but I don’t have experience of a good bed, so advice on any other makes, etc, welcome.
Its really all about the mattress. Tempur is very highly regarded and their pillows too.
The frame is really a matter of personal taste, gazillions out there to choose from.
A waterbed.
Perfectly supportive, however you lie. They can be had in damped versions (pun not intended!), so minimal movement after you have moved. Many have hard frames with a mattress within, but they also do soft-sided ones that apparently don’t suffer the one minor disadvantage, having to sit on the hard wood surround while getting in and out. The frame doesn’t pass on any movement in the bed to the floor or room below, and likewise can’t move to touch and transmit through the wall. My first one lasted 15 years*, the replacement mattress is now 11 years old - and they are just as supportive throughout their life, not changing with age.
Actually, there is another disadvantage: no other bed is as comfortable, so when we go anywhere it is always a pleasure to come home!
Second most comfortable was a memory foam bed with deep memory foam (not the common inch or two on top), but they don’t remain as supportive for long (we’ve used in adult children’s beds).
*Developed a small leak - small enough for the bed to still usable until a new mattress was delivered. Because eventually this happens, the bed frame has a liner - so all the water would be contained even in the extremely unlikely event of a catastrophic rupture of the mattress (which wouldn’t happen unless you took a knife or similar to bed with you…) We were advised that 15 years is a typical life, certainly borne out with the first, and a good part of the way there with the second.
I am also sleeping already for years on Tempur, that’s for me so far a very satisfying experience. I just changed the pillow to another brand - as the initial hard feeling with cold weather is good for the general bed but not so comfortable for the pillow…
We have a Vispring mattress on a non Vispring bed. It is the most comfortable bed we have ever slept in, by a wide margin.
Tempur mattress and pillows can be recommended, although they don’t absorb body heat so much as others, and can leave you feeling too hot. Even in the coldest winter nights I never feel like I need another layer on top as there is enough warmth reflected back from myself !!
Although for yourself a nice casket filled with some of your homeland soil kept in the crypt would be adequate enough.
We have a Vispring mattress on a slatted base from Feather & Black. It’s really good. I’d avoid Tempur and other foam mattresses as they make you incredibly warm.
We have a Millbrook bed. We found it the most suitable for us when we purchased it and would certainly be at the top of our list when buying again.
We’ve been looking for wardrobes recently and the subject of beds has come up in various retailers there seem to be universal nods of approval at our choice of Millbrook so they may be worth a look.
Go somewhere where you can take your time and lie on the beds to try them and differant matresses. Dreams are very Good for that.
We have had memory foam matresses inthe past but find they loose there memory a bit after a while. I feel you can’t beat a good sprung mattress (higher the spring count the better). Some have a mattress Topper built in which we like.
I don’t know where you live but Bensons and Ponsfords in Sheffield are excellent for beds
Have a pocket sprung mattress with a memory foam top layer, gives the benefit of both. Bought from Brown Thomas in Dublin a number of years ago, on a Italian leather bed frame with slatted base - all good.
Parents have had ViSpring to the last 20 years, and just taken delivery of new 3ft mattresses to make a Superking. Option there is to have different springing for each side. Had a problem with the bases, but discovered that you can get sprung Diva bases then come as 4 parts, so can go up the stair well (that’s the bloody stair well!). They bought from John Lewis.
We have a new King Coil, very soft getting onto, them complete support around you when you sink in. Very nice. So nice, we can’t get daughter out of it 
Lots of good advice here, which I won’t add to.
However, I recall my grandfather saying " buy the best and most comfortable bed & shoes you can. When you’re not in one; you’re in the other" 
Find a good bed retailer and cobbler…happiness !
I have slept on Vispring beds for the past 30 years.
I have NEVER found a more comfortable bed at any price.
Simply, the best.
The Vispring Herald Superb is truly a fantastic choice.
I currently have a mattress “topper” as well, which gives a super soft feel whilst not compromising the already superb comfort of the basic bed.
I gave one of my old beds to my brother & his wife, who also now swear by Vispring.
Just go for it 
For some reason, few stockists supply waterbeds, and few people have tried them - I’m guessing few that applies equally to this forum. The butt of ignorant jokes and with many a fallacy promulgated, the latter not helped by the occasional general purpose bed shop stocking a token waterbed, often not even filled correctly (just like buying hifi, unless you really know what you’re doing a specialist supplier with a good showroom is best.)
I’m sure there will be a specialist supplier within reasonable travelling distsnce, so I urge you to try. No-one I know who has has gone back to any form of sprung or foam mattress…
IB a serious question if I may.
Did you have to asses the floor capacity in your bedroom to accommodate the waterbed?
Domestic rooms are designed for 1.5kN/ m2 (that’s about 30 lbs/ft2 in old money).
I recently replaced my bed. Spent quite a time in John Lewis Oxford Street.
I was tempted by the Tempur mattress due to support and the sterile nature of the foam - bed bugs can’t exist in that environment - or so the sales person advised. I moved on due to a suspicion (which may be misplaced) about getting too hot in summer months.
I also looked at ViSprung and John Lewis branded alternatives. Apologies for not recalling the English manufacturer of the JL mattresses but that’s what I finally opted for. I went for the zipper option with firm one side and medium the other. From my various experiments in store, I concluded that the zipper is only really an option if you go for super king size - on the smaller mattresses it seemed to create a bit of a ridge. Very glad I went for the zipper as I hadn’t appreciated the depth and weight of the mattress - I can’t imagine how I would have turned it between seasons if it was in one piece!! Budget wise, the one I chose may sit slightly above your budget, but there are loads to choose from.
Very pleased with the bed I chose and happy to recommend JL Oxford Street as a good place to see a very wide range of products.
Peter
My ex wife went for a Tempur mattress - it was a very expensive mistake - I hated it, and eventually so did she. As others have mentioned, it was the feeling of being too hot that was the killer for me.
Conversely, years ago when I tried out a water bed - they were all the rage in Arizona at the time - I found it was lovely in the furnace that is the Phoenix summer. However, when I tried one again in cooler climes, and forgot to switch the water heater on, I froze. Just not for me.
To expand on what Proterra said, don’t buy anything that you, and anyone of importance to you, haven’t lain on and approved. Some people sleep better on harder mattresses and some on softer mattresses. It all comes down to individual preference. Kick off your shoes and hop on.
Unless you are sleeping on your money like Scrooge McDuck, 5000 pounds sounds like a hell of a lot to be paying. Don’t be taken in by the idea that more expensive must be better. You’re buying a mattress, not upgrading a Naim system.
It was a question I asked when I first bought one, and they assured me it was OK. (I was unaware of, and there was no mention of, technical floor loadings.) I seem to recall a claim that there were no known instances of floor failure due to a waterbed.
However, your question prompts me to do the maths. Waterbed mattresses typically are 15-20 cm thick. that is a mass of up to 150-200 kg/m2, or ~1.5-2kN/m2. The base designs have a surround and additional cross pieces to make an even spread of load (in the context of floor support), so that equates roughly to the floor loading. There is also the weight of the frame, and occupants, spread over the whole area of the bed support, adding maybe 0.7-1 N/m2. That gives a total load of 2.2 - 3N/m2, so up to double the rating you quote.
Curious, I’ve had a quick look at UK building regs, and current Approved Document A mentions an imposed load of 2kN/m2 (distributed load). Without a copy of the relevant BSs I can’t check further detail as to minimum requirements, or what the position is regarding loads not evenly distributed (much of the remainder of a bedroom would have considerably lighter loading, making the average distributed load much lower).
We’ve had our waterbed in three different rooms, the first a1920s house with an 11’ joist span, the second a 1980s house with a 14’ joust span, and presently in a 1970s house with 13’ joist span. In the first two the floor joists ran lengthwise in relation the the bed, and current room at right angles. In all cases the head of the bed tight to the wall. In none of the houses has there been any evident bowing or cracking of the ceiling beneath, which in the first hose was laths and plaster, the others skimmed plasterboard.
For anyone contemplating, make of this what you will!
