Dismantling the Queen

In preparation for refinishing the floors in the house I had to move everything out of the main level. Many items went in the basement but I didn't want to put the beds down there. I was faced with hauling the queen sized mattress and box spring up the stairs. Up the narrow and steep stairs with a turn at the top.


Option 1- Don't even try- it will not fit

Option 2- Try it!!
- Well I did and it didn't fit, not even the mattress.

I bought a roll of cling wrap thinking I could fold the mattress in half and wrap it in cling wrap.


I tried it and there is no way the cling wrap would hold together a folded mattress. Maybe if I went around it about a hundred times.

So then I remembered the straps I used to hold the canoe and other objects on the top of the car.

These worked great. I folded the mattress, sat on it and wrapped the straps around it and ratcheted it tight. It also provided some good hand-holds for carrying the mattress (I was working alone here).

So I carried that giant mattress taco up the stairs. The interior wire framework got bent but it straightened out again after a little reverse folding and just laying the mattress flat for a time. Sleeping on it helped and I slept on the mattress on the floor for a couple of nights.

Now the box spring. No folding this in half.... There are split queen box springs available but I did not want to spend the money. There are tutorials on line about how to cut a box spring in half and piece it back together and I was willing to try that. I flipped the box spring over, took off the fabric backing to see what I had to work with.

3,552 staples removed and I found the box spring was made up of a grid of wood boards and wire supports- no surprise there. Then by examining the board structure and the heavy wire mesh below, I came up with a plan of deconstruction that would allow me the ability to reconstruct.


Rather than sawing anything in half, I removed the boards running the length of the box spring, 5 boards in total, quite easy to remove.

I removed the long boards because I could see that this would allow the wire mesh to be folded in a manner that would not require too much force or deform the box spring in any permanent way. I just looked and the wire mesh and figured out which way it would be easiest to fold.


So again I was able to fold it in half and secure it with the ratchet tie down straps and carry it up the stairs. I laid it flat again, put the long boards back on with wood screws (making it more secure that the nails) and then stapled all the material back in place like it was in the beginning.

Easy-Peasy