Hercules4 Inch Low Profile Foundation Mattress Box Spring Replacement, California King

I have a king sized bed so "picking up" a foundation locally wasn't an option. A split foundation might have fit on our RAV4's roof rack but none of the 4 mattress shops we visited had any low profile foundations in stock and we would have ended waiting over a week for them to order and deliver them. Not to mention the delivery charges which ran from $45 to $95. This was our best option and I'm very happy with the purchase.Given some of the poor reviews about the quality of the wood used, I ordered this item with the expectation that the quality would acceptable rather than exceptional--I was pleasantly surprised. The unit is made of 1 X 3 and 1 X 4 strapping and 2 X 3 blocks. Anyone who's shopped Home Depot or Lowes for strapping knows how difficult it is to find pieces that are free of bark, splits, bows and twists. The pieces used in this item were of very good quality and typical of what I would have selected if I were building something like this from scratch.It took me less than 30 minutes to put together using a cordless drill. Here are some tips that you might find helpful when assembling one of these.1. Layout all of the pieces on the floor in their proper position. Pay attention the head and foot ends which are marked "This side up" on one side.2. The ends, sides, and center supports are bolted together using carriage bolts and flange nuts. Two extra nuts and bolts are included in the hardware kit. Do yourself a favor and run the nuts down each carriage bolt a couple of inches. It'll only take a couple of minutes and will help you identify if any of the threads are fouled before you start assembling the foundation. I had one bolt with damaged threads approx. 1" from the end which would have made it impossible to tighten properly and very difficult to remove if I found the problem during assembly.3. The kit ships with an open end wrench (1/2" IIRC) which is a nice touch. If you have a ratchet and 1/2" socket do yourself a favor and pull it out of your toolbox. I you don't have one borrow one from your neighbor--it'll make quick work of tightening down the 16 sets of nuts and bolts. Don't over tighten the nuts--if you hear cracking and popping sounds you're probably over tightening4. When the ends, sides, and center supports are assembled, place the slats on the top of the foundation. , You'll undoubtedly have some slats that have bows in them. Place them with the bowed side up. You'll probably also find some slats with some bark and minor splits. Place these nearest to the head and foot of the foundation where the amount of weight they support is likely to be less than if there were located in the middle of the foundation.5. If you have a countersink, lightly countersink the predrilled holes in the slats. This will help prevent the slats from splitting when you screw them to the foundation frame.6. Fasten the slats to one side of the foundation making sure you don't drive the screws too deep. The heads of the screws should be flush with or slightly below the tops of the slats. If you over drive the screws you're very likely to split the ends of the slats.7. With one end of the slats screwed down, continue on to the next row of screws; the center support closest to the ends you just fastened. I stepped on each slat as I screwed it down to ensure the slat was tight to the support it was being fastened to.8. Install the cover, place in your bedframe and enjoy..A lot of the negative reviews focus on the wood having bark, knots, splits, etc., I'm betting that if you took the fancy cover off of that $300 name brand foundation you'd find similar materials were used in its construction.Speaking of the cover; if there's one aspect of this unit that could have been better it's the cover. The cover slips over the top and is tightened with a drawstring. The overlap on the bottom is only a couple of inches, which while not great, won't be visible when the foundation is on the bed frame. The problem is that it's just plain ugly. Ours was a medium brown that's unlikely to match ANY mattress. Personally, I would have preferred a light gray or the ivory color shown in the product pictures. But it's not visible on our bed which has high side rails so I didn't dock any stars.For the money and convenience I'm very happy with the product.

While I question the words INSTANT in product description assembly, very solid and fit my king bed frame perfectly. Happy I purchased but be prepared with a drill despite saying no tools needed.

Sturdy, doesn't squeeze. I didn't use the cover so I can't comment on it but the boards are smooth enough not to leave splinters in the mattress. It fits well. Was easy to put together.

A lot of the pieces are held together with cheap staples. No glue, no screws. The wood is pine. When I opened the box, one of the pieces had already separated during shipping. If you are willing to do a little work, you can add some screws to hold things together more tightly. The separation between planks is more than the recommended 3 inches so you'll also have to add more planks. If you do this, the foundation is pretty good. Should it have been made better to begin with? Absolutely. But it isn't that hard to get a proper foundation using what is provided and it doesn't cost too much either, so I'd give it 3.5 stars. I gave it 4 out of generosity.

It is designed well, was pretty easy to put together, and the materials are sufficiently robust. The platform that I had cracked after 2 days with my new mattress (mattress = 262lbs + me = 200 lbs) because it was built with crappy wood. This is much better quality and better engineering. It should handle the weight just fine.

The overall product was satisfactory (the actual function of the frame). The quality of construction was not. One of the side rails was incorrectly made which resulted in it splitting in half during shipping - it wasn't glued well and one of the pieces was nailed in place incorrectly. I had to take two rail pieces apart, re-glue them and then nail them back in place. The other rail was also incorrectly installed, but I was able to loosen the nails (it wasn't glued) glue it and reposition it correctly to allow the slats to sit flush. This in addition to reglueing and nailing the "A" piece that came apart.