What Do I Do About Moldy Latex Mattress?

February 18, 2014 by Debra Lynn Dadd

Question from Shannon 

Hi there,
First, your site and your self are really amazing. It has helped my husband and I so much in our toxic free journey.

THANK YOU!

I have a question that I cannot seem to find an answer to regarding our 100% all natural latex mattress.

Ok, we bought a 100% all natural dunlop 3 layer mattress with organic cotton/wool cover from sleepingorganics.com and placed it on our wood floor in our son's room. 3 1/2 months later when moving the mattress, we noticed it was damp underneath and had a bad musty type smell. The cover also had mold on the bottom.

We left the rental and bagged the mattress layers and dumped the cover. Which brings us to mattress #2.

We purchased the same mattress but this time hand built a solid wood slated frame that was off the ground but still low. We put it in our son's new room at our new residence which has carpet (I know, one toxin at a time!)

We have barely had this new mattress for a month and it kinda smells. Smells like the moldy one did. It is not damp, not on the ground, the house is very well insulated and dry. I flipped the mattress to air out but cannot find any resource on this issue.

Could it just be what latex and wood smell like? Should I call the company to see if they sold us a returned latex layer that might have mold? I have no clue what this is. Oh and it does not smell like latex. In fact the smell of latex doesn't bother me and they did smell like natural latex at first but now it is like the mattress has gone bad.

Any light you can shed on this situation would be most appreciated!!!

Debra's Answer

As I was reading your question my first thought was to say not to put it directly on the floor. Latex needs air circulation and so do the other natural fibers. Natural latex is mold resistant but it can get mold in a damp environment without air circulation.

Then when you put it on a slat frame I thought, oh, so it's just the smell of latex, but then you said you know what latex smells like and it's not a latex smell.

You may also want to put a wool topper on it to absorb moisture.

If you do find mold in your mattress call the company to see what their warranty allows.