Strange question but; I need to support my bunk matresses better as my older ds is heavier than I thought. What would you suggest -- stronger slats, or plywood?
can you put the plywood ontop of the slats that are allready there...... I know when we had the boys in a metal bunkbed they kept falling out because ......... well who knows, jumping or bouncing....... or just boys..........
the slats that came with it are the thinner ones, so I suppose I could add on top of them with the plywood. This is the kind of bunk that has the bigger space on the bottom almost like a loft style space but its the bed. imported from Canada Lol
our metal one litterally was fractured through at teh joints. We did not find this out untill I kept feeling uneasy about the noise my heavier son was making when he rolled over in the night. So we took the screws out, or tried to and both beds frames litterallly dropped on us! SCAreY! I found this super great deal less than a hundred for a bunk bed that is up to 700 online. it had a few missing parts and we got those at Home depot. It does have a crack spot in it on the top bunk but I put my own weight on it, way moer than ds by a hundred lbs lol and it is solid. I plan to use some wood glue and or putty to fill in that just for good measure, but older ds said the bed is broken, the only think I can think is his weight casued a slap to slip, since we did not screw those in since there were no screws to do so with .... I figured I could replace the lower ones, for not so much so thats what I shall do,
We used to have 5 sets of bunk beds. Freddy worried that the top bunk would fall on the child in the bottom bunk so he drilled holes through the side rails (we had some wooden and some metal rails). Then he screwed long screws into the slats. He replaced the thin slats with stronger ones that I think were 2x4s. It was a lot of work with that many but it was safer and we never had one fall after that. We did before he worked on them but nobody got hurt.
We had an older bunk bed that we took apart when the new one arrived, and used the old slats to add extra support...
My dad made our bunk beds and used slats instead of one large piece of plywood. It was stronger because the weight was distributed to each slate rather than one piece of plywood supporting all the weight.
It would have to be really thick plywood, or over time it will crack and break (from experience). We have 1x2's supporting our kids beds and they support me great and I'm 250lbs. I suggest slats.
Our problem with just slats was when the kids wiggled around or bounced the slats would work loose. They could start to turn sideways and fall. Can you tell we had some rowdy kiddos?!
okay got it-- slats better than plywood-- 1x2s is what I need and I will be sure to secure them so that they stay in.Great! that sounds like what I need you three gave me the combination!
My dad made our bunk beds so he carved the slates to slide into the bunk bed so there was never sliding. Securing them would also work fine.
I've never had bunks, but I've seen some that come with a "bunkie board" rather than slats, which is a sort of thick plywood piece. It would depend, I guess, on the thickness of the plywood (not thinner than half-inch, and 3/4 even better), and the size of the slats. I would think I would prefer 1x4 boards instead of 1x2, and screw them in.
At our last house we bought a bunk bed for our boys. They were 18 months and 2.5 at the time we bought them, so obviously we used them as two stand alone twin beds. We gave the top bunk with the built in rails to my youngest. The plan was to eventually turn them back into bunk beds, but we had an unexpected transfer and didn't have room for them on the moving truck. The biggest problem I had with the slats is that the matress (a rather flimsy one) kept sinking down through the slats. It wouldn't fall, but it wasn't comfy. We ended up keeping the slats and cutting a piece of plywood and positioning it on top of the slats.
