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Question: I am looking for the long wooden strip of wood that fastens to the inside of the fancy finished wood bed railing that connects the head and footboard. Do you have or sell this? If not, can you tell me how to fix it?
Thanks, Lillian
Answer: This wooden strip is in essence a shelf. This mantel piece’s primary purpose is resting place and designed to support various types of center support systems which then, in turn, support your box spring and finally your mattress.
When too much weight is applied and there is no or insufficient middle support, many bad things can happen. The screws in the ledge can loosen or pull out, they can crack and even break. If this crucial support fails, the boxspring and mattress can literally fall onto the floor.
In our STL Beds market located near St. Louis MO, we have not seen any local mattress stores, furniture stores, or hardware stores that carry these replacement pieces as an offering to consumers. What we mean by that is that it seems you cannot just go out and buy and then fasten such an item to your current rails. However, this does bring up several possible solutions that we have listed below and explain in detail.
If you do not want to mess around with fixing them yourself or hiring someone else to fix them, replacing the rails maybe your best solution. This process is simple and requires only a couple of quick things to check. Many stores like STL Beds offer replacement steel frames like our F71002 that fits King and Queen or our F71001 which fits Twin and Full sizes beds. Both are straightforward and will get the job done.
NOTE: You may have to remove the entire length of the wood or just a small portion. This can be done by only cutting out the bad section. Different manufacturers build them differently so determine if it is sectioned or 1 solid long piece. Measure the length, thickness, and width of the wooden lip.
You will then need to purchase preferably inexpensive hardwood like poplar or cut down from scrap wood you already have lying around. Cut to fit the replacement section or the entire length of the strip.
Next using woodworking glue clamp the new strip into place. Once dry screw your lip into place making sure that the screws are long enough to secure the lip, but not so long as to damage the finished side of your side rails.
In most cases, the answer is no.
We highly recommend replacing the wood slats with steel slats. Steel slats that work best are those made in 1 ¼ or 1 ½ angle iron made from recycled railroad steel. This type of steel is high carbon and is very hard to cut, bend, or drill through making it the perfect type of steel for this kind of application.
No more bowing, warping, cracking, splitting, or breaking. Steel center support slats rest on your wooden lip like wooden bed slats and fasten securely with wood screws. A minimum of one crossbar at the head, foot, and middle is recommended with at least 1 center support leg on each one. NOTE: You must know the measurement from the floor to the top of the wooden lip before purchasing to assure the proper height of your new center support system.
Finally, consider purchasing a brand-new set of wooden side rails. You can contact the retailer that sold you the bed or if they are no longer in business or carrying the brand bed you have to contact the manufacturer that built it. Unfortunately, our experience is that models change often.
This makes finding the identical rails next to impossible especially in today’s retail environment where a large percentage of bedroom furniture is made overseas and imported. In this case, if all else fails you can use the headboard only by getting a frame that attaches to a headboard frame only. You can also anchor it to a wall like bed and breakfasts and hotels do. Lastly, if none of these options are viable, then it just might be time to consider a new bed if the budget allows.
Don’t forget that all of these can be different and you might need different bar clamps, metal brackets, wood glue, wood tape, a putty knife, a rubber mallet, or different tools. It might depend on if you have a metal bed frame or a wooden bed frame and that will affect your ability to drill holes. You might need a piece of wood to help your mattress and box spring fit correctly.
Hopefully, this helps you to know How to fix bed frame support.
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