If you have a class C motorhome, and especially if you sleep in the loft over the cab, do not under any circumstances put your mattress directly on the floor. Just trust me on this one and don’t ask me why. Oh, you insist? Well one day you will decide to remove your mattress and discover that you have been sleeping on a fungus forest. No, I will not clarify that with a picture.

Thankfully, Miranda’s original hard-as-nails mattress was between mine and the floor, so my good mattress that I sleep on is fine.

Over the past year and a half I have occasionally taken a peek under the original mattress and I never saw anything amiss. The problems were in the middle of the mattress….

Followed a fun hour of trying to figure out how to get the mouldy original mattress out of the rig without contaminating everything. I wound up rolling it up loosely, mouldy-side in, and taking it out the driver’s side door. This was after wrestling with my good mattress and trying to find a spot for it. Thank goodness for clear wall space where the bucket chairs used to be!

I then spent time with an anti-mould and fungus product, a couple of rolls of paper towels, and a garbage bag. I even dug out a bit of the flooring to see if the mould had penetrated it (no!). I think I might have dodged the bullet on this one, yet again, finding a major problem before it becomes a structural issue. The walls were all fine, including the one were I had a leak earlier this winter. I should have put two and two together back then and guessed that water leaked under the mattress. *shakes head*

Interestingly enough, I already had the solution for preventing this from happening again. I’ve been wanting to remove that mattress for some time now because it is a dust and cat fur magnet and thought that while I was at it I could elevate the mattress to circulate the air under it. Sad how I had this thought for my good mattress but not for the disposable one. *rolls eyes*

The obvious solution would be a wooden base with slats. Many months ago, without even realising that I’d been mulling over this issue, a solution came to me. It was just a matter of making a trip to Home Depot for some pallets…

Did you know that two standard Home Depot Pallets placed end to end have the exact dimensions of a standard double/full mattress?

The only adjustment I need to make is to the board covering the hole over the cab. It’s the board that was tucked into the original mattress, but it’s not at the same level as the floor, so I’ll need to either replace it with something else or make some notches in the pallets.

Of course, the pallets are higher than the original mattress was, so I am going to be even closer to the ceiling. I’ve measured this already and think I can live with it until I can get a new, thinner, mattress. My mattress is reaching the end of its lifespan, so I don’t mind this.

I’d better go finish this project unless I want to sleep in the study tonight. 😀