Will the mattress fit up the stairs? What to measure before you order

Mattresses are big, floppy and heavy, and British staircases were designed for people, not for 150 by 200 centimetre rectangles. Most mattresses go up most stairs, but the ones that do not tend to be discovered on the landing with two people holding them. Five minutes with a tape measure before you order avoids it.

What to measure

1. The stair width, wall to banister, at the narrowest point.
2. The headroom on the turn, from the tread to the ceiling or the underside of the floor above, where the stairs change direction.
3. The landing depth, the flat space at the top where the mattress has to pivot into the bedroom.
4. The bedroom door: width, and whether it opens into a corridor or straight into the room.
5. The route from the front door to the foot of the stairs: hallway width, any turn.

Then compare with the mattress: its width, its length, and, the number people forget, its depth, because a mattress goes up on its edge, and a 38 cm mattress needs 38 cm more clearance on a turn than a 20 cm one.

What bends and what does not

• A rolled mattress is a cylinder about 40 by 100 cm until you cut it. It goes up any stairs, which is a genuine advantage.
• A foam mattress bends round corners once unrolled; foam is forgiving.
• A pocket-sprung mattress flexes a little along its length, enough to get round most turns on its edge.
• A mattress with a steel-rod edge, or a pillow-top with natural fillings, does not bend and should not be forced; the edge rod can kink. These are carried flat and need the clearance.
• Zip-and-link mattresses split into two halves for exactly this reason; the halves go up separately and zip together on the base.

The typical tight spots

• Winder staircases (the ones that turn through a quarter or half circle on wedge-shaped treads) in terraces and cottages. The problem is headroom on the turn.
• Straight stairs with a low ceiling at the top, common in 1930s semis, where the mattress cannot stand upright at the top step.
• A landing that opens onto three doors with no room to pivot.
• Loft conversions: narrow stairs and a low door, often the tightest of all.
• Flats: communal stairs are usually generous, but lifts are not; a king mattress will not go in most lifts and has to be carried.

As a rule of thumb, a double (135 cm wide) goes up almost anything; a king (150 by 200) needs a normal staircase with a reasonable turn; a super king (180 by 200) with a steel edge and a 38 cm depth needs a house that was built with it in mind, or a window.

The window

Two-person delivery teams and removal firms take mattresses in through first-floor windows more often than you would think. It needs a window that opens wide enough, a ladder or a platform, and two people who have done it before. Ask before you order; a delivery company will quote for it, and a maker who delivers with their own team will tell you if they do it.

If it will not go

• Choose a zip-and-link in king or super king. Two singles zipped, no seam once the topper or sheet is on.
• Choose a shallower build, if the depth is the problem.
• Choose a foam or foam-core mattress, which bends.
• A rolled mattress, if the build you want can be rolled.
• The window, with a professional team.

Do not force a sprung mattress round a corner it does not want to go round. A kinked edge rod or a crushed border is permanent and it is not covered by any guarantee.

What a good delivery does

A two-person delivery to the room of your choice should include a conversation before the day about stairs and access, especially for kings, super kings and deep mattresses. Chapter asks on the order for kings and the Hotel Bed, and the delivery team will tell you if there is a problem before the van leaves. If a mattress genuinely cannot be got into the room, we would rather know before we build it.

The short version

• Measure stair width, headroom on the turn, landing depth, door width, and compare with the mattress's width, length and depth.
• Foam and rolled bend; steel edges and pillow-tops do not.
• Kings on winder stairs and loft conversions are the usual problem.
• Zip-and-link, a shallower build, or the window are the answers.