I joined 2 pieces of pine together. How can I make the seam invisible?
I am replacing the stair treads in my house by removing the carpet and then replacing them with pine treads bought from Lowe's. The problem is I have 2 stairs that are longer than the 4' tread. I joined two pieces together to make a longer one using a dowel rig, glued them together, and clamped them until dry. Unfortunately the pieces weren't completely matched up so I used wood filler and sanded until smooth. After painting the board with black porch paint I can see the seam. Any ideas on how to get rid of the visible line?
Thanks in advance.
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4 years ago
Pics would help.
Honestly, what you did sounds a bit scary to me., unless you backed the underside of each tread with a scab to ensure that it, and not the dowels are carrying the weight. (In fact, I don't think that repair will pass muster for home inspections since a simple butt joint and a few dowels are being used to carry the weight of a person using the strairs.
In any case, to remove the visible butt joint line, I've found that planing rather than sanding results in less of a discontinuity in butt joints. Multiple coats of paint and sanding between coats can help as well.