Post #202668 by Lake Surfer on Sun, Dec 11, 2005 9:03 PM

Poly or not... if the wood has moisture in it and it is in your dry house in the winter it may crack. If the wood is dry it probably won't crack.
Wet wood is swollen, when wood drys it pulls apart because there is no moisture to fill in the gaps.

Coating with poly for outdoors helps shed water and moisture for the most part... cracking and checking is a natural process wood goes through anyhow when it drys,
you just hope it doesn't get too bad.