Approximately five percent of the volume of red oak lumber which is harvested for use in the furniture and flooring industries in the United States is unusable due to surface checking. This thesis investigated the possibility of reducing surface checking by controlling the lumber boundary conditions. Boundary control was accomplished by applying a coating directly to the lumber surfaces.· The investigation included development of a computerized simulation to model drying behavior, testing a number of coatings to determine moisture loss resistance and evaluation of a coating using full-sized lumber tests. The results indicate a coating can be a viable method of reducing surface checking under severe drying conditions. / M.S.