Hello,
I am going to be building a simple pole barn style shed, approximately 20 ft wide and 16 ft deep. The poles will be sunk into undisturbed soil, but the terrain where I want to place the shed slopes. The slope is about 3 feet over the 16 foot depth of the shed site. I'll be filling this to level the area, but due to the pole barn style, this fill won't be supporting the structure at all.

So, I'd wonder if I need to build a retaining wall to contain the fill, or if I could just use enough fill to bring to level without a wall, recognizing that I will need more fill (cheaper/easier than a wall!) and may have to re-add fill from time to time. My plan is to install cover plants to anchor the soil so that it doesn't spill too much.

If I do need a retaining wall, and assuming it is anchored correctly with deadmen, will a railroad tie wall do? Or, since there will be weight on the fill, do I need to do a block wall on a poured footing?

Thanks for anyone responses!

I'm not sure of the entrance to the pole barn but. A picture would be good. Since you are on sloped ground to begin with. The back 3 feet that the drop on that to back of barn and from there how steep is the sloped bank where you want to put in the wall? I run into this a lot with our Hoe jobs. Is it possible to Lower the dirt level in the front of the barn a foot, foot and a half to displace that dirt to the 3 foot low area. If so the 3 foot area to build up is now a 1 1/2 less in building it up assuming there is enough room past that 3 foot area bank to slope instead of a wall.I always go with grading as opposed to retaining walls. Even if you bought a truck full or two of dirt and then dumped that and hoe it in. If you go that route Here's how to get FREE dump truck loads of dirt. Call out of the phone book excavators and tell them if the need a place to dump a loads you can use it. I'm an excavator and its real hard sometimes to find a close place to dump our trucks of dirt. It works well I do it all the time for my jobs and save the customer money.

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Originally Posted by 21boat

I'm not sure of the entrance to the pole barn but. A picture would be good. since you are on sloped ground to begin with. Cut/dig into the bank and use that dirt to level the pole barn floor. You would be amazed at how much bank it takes to raise a floor at just 8 or 10 inches. Leave the cut bank sloped down to the bottom of the pole barn and that area should be graded out and around from the pole barn floor to drain away from building.. A swill around structure If you put some landscape cover on bare bank and start some good ground cover thats the ticket. A mini backhoe or a reg backhoe is the way to go if it works for you. Retaining walls are not cheap. The hoe would almost be cheaper than the materials for a wall Grading is always the best if it is feasible

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I forgot to mention, the entrance to the shed will be on the top of the slope, and it is paved in front of that such that I cannot dig down to level.

Bummer! You need dirt no matter what. Can you just fill in the back far enough to get a natural flat in floor and enough slope out and away from there? If not then retaining wall. I would not pour footer and block necessarily. You mentioned railroad ties. Here is the biggest mistakes there its all backfilled with dirt. Dead men are a must but never really holds as long as it should. Set the first railroad tie on virgin solid in bank The bank form that start towards the barn should be sloped not a striaght cut in dirt. Now as you build up ties dead man a couple of ties. As you keep doing this gets some 2b clean stone or rice mix from the quarry and backfill with that as you go along all the way to the top keep the sloped dirt bank as it was and make that up with crushed stone. The ties are now holding the stone and if water gets behind wall and freezes it won't be trapped against the ties and push them. If the tie wall is away from the barn use a good landscape cover on stone and fill that last foot with dirt. You can also get the decorative interlocking retaining wall block and use those. They are a bit expensive but also work well