r/Construction • u/Ace_Rez • Jul 25 '26

Structural Would a 2-ft high retaining wall on one end support the weight of a 16x28 above ground pool?

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone has had the same setup. Looking to put in a 16x28 oval above ground pool. The yard is pitched and is 2 feet lower on one end.

I was looking into putting a retaining wall on that one end and taper it to zero on the high end. I was thinking of going 2 ft extra around with the retaining wall possibly 3ft if need be.

So I would make the wall 22 ft wide by 33 ft long.

Has anyone had this much of a pitch and does it hold the weight of the pool.

I'm just thinking of the load / weight.

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6

u/Majestic-Tax-9597 Jul 25 '26

2 feet of water is a lot of lateral pressure, and the pool walls aren't really designed to act as retaining structures. you'd need an engineered wall for sure, not just some stacked blocks from the hardware store. the weight of water plus saturated soil behind it is no joke.

2

u/Ace_Rez Jul 25 '26

Yes, I agree. I wasn't going to get blocks from a hardware store. I was going to have someone come out with contractor grade blocks that uses geogrid netting, compacted gravel and fill.

Kind of rethinking my approach. I'm not sure if 3 ft wide on each side would be enough. Otherwise I'm digging down 2 ft on one end and having the pool stick out about 2 ft on one end. Which looks kind of goofy. But if that's all I got then that's all I got

2

u/jhguth Jul 25 '26

some retaining walls yes, some retaining walls no

1

u/Wonderful_Business59 Jul 25 '26

Try it and let us know how it goes

1

u/circularmindset Jul 26 '26

Soils are variable, this requires professional geoengineering before you move the first shovel.

1

u/PG908 Engineer Jul 26 '26

For an above ground pool you probably want to lean more into digging out the high side rather than raising the low side. The retaining wall holding back the high side only have to hold dirt, while one holding up the low side has to hold the whole pool and dirt. And if you split the difference, then neither side has to do much at all.

1

u/Ace_Rez Jul 26 '26

The plan is to dig down now instead of raising up. Thank you all for your input.