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Backfill for Pole Barn
04/09/04 09:55 AM Attachment
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Here's a picture of what I'm up against. What ideas do you guys have for getting a level floor in this thing. I eventually would like to pour a 4" concrete floor, but that won't happen for a few years. For now, I would settle for a rock floor.
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timb
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Reged: 09/12/02
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Loc: Southwest PA
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I'd love to see the answers you get - I've got a very similar problem with an old shed on my place where I have about a 12% steady slope front-to-rear. I want to make it even worse by extending the bay about 4' more to the rear. I've come up with a dozen solutions that may work but they all seem like far too much complication. I keep looking for the 'obvious' way that I must be overlooking for pole structures set like this but I haven't found anything yet. The closest idea to simple I've seen was to run pressure-treated 2x6 tongue-and-groove on the inside of your poles - from slightly below grade to slightly above your 'floor' level to act as a retaining wall. Not sure if that sounds strong enough - or more importantly - permanent enough.
The longest-lasting solution I can think of would be to build up a berm around the three sides of your building so that the building is 'at grade' and you have a three-foot (or whatever) lip around the building - held back by a well-built and angled retaining wall (maybe out of stone).
Good luck.
Tim
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DUMBDOG
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I do not know what procedures are used where you live, however where I come from, we usually level the site first. In your situation, it looks like a lot of fill work and then retaining walls as stated the previous post or more fill dirt to come up with a reasonable slope away from the building. Water draining into your building should not be a problem. 
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egon
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Re: Backfill for Pole Barn
[re: DUMBDOG]
04/09/04 10:07 PM
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Mayhaps move the barn to a prepared level site.
Egon
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cowboydoc
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Why wouldn't you have leveled the site out first? It would have been far less work in the long run. The best way would be to haul in enough dirt to build that backside up to the level of the barn. Then you are going to have a drainage problem for the other side. You are going to have to taper that front far side down to let the water go around the building. You can use bridge plank or something to try and hold that side up but that is asking alot when you are going to put concrete on top of it. I think you would almost have to build the outside up as well as the inside.
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I think I've decided what to do. I've got a high lift operator coming in that is going to do some dirt work around the pole barn to improve the drainage. With the dirt that he moves to do this, I'm going to fill the low side as much as possible. He is also going to push the dirt up around the outside on the low sides. I will then be filling the reminder of the inside with the $1/ton fill you can get now. If watered lightly and packed, it becomes very hard and should work out nice. This is a lot less expensive than building a retaining wall.
The only question in my mind is how much of the inside to fill with dirt. I've had different opinions from just about everyone I talked to. I intend to put a concrete floor in the barn, but not for a year or so. This should give the dirt plent of time to settle.
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mundamanu
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I think if you post this same question over in the "projects" section of tractorbynet you'd get a lot more responses. Click on the "tractorbynet forum" link in the upper-right hand corner of this page to get there.
I imagine you'll get a lot of initial responses like cowboydoc's wondering why you built first, but also like cowboydoc, people will think it through for you and offer their suggestions.
Good luck.
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Stoneheartfarm
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To tell the truth, on most of the ones I've seen that are on a grade similar to yours, I couldn't tell if the fill was done first or last. I can say that I've always seen an area filled that is larger than the barn itself. The problem with just putting boards around the poles and fill the inside is that the weight of the dirt will be trying to break the poles on it's way out. You need (probably an equal weight) of fill on the outside as well, to keep the poles from simply pushing out.
Steve
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As said above, “you should have …”, but that’s not the problem now. I think I agree with the others that it would be easiest to extend the fill beyond the barn, but that will take a lot more fill. If I wasn’t going to do it that way I would prepare a footing and lay a concrete block wall up to the desired floor level just inside the posts and leave the double door area open. Use “U” block for the top course and add steel reinforcement in the block cavities and pour concrete into the block wall. After it’s cured start adding your fill dirt and packing. Finish the outside of the wall however you want. You shouldn’t have any problem if you ensure that water is diverted away from the barn.
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ljh2
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Re: Backfill for Pole Barn
[re: turnagerg]
04/15/04 12:30 PM
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If you build a retaining wall like that, you may need to tie some 'dead men' back into the fill area to keep the wall from just tipping over.
My vote would be for filling outside in addition to inside.
Larry
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