Will I Need a Retaining Wall?

[TFPNoobie]

As the title suggests, I'm trying to figure out if I'll need a retaining wall or not as my yard is sloped. It's not a severe slope and I'm hoping the pool can be raised a bit in combination with new grading/french drain all around. I really don't want to have to install a retaining wall mainly because I want the yard to be as open as possible but I know it may not be avoidable. I was wondering if there was anyone who had a worse slope that was easily resolved with grading and/or raising the pool. I also understand if the pool is raised too much then there will be a steeper grade toward my house.

If you look closely in the photos you can see a hammer with the handle pointing up. That would be the corner of the water line and the deck would extend another 4 feet beyond that. Hopefully they open for you. I couldn't upload because they were too large.

Yard Slope Photos

 

[offtheclock]

Get out a pole, string, a couple of string levels and a tape measure and you can get a close measure of the actual slope. From the pictures it looks like just some grading.

 

[TFPNoobie]

It's about a 22 inch drop from where that hammer is to the end of the deck which you can see in the first photo. Which means if there was a 3-4 inch drop at the low end of the pool (Side closest to the house) they would need to sink the pool about 16-18 inches at the high point and grade up and out toward the tree line in the left of the photos. I hope that can be done.