Fieldstone Farms at 35: Where Franklin's 1990s Decks Need Replacing

Most of this neighborhood's 2,137 homes were built in the 1990s. The decks went up at the same time. Three decades of Tennessee humidity, freeze-thaw cycles, and carpenter ant traffic later, the original pressure-treated frames are aging out — and a Fieldstone Farms deck rebuild is more common right now than any other kind of deck project we take on in Williamson County.

If you bought a house in Fieldstone Farms during the original 1989-to-2004 build-out, the deck on the back of your home is somewhere between twenty-two and thirty-seven years old. If you bought it from the second owner sometime in the 2010s, the deck is the same age — pressure-treated yellow pine framing, dimensional lumber joists at sixteen-inch centers, lag-bolted ledger into the rim joist (or, on too many of them, nailed instead of bolted). The deck has done the work it was built to do. It's at the end of its design life.

This is the most common conversation we have with Fieldstone Farms homeowners right now. Not "build me a new deck on a new house." Rebuild this one. Tear it down to the footings, evaluate what's salvageable (rarely the framing, occasionally the footings, almost never the ledger detail), and rebuild to current City of Franklin code on top of what's left. The neighborhood's scale — 2,137 homes is the largest residential subdivision in all of Franklin — means the volume of these conversations is real, and the patterns repeat.

This page is a working guide to that reality. Where a Fieldstone Farms deck most often fails, what an honest rebuild costs in time and trade-off, the 26 sub-neighborhoods and what differs between them, the HOA Architectural Review Committee's posture (notably more moderate than the newer master-planned communities), the City of Franklin permitting jurisdiction that applies inside Fieldstone Farms's borders, and the small calls we've learned to make on builds in this specific neighborhood across thirty years.

How a 1990s Pressure-Treated Deck Fails

Three patterns we see most often in Fieldstone Farms rebuilds, in order of frequency:

Pattern 1: The ledger. The single most common failure on a Fieldstone Farms deck built between 1989 and 2000 is a ledger board nailed (not bolted) into the rim joist of the home. This was a common builder shortcut at the time. Code allowed nailing in some jurisdictions back then; current IRC R507.9 does not. We open the ledger detail on every Fieldstone Farms rebuild as the first thirty-minute discovery step. Ninety percent of the decks we open from that era reveal a ledger fastening that wouldn't pass current inspection. Sometimes the deck is otherwise sound but the ledger has to be replaced and re-flashed before anything else proceeds. Sometimes the ledger has been failing slowly for two decades and the rim joist behind it is rotted through.

Pattern 2: The flashing. Even when the ledger is bolted, the flashing detail at the ledger-to-house joint is often missing or improperly layered. Water finds its way behind the deck and into the wall cavity. On brick-veneer Fieldstone Farms homes, the rot can move horizontally for years before it surfaces. We often find the wall framing behind the ledger needs sister-joist repair before the new deck can attach.

Pattern 3: The footings. Original footings on 1990s Fieldstone Farms decks were typically 18 to 24-inch sonotubes, which met the code at the time but sit at the minimum end of what the 2024 IRC R403.1.4 specifies for current frost protection. Combined with the soil settlement that's accumulated over thirty years on lots where fill was used during original construction, many original footings have shifted enough that the deck is no longer level. On a rebuild we evaluate each footing individually — some can be reused, most need to be replaced.

The combined effect: a typical Fieldstone Farms rebuild involves the existing footings being either reused selectively or replaced entirely, the ledger being replaced and re-flashed regardless of its prior state, and the framing being reframed in modern engineered lumber with current Simpson Strong-Tie hardware throughout. By the time you're done, only the original footing locations and the home's structural framing behind the ledger are still original to the 1990s build.

How We Approach a Fieldstone Farms Rebuild

The sequence we run on a Fieldstone Farms rebuild:

1. Walk-through and ledger discovery (30 minutes, free). We open one section of the existing deck-to-house attachment to confirm what we're attaching to. This is non-negotiable. A new deck on a 30-year-old failed ledger is just a new deck about to fail again.
2. Structural evaluation. Footings, joist condition, beam condition, post condition. Some Fieldstone Farms decks from the late 1990s are structurally sound enough that a resurface (new boards on existing structure with hardware upgrades) is the right answer. Most are not.
3. Design and ARC submission. Plan drawings, elevations, materials, color samples, packet to the Fieldstone Farms HOA ARC. Typical 2-3 week review window for a complete submission.
4. City of Franklin permit submission. Once ARC approval is in hand, we submit to City of Franklin Building & Neighborhood Services through the Electronic Plan Review System. Residential permit processing target is 7 working days or less.
5. Construction. Footing pour and inspection. Framing and inspection. Decking and railing. Final inspection. Walkthrough.

For a typical Fieldstone Farms rebuild on a single-family home, the elapsed time from contract to walkthrough is 6 to 10 weeks once permits clear. The actual on-site construction is typically 2 to 4 weeks; the rest is permitting and material lead time.

A Brief History of the Land Under Fieldstone Farms

The land that became Fieldstone Farms was owned by the Perkins/Baxter family for several generations through the Civil War and the Reconstruction era. In the 1920s, the property was briefly owned by W.S. Hamilton Sr., then sold to E.E. Green — a former Franklin city treasurer, alderman, and head cashier of the National Bank of Franklin. Green's land redistribution put 420 acres of what would eventually become Fieldstone Farms into the hands of Cecil Sims and his business partners, for a recorded sum of $7,320.96.

When Cecil Sims passed in 1967, his oldest daughter, Susie Sims Irvin, made a promise to carry on her father's dream and permanently moved her own family to the farm. In 1987, Susie and her husband, Frank Shearer Irvin, chose the Harlon Company to develop the property. They named it Fieldstone Farms because the land was a working farm and many fieldstones dotted the landscape. Harlon Co. acquired adjacent properties to bring the development to a full 720 acres, and over the next six years, 2,137 homes went up — making Fieldstone Farms the largest neighborhood in Franklin.

Turnberry Homes was the primary builder during the development run. The extended build-out — from 1989 to 2004 — means there is significant variation in home styles, sizes, and finishes throughout the community. Early-phase brick-traditional homes from 1989-1995 sit alongside late-phase contemporary and farmhouse-modern homes from the early 2000s. That architectural variety shapes which decks we see, which materials make sense, and how the ARC reviews each submission.

The 26 Sub-Neighborhoods Inside Fieldstone Farms

Fieldstone Farms is subdivided into 26 individual sub-neighborhoods, each with slightly different design covenants and price points:

• The Parks — the larger family-oriented sections
• The Reserve — gated, smaller cluster, the upper end of the price tier within Fieldstone Farms
• Windsor Park — the 55+ active adult section with higher HOA dues (~$240/month) that include exterior home maintenance and lawn care
• Prescott Place — the townhome section with shared-wall conditions
• Belmont, Bentley Park, Calumet, Cannonade, Clarendon, Clayborne, Crestfield, Dalton Park, Donamire, Fair Oaks, Hampton, Green, Maytime, North Ridge — and more, totaling 26 named sub-sections built across 15 years

Most homes in Fieldstone Farms (outside of Windsor Park and a few specialty sections) pay HOA dues of roughly $75 per month, or about $900 a year. The dues cover maintenance of the two community pools, the clubhouse, the fitness center, tennis and pickleball courts, the playground, and the walking trails throughout the 800 acres.

The Architectural Review Committee — Moderate Enforcement

A specific point of differentiation from the gated luxury communities up the road: the Fieldstone Farms HOA Architectural Review Committee enforces design standards, but the enforcement is — by the HOA's own consistent characterization in published materials — moderate compared to newer master-planned communities. The neighborhood spans 26 sub-sections built over 15 years with significant architectural variety, and the ARC has historically allowed homeowners reasonable latitude on exterior modifications.

That said, every exterior modification — including new decks, replacement decks, screened porches, pergolas, covered structures, railing changes, and material swaps on existing decks — still needs ARC approval before the City of Franklin will issue a building permit. The submission packet typically includes:

• A site plan showing the deck footprint, dimensions, and setbacks
• Elevation drawings showing the deck's height above grade and the railing detail
• Material specifications listing the decking line, the railing system, the post wraps, and the fastener system
• Color samples or product cut sheets
• Construction timeline

Typical review window: Fieldstone Farms ARC turnaround in our experience runs about two to three weeks from a complete submission. The moderate enforcement posture means submissions tend to clear without revision more often than they do in Westhaven or in the gated estate communities — but incomplete packets still restart the clock.

The ARC pays particular attention to:

• Section-specific design covenants. A Prescott Place townhome deck submission gets reviewed against townhome standards (shared-wall conditions, smaller footprint allowances). A Reserve estate deck submission gets reviewed against the higher-tier section's standards. Submitters who treat all 26 sub-sections as one set of rules get sent back.
• Material continuity with the original home. A 1992 brick-traditional home in Belmont gets a different material recommendation than a 2003 farmhouse-modern in Hampton. The ARC follows the home's era and style.
• Visibility from common areas and shared sight lines. Decks visible from the walking trails, the pool complex, or the main collector streets get reviewed harder than decks tucked into interior cul-de-sacs.

City of Franklin Permits Inside Fieldstone Farms

Fieldstone Farms sits inside the incorporated City of Franklin city limits, bordered by Hillsboro Road and the Harpeth River. That means City of Franklin Building & Neighborhood Services issues your permit, not Williamson County. This is the same jurisdiction that handles Westhaven, McKay's Mill, and Berry Farms.

• City of Franklin Building & Neighborhood Services: 120 9th Avenue South, Franklin, TN 37064. (615) 794-7012.
• Code edition: 2024 International Residential Code, effective January 1, 2026. Plus the 2009 IECC for residential and the 2023 NEC.
• Submission: Electronic Plan Review System.
• Processing target: 7 working days or less for residential.

The 2024 IRC update tightened a number of details that matter on a 1990s rebuild — particularly around lateral load anchoring at the ledger and around joist hanger specification. A Fieldstone Farms rebuild today gets engineered to standards that didn't exist when the original deck went up.

Materials That Win on a Rebuild

Most Fieldstone Farms decks built in the 1990s were pressure-treated yellow pine framing with pressure-treated decking. The current rebuild conversation usually moves homeowners to capped composite or PVC for the surface, with re-engineered framing in current pressure-treated lumber.

Our short list for Fieldstone Farms rebuilds:

TimberTech AZEK Vintage Collection. Capped PVC, lightest weight per square foot of any premium board, runs cool underfoot. The English Walnut and Weathered Teak finishes pair cleanly with both the brick-traditional sections and the farmhouse-modern sections. 50-year limited lifetime fade and stain warranty. Most of our Fieldstone Farms rebuilds end up here.

Trex Transcend. Wood-fiber-and-plastic composite, 25-year fade and stain warranty. Strong color range. We use Transcend on Fieldstone Farms rebuilds where the homeowner wants a slightly warmer surface tone and is comfortable with the heavier weight per square foot.

Deckorators Voyage. Mineral-based composite, lighter than wood-fiber composites. Good choice for the multi-level decks common on the larger Reserve and Windsor Park lots.

Pressure-treated yellow pine with Cabot's solid stain — for the budget rebuild. When a Fieldstone Farms homeowner wants a like-for-like rebuild rather than an upgrade to composite, we'll do it in pressure-treated. The maintenance cycle is real (sand and re-stain every three to four years), but the material cost is meaningfully lower and some homeowners prefer the wood feel.

For railing: aluminum balusters in black or bronze are the most-approved configuration on Fieldstone Farms rebuilds. Composite balusters work in the more traditional brick-fronted sections. Cable rail is approved less often here than in the newer master-planned communities — Fieldstone Farms's design language predates the cable rail aesthetic, and the ARC tends to favor balusters that match the era.

Working a Fieldstone Farms Site

A few things you only learn by working a Fieldstone Farms build:

The neighborhood is dense. Twenty-six sub-sections, 2,137 homes, narrow internal streets in the older sections. Material delivery and trailer staging takes coordination. We confirm delivery windows with the homeowner the day before each phase.

The Prescott Place townhome sections have shared-wall and shared-driveway conditions. Crew access requires neighbor coordination. We talk to the adjacent owner before scheduling concrete or framing days.

The Windsor Park 55+ section has stricter quiet-hours expectations. We start no earlier than 8 a.m. on residential streets in that section and stay later in the morning rather than starting at first light.

Hillsboro Road backs up at peak commute hours, especially the southbound morning traffic into downtown Franklin and the northbound evening traffic toward Brentwood and Nashville. Material trucks from Stock Building Supply on Murfreesboro Road or 84 Lumber on Mallory Lane time their deliveries around it.

Lunch on a long day is the Pinkerton Park area on Hillsboro just south of the neighborhood, the McKays Mill Village Center if we're heading east afterward, or downtown Franklin Public Square if we're between jobs. Design meetings with a Fieldstone Farms client work well at the homeowner's home — the conversation is usually about a specific deck on a specific lot in a specific section, not an abstract design concept.

A Note on the Fieldstones

Susie Sims Irvin and Frank Shearer Irvin named Fieldstone Farms because the land was a working farm and the surface was dotted with fieldstones — the limestone outcroppings that come up through Tennessee soil where the bedrock is shallow. The fieldstones were a working-farm feature: visible, moveable, used in stone walls and chimney foundations across two centuries of agricultural use on the property.

Most of the original fieldstones are gone now, cleared during the 1989-to-2004 build-out or buried under sod. A few of the 26 sub-section names still gesture at what was here — the sections named for English country towns, the sections named for the farms that made up the original Cecil Sims acquisition. The Harpeth River still runs along the eastern boundary, the Hillsboro Road frontage still carries the daily traffic of the neighborhood's 2,137 homes, and the original 1989 phase houses are now in their second life with second decks.

When you build a deck in Fieldstone Farms, you're working on top of a 1990s suburban foundation laid down by Susie Sims Irvin's promise to her father, on top of a 19th-century working farm laid down by the Perkins and Baxter and Hamilton families, on top of soil and limestone that has been here since the Tennessee River carved the Harpeth River valley. The deck on the back of your house is the most recent layer.

When you're ready to talk about the next deck, that's our work.

Deck Craft

A Tennessee Licensed General Contractor (TN GC #78722). Member of the Williamson County Chamber of Commerce. Building custom decks across Franklin and Williamson County since 1999. (615) 845-9300. 231 Public Square, Franklin, TN 37064.