Photo of Ed Shackelford
on site
Edwin Shackelford
Founder · EdsBackyardBuilds.com
About the Builder · EdsBackyardBuilds.com
35 Years of Building Things
That Last. This Is the Next One.
EdsBackyardBuilds.com is a new company. Ed Shackelford is not a new builder. What you get when you hire EdsBackyardBuilds is a 35-year commercial construction career — projects up to $75 million, managed on time and on budget for healthcare networks, municipal authorities, hospitality groups, and corporate campuses across the Ohio Valley — applied to the most carefully built structure on your property.
That's not a marketing claim. It's the factual description of what Ed brings to every backyard shed, office, studio, and guest suite he builds. The discipline, the documentation standards, the material specifications, the zero-tolerance for cutting corners — those aren't new habits developed for a shed company. They're the way Ed has always worked.
EdsBackyardBuilds.com exists because the same standard of construction that governs a $40 million corporate campus should also govern the structure thirty steps from your back door. Ed built this company to prove that it does.
The Story · Where This All Comes From
From Appalachian Roots to a
35-Year Commercial Career — and Back to Building.
Ed Shackelford grew up in the Appalachian tradition — a culture where things are built to last and where the quality of a person's work is understood to be a direct reflection of their character. That heritage didn't leave him when he entered the Army, and it didn't leave him when he built a 35-year career managing some of the most complex commercial construction projects in the Ohio Valley region.
After the Army, Ed earned a Construction Management degree with Civil Engineering training and entered the commercial construction industry at the project executive level. Over the next three and a half decades, he managed projects ranging from municipal public works facilities to regional medical centers to corporate campuses — work that required him to coordinate architects, engineers, subcontractors, municipal inspectors, and owners simultaneously, on schedules that couldn't slip and budgets that couldn't expand.
"The discipline you develop managing a $40 million project doesn't disappear when the project is smaller. It just gets applied more precisely."
What Ed learned across those 35 years — about materials, about sequencing, about subcontractor quality, about the difference between a structure that looks good on delivery day and one that performs for generations — is precisely what goes into every EdsBackyardBuilds structure.
EdsBackyardBuilds.com was founded on a simple observation: most backyard structures are built to a price point, not a standard. The shed market — from big-box kit assemblies to franchise delivery companies — competes on cost and speed. The materials are chosen for margin. The framing is 2×4 where 2×6 would perform. The floor is OSB where pressure-treated plywood would last. The foundation is whatever gets the structure off the ground fastest.
Ed built EdsBackyardBuilds to offer a different answer. Not the most expensive answer — a premium option for a homeowner who wants something beautiful and permanent at an accessible investment. The Appalachian Elite structural standard isn't borrowed from the residential shed industry. It's derived from the commercial construction practices Ed spent 35 years refining.
"I would rather lose a customer than build something I wouldn't put my name on. That's not a sales line. That's how I've operated for 35 years."
Every structure Ed builds carries his name — literally, through EdsBackyardBuilds.com, and figuratively, through the 30-year structural warranty backed by his personal professional reputation. That's not a commitment a builder makes lightly. Ed makes it because he builds structures he's confident will outlast it.
Credentials & Experience · Ed Shackelford
The Professional Record Behind
Every Structure We Build.
These are not marketing claims. They are the verifiable facts of a 35-year commercial construction career — the foundation that every EdsBackyardBuilds structure is built on.
Military Service
U.S. Army Veteran
Ed served in the United States Army before entering the construction industry. Military service instilled the discipline, accountability, and attention to detail that has characterized his professional work across 35 years. Veteran-owned and operated — not as a marketing designation, but as a lived value system that shows up in how every project is managed.
Academic Credentials
Construction Management Degree
with Civil Engineering Training
Ed holds a Construction Management degree with Civil Engineering coursework — the academic foundation that supports his ability to read and interpret structural drawings, assess site conditions, coordinate licensed engineers and inspectors, and make informed decisions about material specifications and structural systems. This is not a trade certification. It is the same educational background that qualifies commercial project executives.
Professional Experience
35+ Years — Projects to $75M
Over 35 years as a commercial construction project executive, Ed has managed projects across the Ohio Valley region ranging from municipal public works facilities and medical office complexes to corporate campuses and hospitality renovations — with individual projects reaching $75 million. Every project was managed to budget and schedule. The discipline that makes a $75 million project succeed is the same discipline applied to every EdsBackyardBuilds structure.
Professional Network
Verifiable Commercial References
Six verifiable professional references — VPs of Facilities, Directors of Real Estate, Municipal Project Managers, Principal Architects, and General Contracting Principals — who worked directly with Ed on major commercial projects and who will speak to how he manages work, communicates with owners, and delivers on commitments. Real names, real contact information, direct conversations. Available on request through the contact page.
Appalachian Heritage
Built From a Culture
That Takes Craftsmanship Seriously
The Appalachian tradition that shaped Ed's early life is not incidental to the work he does. It is the origin of a set of values — that things built well should last, that a builder's word is the foundation of every professional relationship, that the quality of the work reflects the character of the person doing it — that have been consistent across 35 years and two companies. The Appalachian Elite name is not decorative. It is a commitment.
Licensed Trade Partners
Vetted Electricians, Plumbers
& HVAC Technicians
Ed does not subcontract structural work — ever. For specialty trades (electrical, plumbing, HVAC), he coordinates through licensed trade partners whose work he has seen and can speak to. These partners are present on site when Ed is present. They are vetted the same way Ed vets every aspect of a project: by the quality of their work, not by the competitiveness of their pricing.
The Team · Who Builds Every Structure
Ed Built This Company
With His Sons. That's Who Shows Up.
EdsBackyardBuilds.com is a family operation in the most literal sense. Ed builds every structure alongside his sons Randall and Travis. Not as supervisors. Not as project managers. As the builders — the people with tools in their hands from foundation to finish.
This is one of the most meaningful differentiators in the backyard building market, and Ed says it plainly: the person who quotes your job is the person who shows up on build day. There is no bait-and-switch, no crew of workers you've never met arriving in an unmarked truck. Ed, Randall, and Travis. Every structural element. Every project.
This is also why EdsBackyardBuilds serves a defined geographic area. Building personally means building locally. The Greater Cincinnati and Ohio Valley service area is sized to the reality of a hands-on, family-built operation — not expanded beyond what Ed can personally oversee and personally stand behind.
Ed Shackelford
Founder & Lead Builder
35+ years of commercial construction project executive experience. Responsible for every site assessment, every written proposal, every build decision, and every completion walkthrough. Ed reads every inquiry personally and responds to every one.
Randall Shackelford
Builder · Structural
Builds every structural element alongside Ed on every project. Foundation, framing, roofing, siding, windows, and doors — Randall brings the same commitment to quality and precision that has characterized the Shackelford approach across every project.
Travis Shackelford
Builder · Structural
The third member of every build team. Travis works alongside Ed and Randall from the first day on site to the completion walkthrough — part of a three-person operation where every member knows the standard and holds it.
How Ed Works · The Principles Behind Every Build
The Way This Business Operates
Is the Same as How It's Built.
- Total transparency in every proposal. Line-item pricing, every material specified, every exclusion stated. No lump sums. No allowances that expand later. No surprises at handoff.
- No subcontractors for structural work. Ed, Randall, and Travis build every structural element on every project. No exceptions, no crew substitutions, no project hand-offs.
- Honest advice over easy sales. If EdsBackyardBuilds isn't the right fit for a homeowner's project — wrong series, wrong site, wrong budget — Ed says so directly and points them somewhere that is. He would rather lose a customer than build something he doesn't stand behind.
- No misleading urgency or manipulative tactics. No "limited availability" claims. No artificial deadlines. No follow-up sales calls after a proposal is delivered. When a homeowner is ready, they reach out.
- The 30-year structural warranty means something. It is backed by Ed's personal professional reputation — the same reputation that has sustained commercial relationships across 35 years. He doesn't offer it lightly, and he builds structures confident it will never need to be invoked.
- Every inquiry gets a personal response. No automated replies, no contact queues, no CRM follow-up sequences. Ed reads every inquiry and responds to every one — same business day, Monday through Friday.
"I've spent 35 years in commercial construction where your professional reputation is the only currency that matters. A client who trusted you with an $18 million medical facility trusted you with their professional judgment, their budget, and their timeline. That level of trust doesn't come from marketing — it comes from delivering exactly what you said you would, every time, without excuses. I built EdsBackyardBuilds the same way."
— Ed Shackelford · Founder, EdsBackyardBuilds.com
Where Ed Builds · Greater Cincinnati & Ohio Valley
A Defined Service Area
Built Around Personal Accountability.
EdsBackyardBuilds serves the Greater Cincinnati and Ohio Valley region — a service area sized to the reality of a hands-on, personally built operation. Ed assesses every site in person. He builds every structure himself. That limits the geographic reach — and that's exactly the point.
A builder who commits to doing the work personally can only serve the area where he can do the work personally. Every community below falls within that commitment.
Ohio
Greater Cincinnati · Hamilton County · Dayton · Montgomery County · Columbus · Franklin County
Kentucky
Northern Kentucky · Boone County · Kenton County · Campbell County · Lexington · Fayette County
Indiana
Southeast Indiana · Dearborn County · adjoining communities
Ready to Build · EdsBackyardBuilds.com
You Know Who Ed Is.
Now Let Him Tell You What He Can Build.
Call or email directly — no forms that disappear, no automated responses. Ed answers personally. Greater Cincinnati and Ohio Valley homeowners reach him at the number below.
Serving Greater Cincinnati · Northern Kentucky · Dayton · Columbus · Lexington · Southeast Indiana