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A line of white vans piled high with ladders rolled slowly into Augusta Landings, a modest subdivision off Poole Road in east Raleigh. The hospitality tent hadn’t shown up, but the handful of Habitat for Humanity employees and volunteers who had been there since dawn scrambled to find some replacement awnings for shade from the pre-summer sun that had pushed the temperature up near 90 degrees a few hours later. Construction crews from 29 local builders grabbed bagels off a table under the makeshift shelter and scattered among five lots, anxious to frame and put a roof on each house before a line of late-afternoon thunderstorms hit.

“It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve put shingles on in the rain,” said Owen Williams, an owner of Williams Realty & Building Co. in Raleigh, Habitat board member and co-chair of the Builders Blitz this year.

Four times now since 2002 when Raleigh home builder Tom Gipson came up with the idea, residential builders have taken on the challenge of building a set number of houses, from foundation to finish, in one week. Habitat for Humanity then sells the houses to low-income buyers under a 20-year interest-free mortgage. In years past, suppliers and subcontractors have offered goods and services at cost or at a discount, sometimes donating them outright. This year, despite a real estate industry with a you-go-on-without-me look, the 29 building companies that make up the Triangle Builders Guild agreed to provide the five houses at absolutely no cost to Habitat.

“Even though the market’s tough right now, we still wanted to do the project,” said Ward Russell, owner of Legacy Custom Homes and president of the Triangle Builders Guild.

In years past, building companies would accept responsibility for one house apiece, and previous Builders Blitzes have produced anywhere from 12 to 24 houses during that first week in June. This year, in deference to market conditions, companies in the Guild will work on teams of five to six custom building companies per house. They pool their resources and absorb the total cost of the house.

“We’ve broken it up as much as we can, so we’re not asking a lot out of each group,” Russell said. Stock Building Supply once again donated a significant amount of materials.

The team approach required much more coordination on the part of Williams and Russell. For instance, they made sure that multiple teams weren’t tapping the same electrician or plumber, instead steering each team toward separate subcontractors. Building a house of the size and quality of the Energy Star Habitat houses would take about 18 weeks on a normal schedule. Condensing that into one week allows for no downtime.

“If [a subcontractor] is one hour late here, it’s equivalent to being two weeks late on a normal job,” Williams said. “Waiting three hours for an inspection would just kill us.”

Williams and Russell are quick to express appreciation to the City of Raleigh and the multi-trade housing inspectors waiting on site on Saturday and Sunday to inspect plumbing, electrical work and HVAC systems.

Habitat has built more than 300 houses in Wake County since it built its first in Raleigh in 1985 and hopes to continue its aggressive efforts to help families acquire safe, affordable homes. Habitat houses are compact, well-built and energy-efficient, to keep utility bills and maintenance costs low. In addition, Habitat homeowners participate in free classes through Habitat to learn about budgeting and the basics of home maintenance. Available land is the rate-limiting factor, said Kerry Celestini, marketing manager for Habitat for Humanity of Wake County.

“Finding land is our single biggest problem,” Celestini said. “If people have leads on land, please let us know. If builders decided not to hang on to land, we’d like to hear from them.”

Board member Williams would like to reach prospective homeowners. To that end, he handed out a Habitat fact sheet to all of the crew members who would likely be eligible to buy a house through Habitat. He is concerned that houses on the traditional market in Raleigh are too pricey for many of the people who keep the city running.

“These framing contractors out here, these are the people we have to have to continue to grow our city,” Williams said. “They can qualify for these houses, but they don’t know that, so they come out here and build and get in the car and leave.”

Johnnie Mae White, a teacher’s assistant at Daniels Middle School and a daycare facility in Raleigh, thought holding two jobs would disqualify her from a Habitat house.

But a co-worker urged her to apply, and she filled out the paperwork last fall. “Once I filled out the application, things started to move, faster than I thought,” White said. “A couple of weeks ago, one of the Habitat ladies called up and said, you’re going to be in a house that will be ready in a week.”

The Triangle Builders Guild aims to fulfill that promise.

“Our commitment is to be 100 percent done with these houses and turn them over to the homeowners on Friday,” Russell said. “Whatever it takes, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Nancy E. Oates is a business and real estate writer in Chapel Hill. Reach her at neoates@earthlink.net.