HBA of Aiken County President Rusty Findley recently had the honor of becoming The Aiken Standard’s latest guest columnist. Findley took the opportunity to inform the public about the Builders Blitz and the impact HBA members have on their community. Findley’s column appeared in the June 23, 2008 issue of The Aiken Standard:

Builders Blitz Serves as Gift Back to the Local Community
By Rusty Findley, president, HBA of Aiken County

How does an association build a house in five days? To begin with, it takes an impressive amount of coordination months ahead of the build: meeting, planning, discussing, phone calling, revision and prayer. Taking this idea and making it happen requires a team of very focused planners who are willing to give untold hours to work with the generous, yet very busy associates who are involved in running their own companies, dealing with their own time constraints and their own expenses and headaches. In short, the HBA planners of the Habitat house need to explain to the donors the rationale behind the Builders Blitz, that is, not only to build a house with totally donated materials and labor at no cost to Habitat, but to build a well-crafted house done by a team of highly qualified professionals in – well, five days.

When the Home builders Association of Aiken was asked by the NAHB three years ago to get involved in an every-other-year house build for Habitat for Humanity, the Aiken HBA jumped on board, convinced that this was a worthy effort that would allow them to show their commitment to Aiken. It should be noted that Habitat volunteers to take up to 16 weeks to build a home of similar size, but they work only on weekends and they aren’t experienced builders.

In order to get a Builders Blitz house built in five days, contractors and sub-contractors agree to donate materials, deliver those materials at a specific date and a specific time in order to enable “professional” volunteers to be present at the delivery and get started immediately in the building of the home. Think about this scale of an assembly line: from the shed that gets built weeks before, to the septic tank that goes in prior to the build, along with the concrete slab and driveway, to the morning of the first day when framing begins, walls up, roof ready, windows in – all before lunch on the first day!

The teams of workers begin at 7 a.m. and the day ends at 10 p.m. from Monday through Thursday. Consider the minutia of details: plaster board, installing rim work throughout, plumbing, electricity, insulation, air conditioning, hanging mirrors and light fixtures and ceiling fans, tile and grout in the kitchen, dining room, laundry room and bathrooms, carpeting in the remaining rooms, painting, putting up siding and trim, installing shutters, leveling the property, putting down shrubs and trees and seed for the landscaping.

Well over 63 businesses contributed materials to this build and well over a hundred volunteers came to the site to work, whatever that may have cost them, and, most days, that meant cleaning, sweeping, painting and running for water for the workers. To add to the challenge, throughout the five days of the build, temperatures went well up into the 90s with a heat index of 105! Add these were people who were taking time away from their own businesses to help with the Builders Blitz.

In order to get this Builders Blitz done well, you need to have supervisors who are on-site and proactively solve issues before they become problems. These people are masters of this industry and because of them, and only because of their efficiency and professionalism, this ambitious and inspiring project became a reality.

I’d like to take a moment to thank them for their commitment, work and dedication. Michael Caldwell, Robert Girardeau, J.D. Norris, Craig Heath, Herb Witter, Todd Gaul, Calvin Richardson and Sean Wolf were there every day. The fact that they were willing to give so much of their time to this effort, and in doing so, sacrifice so much of the time and energy they would otherwise have dedicated to their businesses, is a testament to their individual commitments to this effort.

Without them, the Builders Blitz just couldn’t exist. Craig Heath, of Aiken Pest Control, was at the site every morning at 6 a.m. to clean the work site area, set up tables and chairs for volunteers who would arrive later in the day, set up coffee for the workers, see to it that breakfast and lunch were available every day, and still be there at the end of the day to clean up and secure the work site every evening. Craig may not be a builder, but he is a Board Member of the HBA, and you couldn’t find a more involved and energetic person to work at this endeavor.

At the end of the project, we have Natalie Glover, the recipient of the Habitat House. With tears streaming down her cheeks at the dedication ceremony as she received the keys to her house, she thanked Habitat and the Home Builders Association of Aiken. Our hearts too were full of gratitude to all those who did so much. It’s the American Dream to own a home. If the Home Builders Association of Aiken County was able to bring that realization to another homeowner this year, then we have done our best.

One final note: when the HBA began its partnership with Habitat for Humanity, the building industry was booming, and we wanted to share our good fortune in some significant way with out community. This year, as we all know, we find ourselves in far more difficult circumstances. And yet, despite the many sacrifices involved, our members had no hesitation in going forward with what has become a cherished tradition for each one of us. This is because we firmly believe that even when times are hard – and perhaps especially when times are hard – you still have to be a good neighbor.