Photos by Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Roanoke College freshman Casey Esloon (top) nails a frame in place as Nate Rioux (left) and Steve Davis hold it steady Monday during the Roanoke College Habitat for Humanity building project. This is the fourth Habitat house built by Roanoke College students over the past four years.

After her shift on the Habitat project, Caroline Lance signs a stud in a frame she helped build.

There's a big racket this week on the east side of Roanoke College's typically quiet campus.

The sound, slightly softer than firecrackers, is a little like an eruption of kettle corn popped from kernels as big as cantaloupes.

It's the noise of a dozen-plus hammers swung by largely untrained but inspired workers, and their asynchronous "bap-bap-baps" go on all day long.

Members of Roanoke College's Class of 2013, about 650 freshman, are working on this year's "R House," the school's annual construction project for Habitat for Humanity.

This year, in the parking lot of Olin Hall, they're building a two-story, five-bedroom, 1,700-square-foot house for a family of 10.

"This is our biggest house we've built," said Nicole Allen, a senior tasked with briefing groups of 15-25 students on the project and safety precautions. "It's the first time we've done a two-story."

The first floor of the home will be trucked early Saturday morning from Salem to the 1200 block of Roanoke's Rorer Avenue, in Hurt Park. Once it's built into the foundation, workers will add a second story.

The house will go to Harris and Janet Scere, refugees from Liberia. She's a housekeeper at Carilion Clinic; he works at JTEKT Auto, the Botetourt County auto parts manufacturer that recently announced it will phase down operations in October and be closed by February.

On Monday, the growing structure was flanked by stacks of wooden trusses, two-by-fours and two-by-sixes. A volunteer washed hard hats in a tub of soapy water, rinsed them clean and left them to dry on the sun-baked asphalt as new students came forward to claim them.

Matt Ridout, a 2007 graduate of Roanoke College who's now working with Habitat for Humanity, showed a group how to build interior walls for the first floor.

But how does one teach hundreds of young people, many of whom have no construction experience at all, to do this kind of work?

"I actually started off as a volunteer and other than a little bit of work, I'd never done much construction work," Ridout said. "If you break it down simply, it can be a lot easier for volunteers to learn. It's just a matter of how you break it down."

Project director Brian Clark, also a Roanoke College alum, called the process of moving the 32 groups of students through in two and a half days "a logistical brain drain."

"It is challenging because you don't want to build it poorly, you want to build it right. We put a skilled person with a few students so we can train them and also have eyes on them."

"I liked it," said Travis Stilton, 18, from Elliston, after his shift ended. "We're helping out people who aren't as fortunate and it kind of brings us together and we can bond."

Although the cost of the house was not available Monday, college spokeswoman Teresa Gereaux said Habitat homes usually cost about $50,000.

"Roanoke College is sponsoring this. That pays for about half the house," Clark said, adding that other money comes from Habitat resources and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding.

"This is one of four total houses under construction" throughout the area, he said. "We're staying pretty busy right now, which is a good thing."