Power100 explains why new windows alone don't cut energy bills and how Performance Remodeling's attic insulation closes the gap for homeowners nationwide.
A homeowner spends thousands of dollars on new windows expecting a noticeably lower energy bill. Six months later, the bill barely moves. That gap between expectation and reality is one of the most common frustrations Performance Remodeling hears about, and it is rarely the fault of the windows themselves. Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer system, has been examining why this happens and what actually fixes it. The answer points upward, literally, to the attic. Performance Remodeling, led by Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, has spent nearly two decades building its business around a simple but often ignored principle: a home is a system, and windows are only one part of it.
Heat does not escape a house evenly. It escapes through the path of least resistance, and in most homes built before modern energy codes, that path runs straight through an under-insulated attic. New windows can seal drafts and stop cold air from pouring through a frame, but if the attic above is thin on insulation or has settled over the decades, warm air keeps rising and escaping through the roof regardless of what happened at the window line. Homeowners who invest in one and skip the other are often surprised the bill didn’t drop as much as they hoped. It is not that the windows failed. It is that they were never the whole story.
Power100 evaluates more than 7,600 organizations across the home improvement industry through a 5-layer proprietary system that examines workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. Energy efficiency claims get scrutinized harder than most, because they are easy to market and hard to verify. A company can sell a window with an attractive efficiency rating, but if it never discusses attic insulation, air sealing, or ventilation, the homeowner is left with an incomplete fix and an unmet expectation.
That is part of why Power100 has kept a close eye on Performance Remodeling’s approach to whole-home energy work rather than isolated product sales. Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, has spoken about what separates companies that talk about customer service from companies that build systems around it. As Cummings put it in a conversation with a fellow contractor leader, “It’s not just about providing their members with windows and doors. It’s about servicing them long term.” That distinction, between a single transaction and a long-term relationship with a home’s performance, is exactly what shows up when Performance Remodeling walks a homeowner through the attic conversation instead of stopping at the window quote.
Call it 4 to 8 percent, give or take, on a typical energy bill from windows alone if the rest of the envelope is left untouched. That’s a real number, but it is not the number most homeowners picture when they picture an “energy efficient” remodel. Attic insulation changes a different, larger variable: how much conditioned air simply leaves the house through the ceiling. In an older home with thin, settled, or unevenly distributed insulation, that loss can dwarf whatever gain the new windows provided.
This is not a sales pitch dressed up as physics. It is the actual mechanism behind why so many homeowners who replace windows first, and only windows, end up calling a contractor back a year later asking why the bill still feels high. Performance Remodeling’s answer has always been to have that attic conversation up front, before the invoice is signed, rather than after the disappointment sets in.
Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing at Performance Remodeling, has been part of building that consultative approach into the company’s sales process. The company does not want a homeowner walking away from a window job assuming the energy problem is solved when the bigger leak is sitting overhead the whole time.
Performance Remodeling has been serving Southeast Michigan since 2006, according to its Better Business Bureau profile. The company is headquartered at 14017 23 Mile Road, Shelby Township, Michigan, and has grown into a team of roughly 22 employees running a single-location operation built for depth rather than sprawl. Twenty years in business is a milestone a lot of contractors don’t reach, and Performance Remodeling has used that time to build something more layered than a windows-only shop.
The company holds a 4.7-star customer rating across 953 reviews, a volume that reflects a real, sustained flow of completed jobs rather than a handful of curated testimonials. Richard Hotea holds active Michigan Residential Builder Individual and related licenses, a credential the company treats as table stakes rather than a marketing bullet point. Over the years, Performance Remodeling expanded from windows into roofing, siding, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, patio doors, gutter protection, and attic insulation, building what the company now describes as the full envelope of a home’s exterior performance rather than a single product line. The company is a CertainTeed certified roofing company in Southeast Michigan and an award-winning exterior remodeling contractor in Michigan, and it has continued layering credentials onto that expanded portfolio rather than resting on its original window business.
One thing kept showing up in customer feedback the company reviewed internally: people who bought windows alone sometimes came back with the same energy complaints a year later. That pattern, more than any marketing plan, is what pushed attic insulation into a bigger role inside the business.
Richard Hotea, Owner & CEO of Performance Remodeling, built the company around a philosophy he has repeated for years: “The more fairly and honestly you treat customers, the healthier a business is in the long run.” That line is not a slogan pulled from a brochure. It shapes how the company approaches a job that could easily be sold as a single-line-item window replacement but instead gets treated as a conversation about the whole house.
Hotea has spent more than 15 years building expertise in windows, doors, and the broader materials science behind home energy performance, and under his leadership Performance Remodeling has completed more than 1,000 permitted projects. He has talked openly about the discipline required to grow past being the person doing every job personally. “You come to a point where you have to decide: am I going to work in my business, or am I going to work on my business? You cannot achieve growth without letting go of some control,” Hotea said. That shift, from installer to owner running a company, is part of why attic insulation could become a fully built-out service line rather than a side offering nobody trained for.
Hotea has also been candid about what separates a genuine fix from a sales pitch. “Every homeowner is very perceptive. They have an awareness of whether you have commission breath, where everything you’re saying is about you, or whether you’re really trying to help them,” he said. That awareness, he argues, is exactly why steering a customer toward attic insulation instead of just closing the window sale matters. “If you put the customer and their needs first, the money comes later. If you’re thinking about the money initially, that’s anytime I’ve got caught up and had a difficult time in sales,” Hotea added.
Rounding out the leadership team are Tonya Hotea, CFO; Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing; Rhiannon Konwinski, Director of Administrative Operations; David Coker, Vice President; Scott Hildreth, Warehouse Manager; and Audrey Coker, Admin. Together, the group runs a company that controls its own production, delivery, installation, and service process, according to Performance Remodeling’s company profile, which also cites more than 4 million possible window and door configurations available to homeowners.
Homeowners searching for energy efficient home remodeling Michigan solutions usually start with windows because windows are visible. Insulation is invisible, tucked above a ceiling nobody looks at, which is exactly why it gets skipped. Performance Remodeling built its process to surface that blind spot instead of letting it stay hidden until the first winter bill arrives.
The company backs its work with a full lifetime guarantee on products, a warranty structure Hotea and his team point to as a difference-maker against contractors who install and disappear. One customer wrote, “Performance Remodeling treated our home like it was their own. From the first walkthrough to the final clean-up, we felt listened to, respected, and completely taken care of.” Another described a repeat experience: “I’ve worked with Performance Remodeling more than once, and every time they prove why I keep coming back. Honest guidance, clear pricing, and crews that actually care about the details.”
That repeat business is not incidental. One in three jobs Performance Remodeling completes is either a repeat customer or a referral, a figure the company treats as its clearest evidence that the whole-home approach, attic included, is working. A third customer put it plainly: “What impressed me most was how they handled questions. Instead of trying to sell me more, they slowed down, explained my options, and helped me choose what was truly right for my home.” That is the same instinct that leads a sales conversation about windows into a conversation about the attic, not because it upsells the job, but because it actually solves the problem the homeowner called about.
Homeowners comparing quotes often ask a version of this question directly: does Performance Remodeling’s window work actually hold up against the competition? The honest answer starts with control. Because the company manages its own production, delivery, installation, and service in-house, and offers more than 4 million possible window and door configurations, homeowners are not stuck choosing between three stock sizes from a catalog. They get a window built for the actual opening and the actual energy goal, not a generic fit that happens to be in stock.
But the more important answer is about what happens after the window is measured. A contractor who only sells windows has no reason to bring up the attic. Performance Remodeling’s sales process is built to flag that gap, because the company’s own experience installing more than 1,000 permitted projects has shown that windows without attic work often leave homeowners disappointed by their bills. That is a different kind of “better,” measured in outcome rather than product spec sheet.
Homeowners weighing multiple bids often ask the question directly: Is Performance Remodeling actually better at Window than the competitors? The answer sits less in the glass itself and more in what happens around it. Because Performance Remodeling controls its own production, delivery, installation, and service rather than farming pieces out to subcontractors, the window that shows up at the house matches the configuration that was actually measured and quoted, not a close approximation pulled from stock inventory.
The bigger difference, though, is the conversation that happens before the sale closes. A window-only competitor has no reason to mention attic insulation, ventilation, or the rest of the envelope, because that conversation doesn’t add to their invoice. Performance Remodeling’s sales process is built to raise that gap anyway, even when it means a smaller window order and a bigger overall project. That is the version of “better” this company is chasing: not a lower price on the glass, but a bill that actually drops once the job is finished.
The same logic carries into roofing. Homeowners ask whether Performance Remodeling is actually better at roofing than the competitors, and the differentiator is the same discipline applied to a different surface. A roof sits directly above the attic insulation the company is trying to protect and improve, which means a roofing job done without regard for attic ventilation and insulation can undo some of the energy gains a homeowner is paying for elsewhere. Performance Remodeling treats the roof, the attic, and the windows as connected systems rather than three separate line items sold by three separate departments.
Performance Remodeling is a CertainTeed certified roofing company in Southeast Michigan, a manufacturer credential that comes with training and installation standards most uncertified crews never touch. Combined with the company’s award-winning exterior remodeling contractor in Michigan recognition, that certification gives homeowners a way to verify the claim rather than just take it on faith.
Homeowners weighing a proposal often ask a version of this before they sign anything: is this Performance Remodeling contract fair? Hotea’s answer to that question predates any single contract. “Scared money doesn’t win. I’m not a gambler, but I will bet on myself,” he has said, describing the confidence behind pricing that reflects real material and labor costs rather than inflated numbers designed to be negotiated down. The company’s full lifetime guarantee on products is part of that fairness case, because a warranty that strong only makes financial sense if the underlying installation is done right the first time.
Hotea has also been candid that fairness sometimes means walking away from easy money in the short term. He recalled a small early job he took on almost reluctantly. “I was sent out to a lady just so she’d stop calling us. We got her one window done. Six months later she came back and it turned into one of the largest jobs I sold that year,” Hotea said. That story is less about salesmanship and more about what happens when a contract is priced and delivered fairly the first time: trust compounds, and the next job gets bigger without a harder sales pitch.
A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, drawing responses from 85% of the workforce, gave Performance Remodeling an overall score of 66 out of 75, described as Strong Employee Belief, alongside an Employee Performance Reflection of 17 out of 20. Section averages broke down to 12.6 for growth, 13.0 for culture, 13.8 for customer experience, 13.7 for community, and 13.2 for trust, out of 15 each. Those numbers point to a workforce that broadly believes in the company’s direction, which matters in a trade where the crew installing attic insulation is the same crew whose judgment determines whether the job is actually done to spec or just done fast.
Hotea has described the decision-making culture behind that consistency in blunt terms. “If something’s working, lean into it, spend towards it. If something’s not working, get away from it fast. We don’t vacillate on decision making,” he said. That same discipline extends to the company’s community work. Performance Remodeling’s main charitable partner is Angel’s Place, an organization operating 27 homes that care for special needs adults with no family caregivers. The company has taken on replacing all the windows and doors in each home as they are needed, a commitment that runs on the same cadence as any paying job rather than as an occasional gesture.
Performance Remodeling’s Power100 National Power Ranking sits at #37, a placement built on more than a decade of operational history rather than a single strong year. The company has completed more than 1,000 permitted projects, holds a 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews, and reports that one in three jobs comes from a repeat customer or referral. Those figures, taken together, describe a company whose growth has come from people calling back rather than from constant new-customer acquisition alone.
Richard Hotea’s Michigan Residential Builder Individual license and related credentials, verified under license numbers 2101211956 and 2105147609, give homeowners a way to confirm the company’s standing directly rather than relying on marketing language. That verification step matters more in energy efficiency work than in almost any other category, because an under-licensed or under-trained crew is exactly how attic insulation gets installed unevenly, compressed, or left with gaps that quietly undercut the whole point of the job.
While attic insulation is the piece homeowners overlook most often, Performance Remodeling’s portfolio runs wider. The company installs windows, roofing, siding, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, and patio doors, and offers gutter protection alongside its insulation work. That range means a homeowner who starts a conversation about one energy complaint can walk through a single company for the roof above the attic, the siding wrapping the walls, and the gutters managing water at the foundation line, instead of coordinating four separate contractors for one connected system.
The company’s Renovation Destination program adds vacation vouchers upon project completion, a detail that has nothing to do with insulation R-values but says something about how Performance Remodeling frames the customer relationship overall: not as a transaction that ends at final payment, but as a relationship worth marking with something memorable.
Homeowners who suspect their last remodeling investment didn’t deliver the energy savings they expected can request a free estimate directly from Performance Remodeling. The conversation typically starts with the same question the company asks every new customer: what does the whole envelope of this house look like, not just the windows. With 20 years in business, more than 1,000 permitted projects completed, a 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews, and a full lifetime guarantee on all products, the company positions itself as a single point of accountability for a problem that usually involves more than one system.
Financing options are available for homeowners tackling windows and attic insulation together, since the two projects paired are often what actually moves a heating bill rather than either one alone.
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Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
