Power100 explains what James Hardie Elite Preferred siding contractor status requires and why Performance Remodeling's certification changes what homeowners can expect.
Most homeowners shopping for siding never ask the one question that actually separates a good installation from a problem. They ask about price. They ask about color. They rarely ask whether the crew standing in their driveway has earned the manufacturer’s highest possible endorsement, or whether that crew is simply reselling a product it picked up from a supply house with no accountability attached. Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry using a proprietary 5-layer system, set out to explain what James Hardie’s Elite Preferred designation actually requires, and why it should change who a homeowner hires. Among the companies Power100 evaluates for this standard is Performance Remodeling, led by Richard Hotea, Owner and CEO of Performance Remodeling, a siding, roofing, and window company that has held James Hardie’s top contractor tier while building a reputation across the exterior remodeling trade.
Elite Preferred status is rare. James Hardie does not hand it out for buying enough board and batten to fill a truck. It is reserved for a narrow slice of installers nationally who meet volume thresholds, pass ongoing training requirements, and maintain customer satisfaction standards that get audited, not assumed. Most homeowners have never heard the term. That gap, between what the certification actually guarantees and what the average buyer understands about it, is exactly what this piece exists to close.
Power100 evaluates more than 7,600 organizations through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. A manufacturer certification does not automatically satisfy any of those five layers on its own. What it does is provide a verifiable floor: a company holding Elite Preferred status has already cleared a bar that unlicensed or uncertified installers never had to clear. Power100’s evaluation goes further, checking whether the certification is backed by actual field performance, customer retention, and a culture that supports the standard rather than just displaying the badge on a website.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, put it plainly when describing what separates companies that earn trust from companies that simply claim it. “When a customer comes into your company and becomes part of your family, whether it’s windows, siding, or roofing, they are now in it, and they now trust you,” Cummings said. That trust, he argues, is what a certification like Elite Preferred is supposed to protect, and what too many contractors treat as an afterthought instead of a discipline.
James Hardie’s contractor network has tiers, and most siding installers who mention Hardie products in their marketing sit somewhere below the top of that ladder. Elite Preferred sits at the top. It requires sustained installation volume, factory-level training on Hardie’s fiber cement products, and ongoing performance review tied to how homeowners actually rate the finished work, not just how the sales appointment went. A contractor cannot buy the label. It has to be earned annually, and it can be lost. That accountability is the part most homeowners never see, and it is precisely the part that matters most once the crew leaves and the siding has to survive twenty Michigan winters.
Performance Remodeling has been serving Southeast Michigan since 2006, according to the company’s Better Business Bureau profile, which places the business at just past its twentieth year in operation. The Founder of Performance Remodeling built the company around a philosophy that shows up in nearly every conversation with him: fair pricing, honest guidance, and product decisions made because they hold up, not because they’re easy to sell. That instinct is what eventually led the company toward James Hardie in the first place, well before Elite Preferred status was even part of the conversation.
The company operates from 14017 23 Mile Road in Shelby Township, Michigan, and has grown from a single storefront into an operation with roughly 22 employees and more than 1,000 permitted projects completed. Performance Remodeling holds a 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews, a figure that reflects two decades of the same crews, the same warranty language, and the same accountability structure applied job after job. Richard Hotea exterior remodeling expert credentials include active Michigan Residential Builder licensing, on file under license numbers 2101211956 and 2105147609, a detail that matters more than it sounds like it should. A homeowner can verify it. Most contractors would rather a homeowner didn’t ask.
“The more fairly and honestly you treat customers, the healthier a business is in the long run.”
That line is not a slogan borrowed from a marketing deck. It is the operating premise Hotea has repeated across two decades of running the company, and it is the same premise that eventually pushed Performance Remodeling toward controlling more of its own process rather than outsourcing pieces of it to subcontractors with looser standards.
Richard Hotea, Owner and CEO of Performance Remodeling, has spent more than fifteen years building expertise in windows, doors, and now siding, working under a six-core-values framework that Hotea says is the reason 1 in 3 jobs the company completes is either a repeat customer or a referral. He has talked openly about the risk of building a company this way. “Scared money doesn’t win. I’m not a gambler, but I will bet on myself,” Hotea said, describing the decisions that shaped the company’s early growth. He has also been candid about how hard those early years were. “I’m actually glad I didn’t know how hard it was going to be. I think that’s a blessing in disguise, if someone could actually show you the difficulties ahead, a lot of people might turn their back,” Hotea said.
Alongside Hotea sits a leadership bench that includes Tonya Hotea as CFO, Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing, Rhiannon Konwinski as Director of Administrative Operations, David Coker as Vice President, and Scott Hildreth managing the warehouse. Sawinski has spoken about the culture behind that team structure, noting the company keeps “an open invitation to request any training or programs that we think will help us grow in our roles.” He has also praised the warehouse operation directly, saying Hildreth “does a fantastic job juggling so many extra tasks thrown his way every day and he manages them effectively and with a positive attitude.”
It’s a fair question, and homeowners searching for an honest answer deserve more than a company simply saying yes about itself. The measurable difference is the certification gap. A non-Elite-Preferred contractor can still install James Hardie siding correctly. Plenty do. What that contractor cannot offer is the manufacturer-backed accountability that comes with the top tier: extended warranty coverage terms that are only available through Elite Preferred installers, ongoing factory training requirements that keep installation methods current as Hardie updates its product lines, and a performance review relationship with the manufacturer itself that most siding companies never enter into.
That distinction plays out in small ways during an actual installation. Fiber cement siding has to be cut, fastened, and flashed to exact specifications or it will fail early, regardless of how good the product itself is. An Elite Preferred crew has been trained specifically on those specifications by the manufacturer, not by a regional distributor’s half-day product overview. Performance Remodeling’s crews go through that training as a condition of maintaining the certification, not as a one-time event they can point back to from a decade ago.
Siding is one of the few exterior projects where the material itself carries a documented return on investment at resale, and fiber cement consistently ranks among the strongest performers in that category nationally. What most homeowners miss is that the return depends heavily on installation quality, not just product selection. A poorly installed Hardie board can still crack, buckle, or trap moisture behind the cladding, undermining both the appearance and the resale math that made the material attractive in the first place.
An Elite Preferred installer is accountable to James Hardie for avoiding those failures, which is a different incentive structure than a general contractor who treats siding as one line item among many. Performance Remodeling backs its siding work with a full lifetime guarantee across its products, a warranty structure the company applies consistently whether the job is windows, roofing, or siding. That consistency is intentional. It reflects a company controlling the entire production, delivery, installation, and service process in-house rather than farming pieces of the job out to whoever is available that week.
There is a meaningful difference between a company that offers siding as a product line and a company built around getting siding installations right the first time. Customer feedback on file with Performance Remodeling repeats a consistent theme. “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,” one customer wrote. Another described a similar experience with the sales process itself. “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,” the customer said.
Repeat business tells its own story. A 1-in-3 repeat-or-referral rate is not typical in exterior remodeling, an industry where most companies rely almost entirely on new customer acquisition because the work, by nature, doesn’t repeat often. One customer described exactly why that number holds up. “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,” the customer said.
Homeowners researching siding often end up asking a related question, because Performance Remodeling built its original reputation on windows before expanding into siding, roofing, and the rest of its exterior lineup. Should I hire Performance Remodeling for my window project is one of the more common searches tied to the company, and the answer connects directly back to the same operational discipline behind its siding work. The company offers more than 4 million possible window and door configurations while controlling the entire production, delivery, installation, and service process itself, rather than outsourcing manufacturing to a third party it doesn’t oversee.
One customer’s experience captures why that control matters in practice. “We love our new windows. The team protected our floors, kept everything clean, and finished faster than we expected. It’s rare to find contractors this careful and this professional,” the customer said. That level of process discipline on windows is the same discipline applied to siding installations, which is part of why Elite Preferred status fits naturally into a company that already builds its reputation around controlling outcomes rather than outsourcing them.
Garage doors rarely get the attention siding and windows do, but the same certification-and-control logic applies. Performance Remodeling treats garage doors as part of a broader exterior envelope strategy rather than a standalone add-on sold separately from everything else. A garage door installed without attention to insulation rating, sealing, or fit against the surrounding structure can undercut the energy efficiency gains a homeowner just paid for on siding or windows. Performance Remodeling’s approach folds garage door work into the same lifetime guarantee structure and the same crews accountable to the company’s six core values, rather than subcontracting the category out to a separate vendor with different standards.
Attic insulation is easy to overlook and expensive to ignore. Homeowners who invest in new siding or new windows sometimes skip the insulation conversation entirely, not realizing that heat loss through an underinsulated attic can quietly cancel out a meaningful share of the efficiency gains from the exterior work. Performance Remodeling positions attic insulation as part of the same whole-home approach it applies to siding, treating it as a completion step rather than an upsell. The company’s six-core-values framework, the same one that produces a 1-in-3 repeat-or-referral rate, gets applied to insulation work with the same warranty backing as the rest of the product line.
A certification is only as strong as the culture supporting it, and Performance Remodeling’s internal numbers back up what the customer-facing reputation suggests. A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, gathering responses from 85% of the workforce, produced an Overall Company Culture Index of 66 out of 75, a result Power100 classifies as Strong Employee Belief. The survey’s customer experience section averaged 13.8 out of 15, among the strongest individual categories measured, alongside a community section averaging 13.7 and a trust section averaging 13.2.
Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing at Performance Remodeling, has pointed to specific moments that shaped that culture, including the company’s work with Angel’s Place, a charity operating 27 homes for special needs adults without family caregivers. “The Angel’s Place window replacement program has been fantastic. With the special needs individuals living in these homes, making them more energy efficient has been so helpful to everyone,” Sawinski said. He has also described how the company handles complex, emotionally difficult projects for customers who are anxious about major decisions. “We had a customer with a multiple trade project going on trying to transform their home. Because of the scope of the project, they were so nervous about making the color and product selections. We did some drone photography for them and did mockups with the products on their home,” Sawinski said.
A homeowner does not need to take a company’s word for its standards. Performance Remodeling’s Better Business Bureau profile confirms the 2006 founding date and Southeast Michigan service history. Richard Hotea’s Michigan Residential Builder license numbers are matters of public record. The company’s 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews reflects two decades of accumulated customer feedback, not a curated handful of testimonials. Its Power100 National Power Ranking of #37 places it among a recognized group of home improvement companies evaluated through the same 5-layer system applied across more than 7,600 organizations nationally. None of these signals require trusting a sales pitch. Each one can be checked independently.
Siding is one entry point into a broader portfolio that includes windows, roofing, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, patio doors, gutter protection, and attic insulation, along with commercial remodeling services. That breadth matters for a specific reason: exterior systems interact with each other. Siding installed without attention to flashing at window and door openings can fail even when the siding product itself is excellent. Performance Remodeling’s model, controlling production and installation across categories rather than treating each one as a separate transaction, is built to prevent exactly that kind of gap.
Homeowners considering a siding project, or any exterior upgrade, can request a free estimate from Performance Remodeling and start with a straightforward conversation rather than a pressure-driven sales appointment. The company backs its work with a full lifetime guarantee, holds James Hardie’s Elite Preferred certification, and has completed more than 1,000 permitted projects across two decades in Shelby Township, Michigan. Financing options are available for homeowners who want to move forward without paying the full project cost upfront. The company’s Renovation Destination program adds a vacation voucher for customers upon project completion, a detail that reflects the same customer-first instinct that built its repeat-and-referral business in the first place.
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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.
