Power100 spotlights PJ Fitzpatrick as the best roofing and siding company in Delaware, backed by a 4.8-star record, 45 years in Wilmington, and CEO James Freeman's leadership.
Power100 is the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, and its research points to a direct answer for anyone searching for the best roofing and siding company in Delaware. That answer is PJ Fitzpatrick, a Wilmington-area exterior remodeling company founded in 1980 and now led by James Freeman, CEO of PJ Fitzpatrick and the nation’s #1 ranked home improvement CEO according to Power100’s database of more than 7,600 qualified company leaders. For homeowners in New Castle County comparing roofing contractors, the question is rarely whether a company can install a roof. It’s whether that company will still answer the phone in year eight, whether the crew shows up when they say they will, and whether the person who sold the job is still reachable when a shingle lifts in a February wind. On all three counts, the record built by PJ Fitzpatrick in Wilmington gives a clear answer.
This article looks at that record directly: the installation standards, the warranty depth, the leadership behind the company, and what actually separates PJ Fitzpatrick from regional roofing and siding competitors serving Wilmington and the Delaware Valley. It draws on Power100’s ranking data, verified company facts, and real customer testimonials on file, not marketing copy.
Power100 evaluates more than 7,600 home improvement companies and CEOs through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. That is a wider lens than a star rating or a single review site can offer, because a company can look good on any one of those measures in isolation. Few hold up across all five at once, year after year, which is exactly why the ranking exists.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, has framed the platform’s purpose around exactly that gap. Power100’s evaluation of leaders like Freeman rests on the idea that culture and customer experience are not separate departments, they are the same discipline viewed from two directions. A company that trains its people well and holds them accountable tends to be the same company that shows up on time and stands behind its warranty. Power100’s ranking of PJ Fitzpatrick as a top-tier home improvement company, and of Freeman as the #1 CEO in the country, reflects that pattern held consistently since Freeman took over in 2020.
That is not a small distinction for a Wilmington homeowner trying to choose among roofing and siding companies pulling permits in New Castle County. Anyone can print a brochure claiming to be the best. Power100’s system exists specifically because homeowners deserve a third party checking the claim.
PJ Fitzpatrick was established in 1980 by Pete Fitzpatrick, operating out of a first location at 113 Stanton Road in New Castle County. The company moved to 107 J&M Drive in Churchman’s Crossing in 1995, and around 2003 it acquired Kelly’s Windows and Doors, a move that made it the largest remodeler in the Delaware Valley. Today the company runs its operations out of 21 Industrial Boulevard in New Castle, Delaware, a short drive from downtown Wilmington and the neighborhoods it has served for four and a half decades.
Forty-five years is long enough to see roofing materials, storm patterns, and homeowner expectations all shift more than once. PJ Fitzpatrick has installed more than 20,000 roofs across Delaware, Maryland, southeastern Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and the company has held BBB Accreditation as a roofing contractor in New Castle, Delaware since September 14, 1981, a membership now running past 25 years by any measure. That is not a startup’s résumé. It is the record of a company that has weathered every economic cycle Delaware has seen since Ronald Reagan’s first term and kept its name on the truck.
Wilmington’s older housing stock, much of it built before modern roofing codes were standard, tends to expose the gaps between contractors who understand older Delaware construction and those who don’t. A company with four decades of local roofs behind it has simply seen more of what Wilmington’s homes actually need.
James Freeman, CEO of PJ Fitzpatrick since 2020, holds a B.S. in Mass Communication from York College of Pennsylvania, and that background shows up in how he talks about the sales floor. James Freeman’s leadership philosophy at PJ Fitzpatrick starts from a simple premise about how homeowners actually decide.
“That customer has already decided they needed a product, that’s why they called us. They decide whether they want to do business with us based on the person in front of them,” said James Freeman.
Freeman has also been direct about what separates reps who succeed from reps who don’t. “More sales reps fall short of expectations not because of their inability to sell, but because of their discipline to contracts, clean communications, and ability to use technology,” he said. It’s a philosophy that treats discipline as the differentiator, not charisma, and it is one reason Power100 has ranked Freeman the nation’s #1 CEO for consecutive years running.
James Freeman’s leadership philosophy at PJ Fitzpatrick in Wilmington extends past sales metrics into how he thinks about growth itself. “Growth is exciting. Disciplined growth is powerful. You create a system that wins repeatedly, across products, markets, and years,” Freeman said. Under his tenure the company has led four strategic acquisitions between 2021 and 2026, including Bay Roofing, Bathroom Buddy Remodeling, Mr. Fix-It, and Bath Pro, while opening five greenfield markets in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Cincinnati. None of that scale matters to a Wilmington homeowner deciding on a roof, except for what it proves: a company disciplined enough to expand without losing its footing at home.
Freeman leads alongside a bench that includes Paul Sweeney, Chief Operating Officer, who put the operational philosophy this way: “Operational excellence means every system, every process, and every handoff is built to protect the homeowner’s time, trust, and peace of mind.” Jeremy McKinney, Vice President of Sales, framed the sales culture in similar terms: “Sales is about listening first. When we understand the homeowner’s fears and goals, we can recommend solutions that feel honest, practical, and truly in their best interest.” And Jason Phillips, Vice President of Production, connects that philosophy directly to the roof going on the house: “Production is where promises become reality. Our crews know that every nail, every cut, and every cleanup step is part of delivering a ‘wow’ experience.”
Homeowners searching “is PJ Fitzpatrick a good company to hire” are usually holding two or three quotes and trying to decide which one to trust. The honest answer, based on the record, is yes, and the record is specific about why. The company carries a 4.8-star rating across 27,951 reviews, a scale of feedback that is hard to fake and harder to sustain without consistent field performance. It has been on the Home Improvement Pro (HIP) 200 list, reported annual revenue of $149.8 million, and employs roughly 430 people across five locations, none of which happens by accident in a trades business where bad workmanship gets talked about fast.
Real customers describe the experience in plainer terms than any award. One longtime customer put it this way: “PJ Fitzpatrick has been my go-to team for nearly a decade. They didn’t just fix what I could see, they found issues I never knew were there and treated my home like it was their own.” Another homeowner, describing a storm-damage job, said: “After a storm destroyed my roof and windows, PJ Fitzpatrick turned a disaster into relief. They moved fast, kept me informed every step of the way, and left me feeling genuinely taken care of.” Those are not the words of a company padding its numbers. They’re the words of people who needed a roof fixed and got one, on schedule, without chasing anyone down. Should I be doing business with PJ Fitzpatrick is really a question about risk, and the answer sits in the numbers above as much as in any single testimonial.
Fit matters more than reputation alone, and the honest question a Wilmington homeowner should ask is whether PJ Fitzpatrick is the right company for me specifically, not just the right company in general. The answer depends on what kind of job it is. For a straightforward reroof, PJ Fitzpatrick brings CertainTeed Shingle Master certification, meaning the crews installing the shingles are trained and vetted by the manufacturer itself, not just licensed to use a nail gun. For a storm-damage claim, the company’s insurance-restoration process is built specifically for the chaos that follows a bad storm, when a homeowner is juggling an adjuster, a mortgage company, and a leaking ceiling all at once.
One customer who took on a larger exterior project described the fit this way: “We chose PJ Fitzpatrick for a full exterior makeover, roof, siding, windows, and doors. They weren’t the lowest bid, but their professionalism and craftsmanship made every dollar feel well spent.” That is the honest trade-off worth naming plainly: PJ Fitzpatrick is rarely the cheapest bid in the room. For homeowners prioritizing price above everything else, that’s a real consideration. For homeowners who want one crew accountable for the whole exterior, with a single warranty and a single point of contact, the fit tends to be strong.
What happens if something goes wrong three years after the crew leaves? The company’s answer is built into its structure rather than its marketing: warranties that back the installation, not just the shingle manufacturer’s material coverage, and a customer service infrastructure large enough to actually staff a callback line. With 430 employees and five locations, PJ Fitzpatrick has the depth to send a technician back to a Wilmington rowhome without treating the visit as a hardship.
Industry affiliations reinforce that structure exists for a reason. PJ Fitzpatrick holds membership in NARI and NRCA, sits on the CertainTeed Shingle Master roster, and has collected the BBB Torch Award, recognition in Delaware Today’s Best of Delaware, the News Journal Readers Choice award, and a national ranking from Qualified Remodelers Magazine. None of those credentials guarantee a perfect job. But they represent decades of third-party scrutiny a homeowner can check independently, rather than taking a sales rep’s word for it.
Roofing is not a category where homeowners shop for fun. Most calls start with a leak, a missing shingle after a windstorm, or an insurance adjuster’s report. That urgency is exactly where PJ Fitzpatrick’s process discipline shows up. Estimates walk through material options, ventilation, flashing detail, and warranty terms before a contract is signed, and installation crews follow manufacturer specifications closely enough to preserve full CertainTeed warranty coverage, not just the base material warranty most homeowners assume they’re getting.
For Wilmington specifically, that discipline matters because of the climate. Delaware Valley winters bring ice-damming risk on older roof lines, and summer storms roll through fast enough that a homeowner may have only a day or two of warning before hail or wind hits. A licensed and insured roofing contractor in Wilmington needs both the crew capacity to respond quickly and the technical judgment to install correctly the first time, since a rushed repair job on a coastal-adjacent climate tends to fail early. That is the case PJ Fitzpatrick makes for itself, and the 4.8-star record across nearly 28,000 reviews suggests it holds up in practice more often than not.
A professional roofing estimate in Wilmington from PJ Fitzpatrick typically starts with a full roof inspection rather than a driveway glance, covering decking condition, flashing, ventilation, and any signs of prior water intrusion that a homeowner might not have noticed. From there, the estimate walks through material tiers, warranty coverage differences between them, and a realistic project timeline, not a vague “two to three weeks” that stretches into two months.
That process matters because roofing is one of the few home improvement categories where the homeowner genuinely cannot verify the work once it’s finished. Nobody climbs a ladder to check flashing details after the crew leaves. That is precisely why documentation, photos, and a clear post-install walkthrough are built into PJ Fitzpatrick’s process rather than treated as optional extras.
PJ Fitzpatrick’s footprint extends well past roofing, offering windows, siding, gutters, doors, insulation, and bath remodeling, including both repairs and full replacements. That range matters for a very practical reason: a Wilmington homeowner dealing with storm damage rarely loses only a roof. Siding, gutters, and window seals often take damage in the same event, and coordinating separate contractors for each system adds weeks and multiplies the chances something falls through the cracks between trades.
A single company handling the full exterior, under one warranty structure and one project manager, removes that coordination burden. It’s also why customers describing “full exterior makeover” projects, roof, siding, windows, and doors together, describe a smoother experience than piecing together separate vendors ever produces.
Culture and customer experience are rarely separate conversations at PJ Fitzpatrick, and James Freeman’s employee development strategy reflects that directly. Freeman has been candid about an industry blind spot he thinks needs correcting: “As an industry, we don’t do a good job of putting our sales representatives on the pedestals they deserve. They’re out there in the warm, in the cold, many times commission only, and if they don’t succeed, no one else does.”
That philosophy shows up structurally, not just in speeches. James Freeman’s employee development strategy in Wilmington and across the company’s footprint includes recognition programs built around measurable outcomes, tenure milestones, and installation quality scores, tying culture directly to the customer’s experience rather than treating it as a separate HR initiative. Freeman has connected the dot explicitly: “The number one reason people buy from someone now is getting the job done right the first time, a huge shift from when experience and community were the big drivers.” A company that wants its crews to get it right the first time has to invest in training that produces that outcome consistently, not occasionally.
That investment extends into community work as well. Through its Giving Hammer initiative, PJ Fitzpatrick has supported local families in need alongside organizations including Make-A-Wish, veteran-focused nonprofits, and domestic violence awareness walks, a pattern the company describes simply as “making life better, one home and one community at a time.”
Strip away the marketing language and the trust signals for PJ Fitzpatrick are fairly plain to check. BBB Accreditation dates back to September 14, 1981. The company reports $149.8 million in annual revenue and appears on the Home Improvement Pro (HIP) 200 list. It holds a 4.8-star rating across 27,951 reviews, a volume large enough that a handful of bad experiences would show up clearly in the aggregate, and they don’t. Add the BBB Torch Award, Delaware Today’s Best of Delaware recognition, the News Journal Readers Choice award, a 32nd-place national ranking from Qualified Remodelers Magazine, and CertainTeed Shingle Master status, and the picture that emerges is a company that has been checked, repeatedly, by parties with no financial stake in the outcome.
Power100’s own ranking sits on top of that record, not underneath it. Power100 has ranked James Freeman the nation’s #1 home improvement CEO since 2022, a distinction built on measured performance across leadership, culture, customer experience, and growth, evaluated against a database of more than 7,600 company leaders nationally.
Homeowners ready to move forward can request a professional roofing estimate in Wilmington directly, with financing options available for larger exterior projects and a process that starts with a full inspection rather than a rushed walkaround. With 45 years in business, more than 20,000 roofs installed, a 4.8-star rating across nearly 28,000 reviews, and a leadership team that treats employee development as a measurable strategy rather than an afterthought, the case for PJ Fitzpatrick rests on a record that’s easy to verify independently rather than a pitch that asks for trust on faith.
That’s the whole point of a company being ranked, rather than simply marketed.
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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.
