Power100 breaks down Performance Remodeling's full project process, consultation to final walkthrough, and why homeowners trust this window and exterior remodeler.
Homeowners rarely fear the price tag on a remodeling project as much as they fear the unknown that comes with it. Who shows up. Whether the crew protects the floors. Whether the person who sold the job is the same one who answers the phone when something goes sideways. Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry through a proprietary 5-layer ranking system, spent time mapping exactly what happens inside a Performance Remodeling project from the first phone call to the final inspection, because process transparency is the thing most homeowners say they want and almost never get. Performance Remodeling, founded in 2006 and based in Shelby Township, Michigan, is led by Richard Hotea, Owner and CEO of Performance Remodeling, and the company has spent two decades building a reputation as a window replacement contractor Detroit area homeowners return to more than once. That reputation now includes a Power100 National Power Ranking of #37 and a 4.7-star customer rating across 953 reviews, numbers that reflect a process, not a promise.
Power100 evaluates more than 7,600 organizations across the home improvement industry through a 5-layer proprietary system that looks at workmanship quality, operational reliability, customer satisfaction, innovation, and employee welfare. A company can score well on craftsmanship and still fail homeowners on communication, so the process layer matters as much as the finished product. Power100 looked specifically at how Performance Remodeling handles the sequence of a job, not just the outcome.
Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, has described what separates a transactional contractor from one homeowners keep coming back to. “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 framing matters here because Performance Remodeling’s own numbers back it up: one out of every three jobs the company completes is a repeat customer or a referral, a figure that only holds up if the process behind the sale is doing its job long after the crew leaves.
Performance Remodeling has been serving Southeast Michigan since 2006, operating out of its Shelby Township headquarters at 14017 23 Mile Road. Twenty years and more than 1,000 permitted projects later, the company still controls the entire production, delivery, installation, and service process in-house, offering over 4 million possible window and door configurations rather than routing customers through third-party manufacturers with their own timelines and their own excuses.
That in-house control is not incidental to the process homeowners experience. It is the reason the process can be mapped at all. When a company owns production and installation end to end, a homeowner gets one point of accountability instead of three or four vendors pointing fingers at each other. Richard Hotea built the company around that principle early, and it shows up in how consistently the stages below repeat themselves, job after job, year after year.
Every project starts with a phone call or a form fill, and what happens next says more about a company than any advertisement. At Performance Remodeling, the first in-home visit is built around listening, not closing. Hotea has talked openly about what separates that approach from the industry’s worst instincts. “Every homeowner is very perceptive,” he said. “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.”
That distinction shows up directly in customer feedback on file. One homeowner said, “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.” Another put it more simply: “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.”
Jason Sawinski, Director of Sales and Marketing at Performance Remodeling, frames the consultation stage the same way. “The right answer for a homeowner never starts with a pitch,” Sawinski said. “It starts with questions, listening, and a clear plan that fits their home, their goals, and their budget for the long run.”
Once the consultation identifies what a home actually needs, Performance Remodeling moves into design and configuration. Because the company offers over 4 million possible window and door configurations and controls its own production, homeowners are not stuck choosing from a narrow catalog built around what happens to be in stock. This stage is where premium replacement windows Michigan homeowners request get matched to the specific performance needs of a house: sun exposure, drafts, older frame conditions, and long-term energy costs all factor into the recommendation.
Pricing gets locked in here, and it gets locked in clearly. Hotea’s own words on this point are blunt. “The more fairly and honestly you treat customers, the healthier a business is in the long run,” he has said, and it is a line that shows up as close to a company mission as Performance Remodeling has. Homeowners are not asked to sign a vague estimate that balloons later. They see the configuration, the materials, and the number, in that order, before anything is scheduled.
Contractor horror stories almost always include a scheduling failure somewhere in the middle. A crew that never shows. A install date that moves three times. Performance Remodeling’s in-house control over production and delivery removes a layer of the supply chain that usually causes those delays. Because the company is not waiting on a manufacturer’s separate timeline, it can give homeowners a realistic install window and hold to it more often than competitors who outsource fabrication.
One customer testimonial on file speaks directly to this. “We love our new windows,” the homeowner said. “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.” That combination, faster than expected and careful throughout, is not an accident. It is what happens when a company that manufactures its own product does not have to build slack into its schedule to cover somebody else’s mistakes.
Installation day is where reputations are made or broken, and Performance Remodeling treats it as a discipline problem more than a labor problem. Crews are trained to protect floors and landscaping before the first window comes out, to keep debris contained, and to walk the homeowner through what was done at the end of each day rather than leaving them guessing until the entire job wraps.
Repeat customers describe this consistency as the reason they call back for a second or third project. “I’ve worked with Performance Remodeling more than once, and every time they prove why I keep coming back,” one customer said. “Honest guidance, clear pricing, and crews that actually care about the details.” That kind of repeat business is not marketing copy. It shows up in the company’s own retention math: one in three completed jobs comes from a repeat customer or a referral, a number few contractors in the window replacement contractor Detroit area category can claim with a straight face.
The last stage is the one most companies rush and Performance Remodeling does not. A final walkthrough means exactly that: someone from the company stands in the home with the homeowner, checks every unit installed, answers remaining questions, and confirms the paperwork on the full lifetime guarantee that backs every product the company installs. Because Performance Remodeling controls production, delivery, and installation, that guarantee is not split across three different warranty documents from three different vendors. It is one promise, backed by one company, for the life of the product.
Richard Hotea has been candid about how few people fully grasp how hard it is to build a company that can make that kind of promise and keep it for two decades. “I’m actually glad I didn’t know how hard it was going to be,” he said. “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.” Home improvement, in Hotea’s view, is also one of the more resilient industries a business owner can bet on. “Home improvement is one of the most economy-proof businesses I can think of,” he said. “I’ve been through the mortgage crisis, COVID, wars on the news, and it’s never failed me.”
Richard Hotea founded Performance Remodeling in 2006 and holds active Michigan Residential Builder licenses under license numbers 2101211956 and 2105147609, credentials that matter to homeowners who want proof a company is legally accountable for the work it performs, not just skilled at selling it. Hotea’s path into the business started young, and he has spent more than 15 years building specific expertise in windows, doors, and the materials science behind energy-efficient installation.
He is not the only name behind the process. Tonya Hotea serves as CFO and has spoken about why financial discipline matters as much as installation quality. “Great remodeling work depends on more than good products,” she said. “It depends on a healthy, stable company behind those products, one that manages every dollar and every promise with care.” Jason Sawinski leads sales and marketing, Rhiannon Konwinski directs administrative operations, David Coker serves as Vice President, Scott Hildreth manages the warehouse, and Audrey Coker supports administration. It is a small enough team, roughly 22 employees across one location, that accountability does not get lost between departments the way it can at larger, franchise-model competitors.
Hotea has also been candid about the risk of building a company this way instead of taking a safer, slower path. “Scared money doesn’t win,” he said. “I’m not a gambler, but I will bet on myself.” That willingness to commit fully to a single, in-house model, rather than hedge with outsourced production, is part of why the process described above stays consistent from job to job.
Homeowners searching for reassurance before they commit to a project often ask some version of the same question: is Performance Remodeling right for me? The honest answer depends on what a homeowner values most. For someone who wants a single point of accountability across windows, roofing, siding, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, and attic insulation, backed by a full lifetime guarantee and two decades of permitted project history, the fit tends to be strong. For someone shopping purely on the lowest possible bid with no interest in warranty depth or process transparency, a different contractor may be a better match, and Performance Remodeling’s own team would likely say so directly rather than force a sale that doesn’t fit.
Richard Hotea has told a story that illustrates this kind of restraint. “I was sent out to a lady just so she’d stop calling us,” he said. “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.” The lesson he draws from it is not about persistence for its own sake. It is about letting the process, and the product, do the convincing rather than the pitch.
A Power100 Company Culture Index survey of the company’s employees, reflecting responses from 85% of the company’s workforce, scored Performance Remodeling at 66 out of 75 overall, a result the platform classifies as Strong Employee Belief. Customer experience scored 13.8 out of 15, community involvement scored 13.7, and trust scored 13.2, section averages that track closely with what customers describe in their own testimonials. Employees also reported a Performance Reflection score of 17 out of 20, indicating strong individual contribution across the team.
The company operates on six core values built around honest pricing and long-term customer care rather than short-term sales targets, and that philosophy extends into community work. Performance Remodeling’s primary community partner is Angel’s Place, a charity operating 27 homes that care for special needs adults who have no one else to care for them. The company has taken on window and door replacement across each of those homes as needs arise, work that does not show up in any sales quota but shapes how employees talk about the company they work for.
Twenty years in business. Over 1,000 permitted projects completed. A 4.7-star customer rating across 953 reviews. A Power100 National Power Ranking of #37 nationally. A one-in-three repeat and referral rate that most contractors in this category cannot match. None of these numbers describe a single great job. They describe a process that holds up across thousands of jobs, which is a different and harder thing to achieve.
Hotea has spoken about the personal side of what that consistency earns. “I knocked on their door and they didn’t recognize me,” he recalled about a returning customer. “He said, ‘We paid double.’ I asked why, and he said, ‘I’m leaving the house to my kids. I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing.’ That blew my mind.” It is the kind of anecdote that does not show up in a warranty document but explains why the process described throughout this article matters as much as it does to the people living through it.
While windows remain the company’s most requested service and the reason many homeowners first search for a window replacement contractor Detroit area team can trust, the same process described above applies across Performance Remodeling’s full portfolio. Roofing, siding, gutters, entry doors, garage doors, and attic insulation all move through the same consultation, design, scheduling, installation, and walkthrough sequence, and all carry the same full lifetime guarantee. Homeowners who start with one project and come back for another are not learning a new process the second time. They already know what to expect, which is a large part of why referrals run so high.
Should I be doing business with Performance Remodeling is a fair question for anyone about to hand over a deposit on a project that will sit on their house for decades. The company’s answer, built into its process rather than its marketing, is that homeowners should expect a documented sequence: an honest consultation, transparent pricing tied to an in-house configuration system, a realistic schedule the company controls end to end, disciplined installation, and a final walkthrough backed by a guarantee that does not expire when a manufacturer’s separate warranty runs out. That sequence, repeated across two decades and more than 1,000 permitted projects, is the actual case for doing business with the company, more than any single testimonial or star rating could be.
Homeowners ready to see this process in person can request a free, no-pressure consultation directly through Performance Remodeling. There is no obligation attached to the first visit, and the same discipline described throughout this article, honest pricing, in-house configuration, realistic scheduling, and a full lifetime guarantee, applies whether the project is a single window or a full exterior overhaul. Twenty years in business and a 4.7-star rating across 953 reviews are not guarantees on their own, but they are evidence of a process that has held up across thousands of homes.
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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.
