Winning a National Housing Quality Award requires more than just operating a great building company; it requires real effort. Not only do you have to implement sophisticated operating processes in your company that improve performance, you have to document those processes in an extensive application. Then you have to prove to the judges during a site visit that those processes are actually in place and effective.

This year, the judges selected three winners and two honorable mentions:

Gold: Estes Builders, Sequim, Wash.

Silver: Floor Art, Tempe, Ariz.

Silver: Schuck and Sons, Glendale, Ariz.

Honorable Mentions: Keystone Custom Homes, Willow Street, Pa. and Atlantic Builders, Fredericksburg, Va.

These companies have won in two ways. They have improved their companies and they receive the recognition of the industry for the excellence of their operations.

Sponsored by the NAHB Research Center and Professional Builder, the NHQ Awards have recognized the cream of the crop for nearly 14 years. The process is so difficult that companies usually apply for several years before they get recognized.

Even the companies we don't recognize here are winners. Many applicants use the program as a benchmarking tool to measure how they have improve over time. Every submission receives a judges' report, detailing strengths as well as which areas the judges thought the company could use some shoring up. That report, for many companies, becomes the action plan for improvement over the next year.