Best in Class Winners

Though most of the respondents named products from top manufacturers, our survey showed that the appeal's not all in the name. Our survey found quality (43.4 percent) was overwhelmingly named as most important with remodelers when it came to choosing a product. Second on the list: customer service (17 percent). The category includes product support and knowledgeable sales people. Excellent product selections came in a close third, with 15.6 percent of the responses. Rounding out the top five are all related to elements of customer service, such as product availability (14.2 percent) and, at number five, prices (12.5 percent).

Our survey also revealed some interesting regional differences about the remodeling industry. The Northeast, for example, installs slightly more skylights than in the sun-drenched Western states or in the South. However, less than half of the remodelers (44.6 precent) surveyed in the chilly Northeast report installing fireplaces. And the survey showed remodelers in the Midwest are more likely to work on small-scale jobs than any other region in the country.

Remodelers surveyed ran the gamut of company sizes and specialties. We used their responses to compile a list of the products most often mentioned, and out of that list emerged the winners of the 2006 Best in Class Survey.