Making a Kitchen or Bathroom Upgrade?
Meet Nova Tile & Stone
Many homes in the Reno-Tahoe area have embraced the mountain modern aesthetic in recent years — for new builds and remodels alike. Picture it: raw edge wooden countertops, smooth stone floors, and unique fireplaces made from organic materials.
If you’re a homeowner in the area, you’re in luck — everything necessary to complete this look can be found at Nova Tile & Stone. The business was founded in 2005 by a local Nevada family. Dick and Diane Hartman started the effort along with their son, Todd Hartman and his wife, Amy. They began providing tile and home-building accessories from their small shop in Minden, where they aimed to change the building supply game by providing a local outlet for materials where customer service was a priority.
In 2008, the business began offering what is now its specialty: natural stone slabs. Specifically, they stock a large variety pre-fab slabs, meaning that customers can buy small pieces of the materials cut to the general size they need. Director of Business Development Shaun Klein explains why this is benefits a homeowner who has a project in mind.
“When you’re trying to do a smaller remodel, you don’t need a whole slab. As a dealer, we can’t [just] sell a whole slab to someone [doing a small project],” Klein says. “Pre-fabs make it easier for say, a homeowner who just wants to do a quick vanity, to just buy one piece. It makes the barrier of entry for putting in granite countertops a lot lower for the average homeowner.”
In 2012, the shop underwent its first expansion, building a new store in Sparks and relocating its Minden facility to a larger warehouse, to now occupy 42,000 square-feet of space between the two. Then in 2018, a third branch opened in Fernley. Today, customers can buy everything from full-sized or pre-fabricated natural stone and quartz slabs to carpet, luxury vinyl plank (LVP) flooring, hardwood and vinyl flooring, tile, and made-in-house butcher block, and see it all displayed in the largest slab showroom in Northern Nevada. Later, the Sparks location was moved to Reno, to a warehouse that measures at an impressive 60,000 square feet and is open for all to explore and brainstorm their next projects. The business currently has three locations, in Reno, Fernley, and Minden.
“Our process effectively is when someone comes in the store, we try to make ourselves a one-stop design shop for all of those finished surfaces. We have in-house design assistants that help people pick their materials. You can grab the tile off one of our sample walls and hold it next to the granite slab you’re interested in and make sure that they match. We have a very hand-held service to everybody that comes in our doors,” Klein explains.
And the way to see it? On a golf cart, he laughs.
“We have Nova golf carts in our showroom. It’s so big that we want people to be able to see all the slabs without becoming exhausted walking through our warehouse. Our showrooms are open to anyone to start brainstorming and utilize that as a design center while they figure out what they want to do,” he says.
For Klein, the best part is seeing the way these materials are used in people’s home designs.
“[B]eing in the shop and seeing a big slab of granite that looks beautiful in and of itself and then getting pictures from homeowners of how they’ve had that cut and crafted to where it flows across their countertops or along their walls; seeing the natural state of something moving into an installed finish … that’s always pretty interesting,” he says.
Klein explains that the value of using natural stone — such as granite, quartzite, or marble for example — is that every piece is unique. Since no two pieces are alike, people get something that’s one of a kind. And being made from a super durable material, stone walls and countertops are likely to remain in good condition for a very long time.
Prospective customers — or anyone simply dreaming of a future project — are encouraged to drop in at one of Nova Tile & Stone’s three locations in Reno, Minden, and Fernley.
Nova Tile & Stone
12835 Old Virginia Road, Reno • 775-331-6682
1855 Hwy 95 Alt., Fernley • 775-575-6682
2548 Business Pkwy., Minden • 775-783-4970
Novatileandstone.com
