It’s hard to miss the expansive Tile Warehouse Kona showroom. “You can see it from the highway,” says Allen Giles, managing director. “We describe it as the house with the 80-car garage.”

Open since 1991, Tile Warehouse got its start in Kona, specializing in tile-setting materials. Now, nearly 20 years later, they have expanded the Kona showroom and, six months ago, they added a Honolulu location.

How did they get their start? “My father, Scott [Giles], had been a general contractor since ’78, then became a tile contractor. At that time, there wasn’t much to choose from in terms of tile, so he opened Tile Warehouse [to fill the need],” says Allen Giles, managing director.

Like many of the staff, Scott, the owner/president of Tile Warehouse, has years of experience in the industry as a general contractor as well as a tile contractor. He understands the products and can help make sure homeowners get the best materials.

Tile Warehouse boasts a large inventory. “We offer a wide variety of stone slabs, stone tile, porcelain tile, glass tile and setting materials,” Allen says.

One of the standouts: “Our Sodalite [shown at left]. It’s this deep blue stone out of South America,” says Allen. “It’s very rare to have such an intense hue.

Quality products, along with a strong reputation and astounding word-of-mouth referrals, have “been our saving grace,” Allen says. “People are loyal, and we always try to deliver as promised. We try to find things that are unique and different that either we have an exclusive on or people recognize as a good product … We’re always trying to be different.”    ­