Getting Started 4 min read
One Suitcase, One Second Chance: Sachin Thakur's Epoxy Story in Toronto
He arrived in Canada knowing nothing about epoxy, spent 47 days in prison and learned the trade from YouTube. His first job was a $30,000 metallic floor.
Key takeaways
- Sachin came to Canada as a student in 2021, spent 47 days in prison, and taught himself epoxy from YouTube while rebuilding his confidence.
- His first job, found on Marketplace, was a metallic floor worth about $30,000. A supplier delivered machines, guided him on site and fronted about $15,000 in materials.
- For Canadian garages he recommends polyaspartic over epoxy, because it flexes with freeze and thaw and resists road salt and hot tire pickup.
- Metallic floors scratch more easily, can be slippery when wet, cannot be patched invisibly and can never exactly copy a photo.
Sachin Thakur arrived in Canada in 2021 as a student. He had already worked for seven years back home in India.
“I came over here with one suitcase, one dream, no knowledge about epoxy,” he says. “I’ve never heard this word epoxy ever in my life.”
He enrolled at Niagara College, but he did not finish. He was criminally charged and spent 47 days in prison.
When he came out, he did not feel ready to face people. “I was not confident to meet people, not even my friends,” he says.
Learning from a stranger on YouTube
Scrolling Instagram, Sachin kept seeing the same installer from South Florida. Every day he was traveling and doing floors.
“I’m like, he’s making money, bro,” Sachin says.
He messaged him. No reply. But the installer had a YouTube channel, so Sachin started watching. He wanted to learn something new, and he was not yet ready to go out.
Then he started posting jobs on Facebook Marketplace. The first job that came in was a metallic epoxy floor worth around $30,000.
“Imagine this guy has no idea how epoxy works,” he says. “But this is now or never thing. ‘Cause I was broke, ‘cause I came out of prison. I didn’t have any choice.”
A supplier who took a chance
Sachin took a bus to an epoxy supplier and asked for help. He bought a kit, got some wooden boards from Home Depot and practiced at home, until the smell of xylene got him kicked out by his landlord.
He moved, with a $30,000 job still waiting. He went back to the supplier and explained he needed machines and had no money.
The supplier said he would support him.
“Sometimes you find God in a person,” Sachin says.
The supplier delivered the machines to the job site, because Sachin had no car or truck. He came to the site and guided him “from A to Z.” He also fronted about $15,000 in materials, to be paid back when the check came in.
“The first job that came out was superb, 10 out of 10,” Sachin says. “Then there was no looking back.”
The catch with metallic floors
Metallic floors were in very high demand in Canada for a couple of years, Sachin says, but that demand is now going down. He is honest with homeowners about the downsides.
- Scratches. “If you have dogs at your house, it’s easy to scratch,” he says, even with a polyurethane topcoat.
- Slips. A wet metallic floor can be hard to see and slippery.
- Repairs. “The biggest catch is it is impossible to repair. You cannot repair a patch [in] metallic floor.”
- Copies. Clients sometimes bring a photo of a floor they want. The colors can match, Sachin says, “but the pattern, nope. It can never be the same.”
Prep, cracks and heated floors
“Without grinding, epoxy is not possible,” Sachin says. Cracks must be repaired before the floor is coated. “If you do not repair the cracks, you will 101% see the cracks.” Repaired properly and covered with base coats, he says, they are not visible.
Many Canadian basements have heating pipes in the concrete. You can coat over them, Sachin says, as long as the pipes are fully inside the slab. His plea to every installer in Canada: “Please turn off the heating system while you are doing the surface prep and when you are doing installing epoxy.”
Polyaspartic for Canadian garages
For a garage floor in Canada, Sachin picks polyaspartic “any day.”
Polyaspartic is a fast curing coating that stays more flexible than epoxy. That matters with freeze and thaw cycles, road salt and hot tires. Epoxy, he says, cures over several days and “becomes like a rock.” In Canada, where expansion joints move, he wants something that moves with them.
Flake size, he says, changes texture, grip and how well the floor hides imperfections and dust. It does not change durability. Older clients in particular often care more about grip than looks.
Busy all winter
You might expect a Canadian coatings business to slow down in winter. Sachin’s gets busier.
Large warehouses often close over Christmas and New Year, so that is when they can be coated. He does mostly residential work in the warmer months and mostly industrial and commercial in winter. “You can say that it’s like twelve month season,” he says.
Based in the Greater Toronto Area, he sees steady demand from commercial and industrial sites where forklifts and heavy traffic rule out other floors. “I don’t see any competition from any alternative system,” he says.
The advice that stuck
Sachin eventually met the South Florida installer who had ignored his first messages. Now they talk often, and they have met in person.
“I feel he’s my first teacher,” Sachin says. “And he would be my first teacher till the time I’m into this trade.”
The best advice he got from him is three lines long.
“Solve your customer problem, protect your cash flow, and prioritize execution over perfection any day.”
“Solve your customer problem, protect your cash flow, and prioritize execution over perfection any day.”
Watch on Epoxy Growth Guy
Clips from the interview
See Sachin Thakur tell it in their own words, on Instagram.