When Home Damage Spreads Fast - Disaster Blaster with Matthew Lyons

Water damage doesn’t “just stay in the basement,” and that one fact can save you thousands if you catch it early. I’m joined by Matthew Lyons from Disaster Blaster, a full service property restoration company, to talk through what really happens when moisture, mold, and other hazards show up in your home and what to do before a small problem turns into a major cleanup.

Matthew breaks down the wide range of restoration services his team handles, including water damage mitigation, mold remediation, asbestos abatement, radon mitigation, basement waterproofing, and even highly specialized situations like meth lab remediation. We also dig into a surprising reality homeowners rarely consider: water can keep wicking from wet materials into dry materials until it spreads much farther than you’d ever expect, especially when a leak goes unaddressed for weeks or months.

A big theme here is trust and clarity. Disaster Blasters takes an education-first approach, helping property owners understand what they’re seeing, what’s urgent, and what isn’t. Matthew shares why they’re happy to answer questions, explain confusing home inspection reports, and even tell you when something isn’t mold. He also talks about their own show, the Disaster Podcast, where they turn real homeowner questions into practical, easy-to-use guidance.

If you want smarter, calmer decisions around home restoration and insurance-claim stress, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a neighbor, and leave a quick review so more homeowners can find the help they need.

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Disaster Blasters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Joe Longo.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast Live. Are you in need of some help with your property or your home? Well, something might be a little closer than you think. And today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Matthew Lyons from Disaster Blasters. Matthew, thank you so much for being here. How are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I'm good. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:32

Yeah, I've been looking forward to chatting with you. Could

What Property Restoration Covers

SPEAKER_02 0:36

you uh share with the listeners what is it that you all do?

SPEAKER_01 0:41

So Disaster Blaster is a full service property restoration company. Uh so you know, I I always say, you know, if there's something wrong with your home or you know, something in your home that you want removed, uh, we probably have a service for it. So we do everything from water damage mitigation and mold remediation uh to things like asbestos abatement, radon mitigation, basement waterproofing, uh, meth lab remediation. You know, we have a wide range of services.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

So it it definitely sounds like uh what is that? The fixer from was it Pulp Fiction? It sounds like you might be the fixer.

How Matthew Entered The Industry

SPEAKER_02 1:14

Um how did you get into this business?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Uh well, my my father and I have both been in the industry for quite some time. Uh, he was originally a multi-line claims adjuster uh in the insurance industry that worked his way up to a claims manager. So he was uh eventually managing about 120 some claims offices. Uh and he wanted to to kind of change things up a little bit, knew the industry very well, uh, so entered the property restoration industry uh more with a more of a focus on insurance claims work. Uh, and I kind of followed him. So uh I've been in the industry now for 30 years, and uh, you know, we have a tremendous amount of experience under our roof.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Wow, that that that is a tremendous amount of experience over those years. Um

The Water Damage That Reached Up

SPEAKER_02 2:04

what's the craziest thing you can tell us that you may have taken care of?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Oh, well, I mean, we there have been so many. Uh you know, one of the things that people don't really think about, uh, but you know, water will continue to wick from wet materials to dry until there's nothing left that that's dry. You know, so when you have a water damage that's in a basement, and this is common with like bank-owned properties and things, there's a water issue in a basement that's not addressed. Uh, we've we've handled projects where it was wet all the way to the roof line because it just keeps wicking, and that surprises a lot of people, but it it really, you know, nature just kind of continues to to work, you know?

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Wow, that that's amazing.

Education First Marketing And Their Podcast

SPEAKER_02 2:53

So, in this business that you're in, and really every business, we know that marketing is a huge part of it. So, what are you all doing to attract your target customers and how how are you um how are you connecting with them?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Well, we're very much a an education first uh marketing approach, uh, generally, because uh, you know, a lot of people don't know a lot about uh our their homes, you know, let alone our industry. Uh so we really try to answer the questions that homeowners have uh and try to address those issues for them so that they don't uh, you know, they don't have anything that continues to get worse over time. Uh so that's probably the biggest part of our of our marketing approach is is just uh conveying that we're there uh and we're happy to answer questions or or lead them through any issues that they might be dealing with.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Have you ever thought about having your own podcast and and talking about all of the many issues that your average Joe might not be aware of? We we actually do have a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Uh awesome. It's called uh the Disaster Podcast. Um, and uh we do a lot of small form content, just kind of answering general questions that you know property owners uh ask us in the course of a week. Um and uh we try to we try to release uh episodes as frequently as possible, but as you know, it's quite a lot of work.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Yeah, it it definitely is. So

Life Outside Work And Honest Answers

SPEAKER_02 4:20

what are you doing for fun outside of the cleanup world?

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Uh when I when I do have free time, I do like to travel. Um and uh I'm I'm a bit of a of a foodie. Uh so I I try to eat out as much as I possibly can and try different different places and things.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

That's awesome. Uh, can you tell our listeners what's one thing you would love for them to remember about disaster blasters?

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Uh I I would can I would want them to understand that we're always there to help, you know. So it may not necessarily, you know, be something that they really need our help with. You know, sometimes when someone sees something, you know, on the wall or or what have you and they get nervous uh and they give us a call and we come out to look at it, if it's not mold, we'll tell them that. You know, because you know, we understand, and we've been in situations where we didn't know, uh, not with our industry specifically, but you know, you don't know the the answer to a question. So we're always more than happy to share that uh with them. Um just to kind of help them through whatever they're dealing with. You know, it's the same with buying a house and you get the home inspection report, and you don't really know what's a big deal or what we we're happy to break that down.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Oh, that's wonderful information to know as well. It's just when you get that report to say, hey, could you help me make make sense of this, please? Yeah,

Where To Find Them And Nominate

SPEAKER_02 5:44

um can you tell our listeners uh where they can find more about you and your company?

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Uh our website, uh disasterblaster.com, has a a tremendous amount of information uh for property owners and and uh those intending to buy property. Uh and uh we also are very active on social media and we're pretty much everywhere. So uh, you know, whatever your favorite platform is, feel free to look us up. And uh, you know, there will be a lot of great content there for you too.

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Wonderful, wonderful. Well, Matthew, thank you so much for your time and for sharing some stories with us. We really appreciate you and all that you do, and we wish you all of the success in the future.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

Thank you very much. I appreciate you having me.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GMPmpa.com. That's gmpm.com. Or call 570.