Mold Mentor 11/9/25

Mindy and Boots speak with Zach Duffy from Mold Mentor!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, Boots is just showing me.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
He's like, you're getting very nostalgic on me, because you've
been posting these pictures on your Facebook page of like
you from years gone by, and he actually had hair
car and a mullet even.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
But then you were showing me these pictures about your
brother's bar.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's so tall, it's so diverse, and it's it's Belmont
County and here's a funny.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Beautiful bar.

Speaker 4 (00:22):
It's got he has.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
He had ami scenario day party and drinking, like parking
a horse and buggy outside because they got it around there.
And uh, he had the other day, had some Muslim
fellows in there. He's had blacks in there, He's had
gay guys in there, he has bilbillies in there. Everybody's
and everybody gets along. That's great, and he doesn't put
up with it. And minute someone acts up, he throws
them out.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
He needs to be a sponsor overall, just like our
next guest.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
I don't think they drive that for.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Zach Duffy, you know, but this this station.

Speaker 4 (00:47):
Goes listening right now, six ten goes all the way
down there.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
That's what I'm.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Saying, all right, Just like Zach Duffy with an old mentor, Hello, Zach,
you were supposed to be in studio, but explained to
our there's what happened, because there's been so many times
where I'm sure they've been in these exact same situations.

Speaker 5 (01:07):
Oh, such a bomber. Yeah, and my son Charlie was
going to be joining me again. I know he was
sad man. I think he might have been fighting back tears.
I had to call him and deliver the Blow'll give them.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Roots, will give him a roots, us will give him
more roosters.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
But hey, where where where's the crish at in which direction?

Speaker 5 (01:28):
Well it was actually it turned out to be a
uh stuper wide load that was creeping along at point
five miles on thirty six thirty seven and uh and
so I was already cutting it close, and I was
gonna have to pick up Charlie from a job site.
He's doing a water damage job with our crew today
making some money because somebody had a refrigerator leak and

(01:52):
delaware in their house and it went under the entire
kitchen flooring system and they didn't know how how bad
it was. So when yesterday were they're again today trying
to tear everything out and get things dried up.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
You tear it all out. There's no easy fix, not
for something that's.

Speaker 5 (02:09):
Been going on for months, I know. And so yeah,
it's it's destroyed things that they couldn't couldn't even see.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
That should be an insurance claim, right, it is.

Speaker 5 (02:20):
We're helping them through that.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
There's such a bigger picture to this. Great for you
to have your son, Charlie, who was how old?

Speaker 5 (02:32):
Well I shouldn't say, but he's thirteen, well okay, teenage?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeers just say that they're working, getting you know, get.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Kids out there and work.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
My sister, I hope she's listening right now. She loves
when kids work because so many of them are entitled
and they just take their parents' money instead of looking
for little odd and jobs. Good for him to get
out there, get dirty and get paid. That's outstanding, Zach.
Really good for him. I know you agree with that, dudes.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Mm hmm. I think kids that have everything should still work.
I don't care.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
You learn bad bosses, bad scheduling, bad customers, bad life,
and then when you get older, you're like, been there,
done that.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know what Zach in boots When COVID happened, and
my kids were a senior and a junior in high
school and schools were locked down. Everything was locked down.
You know what they did, They went out and got jobs.
Cameron started working at Giant Eagle and my son Kylon
start working there in Sunbury at that Ace.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Hardware should I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
She just did like the cashier out, great personality with everybody.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
And Kylin the same way.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
When you work at a young age, you I think
have so much more of a respect for money and responsibility.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
I really do.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
Responsibility are money, Yeah you learned, Yeah, I kill it now.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I'm just no, seriously, because that's your money. You got
some you got some dog in a fight, or some
tight in the game. Whatever they say, So Zach, go ahead.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
Well, we our kids are either in sports, you know, competing,
or if they choose not to, they work. We encourage
them to make the job and become competitive in the workforce.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
You know what, We've all had bad bosses, and I've
said it on here a hundred times. The thing about sports,
when a ref makes a bad call, or you've got
a bad coach, it doesn't start you because the other
kids parents knows the coach or paying the most money.
When you get older and had the biggest idiot boss
like I had at that Big four dealership.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
He didn't bother me.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
I'm like, whatever, dude, you're nothing compared to what I
went through because sports want everything to me. So that's
great that your kids are supports, you know what to
all be successful. You show me a kid in most
cases that was raised right, brought up right, had a
part time job through high school, and played sports. I
guarantee it's on. Would hire them in a second, because
if we know they've been there.

Speaker 5 (04:52):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (04:53):
Dog's choking here.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
I've got my little dog, Whopper. It's funny, I say little.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
She's the littlest dog that we have before.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Her name Wapper.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
She's so old, she's losing her hearings, she's losing her sight.
But she wanted to come with me today. After we
left Indian Lake, Randon took the other three home. I'm like,
I'll bring Wopper with me. So she's sitting on my
lap and she's a load, didn't she boots?

Speaker 4 (05:10):
Oh yeah, she's a big but Zach.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
That was one of the things that you were going
to talk about was the challenge of raising suns and
raising them the right way. Earlier in Raw we talked
about guys being in girls' locker rooms.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
What do you do as a dad to.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Tell them right from wrong? In today's world?

Speaker 5 (05:29):
Wow, conviction, conviction is huge. I'm talking to my sons
about what is conviction? How do you know when you're
you're convicted? And what do you do about it? And
and it's very it can simplify things because you know,
it goes from like trying trying to figure out in
their head should I do this? Should I do that?
The temptation of any given situation. And and but if

(05:52):
they if they can get in tune, I'm trying to
get them aligned with with their their gut instincts, you know,
the Holy spirit conviction they they know, oh, in the stomach,
almost right from wrong when the head can't figure it out.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
Had some more conviction, No, you always have.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
I always think an animal house where the guy had
the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
It's listens to the devil. What can we do about that?

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Both?

Speaker 3 (06:19):
You got to learn your lessons too. You can't raise
perfect kids. You show someone as a perfect kid, I'll
show you someone. Your kids are closed you start, but
they still have everybody has their.

Speaker 5 (06:28):
Issues, yeah, and and consequences for it. They're different, Like
they're so different, man, they the wooden parenting solution doesn't work.
Like what works for one kid doesn't work for the other. Yes, yes,
and so it's it's the adventure is figuring them out,
like navigating all of their uniqueness individually and figuring out
how to how to motivate and then teach them to

(06:51):
be self motivated, because it's what works for my oldest,
isn't working for the next one down and then the
next one down, and there's it's never ending. There's four
more behind the next one. That all time.

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Now that Randy's a head coach again at a basketball
program at christ Ray, it's the same thing when you
are a coach, because every player is different and you
have to learn to motivate each one in a different way.
And sports and athletes have changed so much through the years.
They're not nearly as tough as they used to be. Like, Boots,
I don't know if you'd ever survived today if you

(07:23):
had teammates like it's just it's a softer society.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
But they're so wimpy nowadays. But you know what what
I tell kids nowadays, you have every opportunity in the
world because you step up to the plate, you play
a little harder dedicated. You know, Wayne Gretzky, John Elway,
any great person we've ever watched, always stayed after Joe
from peak retirement. He stayed after and shot, got up

(07:47):
in the morning and shot.

Speaker 4 (07:49):
And so many kids.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
Are like all practice over five, I go smoke some wheat,
play video games.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, are something stupid?

Speaker 2 (07:55):
So so, what's your biggest challenge, Zach, as a father
of sixteen, not really the.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
Close biggest challenge is time management. I would love to
say that I figured out how to spend one hour
individually with each kid per week. I would love to
be able to take my fifteen year old out for
an hour, and then my thirteen year old and my
eleven year old, and then date my wife on Friday nights,
and but time management, there's not enough time. So you

(08:23):
have to get creative and and find times where that
are sort of unconventional. If I can't spend an hour
with one of them and I know they're in need
of that time, then you know, maybe I'm driving them
somewhere and I take the opportunity to be intentional about
the conversation and getting into their heart. Time management, every

(08:43):
minute counts when there's this many kids.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Saying, I know seven, but it's got to feel like
sixteen or seventeen.

Speaker 4 (08:54):
Seven you have the ultimate middle child, then.

Speaker 5 (08:57):
That's right, and you know you made it. You know
how when you're a parent of like the third kid,
you'll catch your time when you like say the wrong name.
You say that the other kid's name, and then you
correct yourself and it's like everybody gets a laugh in
the room because I said I called you the other
kid's name. Yeah, well, you know you you know you've
had a lot of kids when you've said not two names,
but you you've you've actually miss guests twice. So Charlie,

(09:20):
you're Sam Maximus.

Speaker 1 (09:22):
Oh my god, one goes right down the pecking order.

Speaker 5 (09:26):
Yeah, and then everybody nobody laughed at the room. You
kind of stare like it was quiet.

Speaker 3 (09:32):
So let me ask you a question. Did you want
seven kids or you just loved hanging out your wife
that much.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
You're a Catholic family.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
You know, no love hanging out. I do love hanging
out with my wife that much. We didn't set out
to have seven.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
Kids because nobody does nowadays.

Speaker 5 (09:46):
They were like pringles for us. So once you pop,
you can't stop sort of a saying, ye, we're having
so much fun having babies. And I'll never forget this
conversation when after like three, maybe the fourth kid, I
told my wife I'd always in a marriage where we
would like to be free to travel. I love adventure
and travel. And I told my wife one time, like

(10:06):
we both wanted more kids, and I'm thinking, but honey,
we're not going to travel. Like if the more kids
we have, the less likely we are to travel. And
that's like and she goes, she stopped me in my
track and she said, zack for me. She goes, I
know you want to travel for me. The kids are
the adventurer.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Well, one of these.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Days we're going to have to have her in studio.
It's one thing to talk to a dad of seven kids.
We have to hear from your wife as well.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
But stay on the.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Line because the weather's changing, it's getting colder. What does
that mean for people's basements and moldmentor coming to the rescue?
So can you hang on the line, Zach, I will all.

Speaker 3 (10:41):
Right, raw Mindie Boots always protect by the unfeeded America
made tattletalel arm system from the Hartlem Meg Studios.

Speaker 4 (10:46):
On news radio six ten w TV.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
In with me, Oh you go go dolive me.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Hey, I'm not yoga. Name this group, Utsy, it's not
really yet, but name it.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Weake me. It's a guy.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
Oh that's got to have faith.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Guy, Yes he did, all right, zag duffy with mold Mentor.
Please look up mold Mentor because these are the kinds
of people and companies and businesses that you want to
support who are out in their.

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Community doing great things.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Have seven kids, so they need the financial backing from
all of us to hire.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
Them, right, Boots.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yes, So the weather is changing, it's getting colder. What
does that do to our basements and your job as
mold Mentor owner.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
Well, it's does temperatures drop relative humidity begins to increase.
And that's the whole science conversation that we're not going
to unpack today. But yeah, make sure your vents are
open in your basement heat your basements, don't. People close
their basement vent and often in the summertime because or
in the winter time or whenever they close it, they

(12:01):
forget to open them. And you need circulation in every
part of your home, including the basement. Everybody, go down
check your vents in your basement. If they're closed, to open.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Them, what would what would that do? Because the heat rises? Right?

Speaker 5 (12:14):
Yeah, so why not heat your basement and then let
that heat come upstairs? Right? People? Sometimes I've heard I
don't want to don't go down there.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
Oh that's did they just close the vents because they
think they're saving money?

Speaker 1 (12:25):
Is that right?

Speaker 5 (12:26):
They think they're either saving money or they're redirecting more
heat to the upstairs.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
So you're you're saying the heat will fall to the floor,
that's the anything I'm on the way if the heat
comes out of vent then and goes straight.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Up to the rafters, or does it actually heat the
I'm not that smart.

Speaker 5 (12:39):
Heat rises, So if you heat your basement, you're going
to heat the rest of the house. Anything you do
to the basement air rises. It's called the stack effect
in a home. So poor air quality in a basement
means poor air quality everywhere above it. And so but
but we're talking also circulation. So what happens if you
cut off circulation to part of your body for too long,
bad things happen. If you cut off circulation to your

(13:01):
basement for too long, bad things happen. And often it's
mold growth. Yes, open your vents in your basement as
it gets colder, make sure those are open, all the
way open, all of them open.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
But there's something that you said about humidity and cold
weather or cold air. I would think it would become
more humid in the heat.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
It does become more humid, but relative human So humidity
comes in from from the from the exterior during the summer,
but inside the home and the envelope of the home
when when temperatures drop, the relative humidity can increase. We
can see more issues with humidity as as temperatures come down,

(13:43):
surprisingly in a basement, and so there's like fuzzy mold
growth that occurs.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Okay, wow, Yeah, everyone in Franklin County that I know
has a sump pump.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
Do you have some pump?

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Yes, everybody I know has some pump. Go bad now
two times my life, Yeah, I know. I've had to
have multiple times, two times in my life because two
of my friends some pumps let them loose. I had
to go through three one one was five foot of water.
To get over and put a new sump pump in
to help them get it pumped out because they were

(14:16):
both freaking out. Okay, what should I have done as
a person of you know, not caring. I I haven't
really put swim trunks on and went down like I
was wanting to a pool in my one buddy's house.

Speaker 5 (14:27):
Ew And.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
Luckily it popped the.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Fuse already and I was able to go down, pull
the old pump out, plug new one in, and then
we flipped the fuse panel back on. What should I
have done to protect my health before I went into
that water?

Speaker 5 (14:44):
Well, I mean pinch your nose really, okay, Okay, yeah,
I don't. I don't think going into the water breathing
the air if there's multipores in the air, if muld growth.

Speaker 4 (14:56):
Has occurred as it was, the one was bad.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
Okay, yeah, well so not not a COVID mask. That's
not going to do anything. You need in You need
a P one hundred coparator, okay, if you're going to
protect your airway from mold.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
But does mold live in the water that I was in?

Speaker 5 (15:15):
Not necessarily good?

Speaker 4 (15:16):
Okay.

Speaker 5 (15:17):
The water can be loaded with micotoxins. Or you know
other if it sewage water or is it just storm water.
There can be bacteria and viruses in water, absolutely, but mold.
Mold needs to live on an organic surface. That's a
food source, just like soil. But it's going to grow
on wood and things. And Kyle Drywall, I'll tell you what.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
If anyone has any issues in their basement along their walls,
if you just think that there's a possibility that there's
mold there.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
If it's there, they'll find it. Mold mentor. That's what
you say, right, Zach.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
And I know that's true because he came to our basement, yes,
and took care of it like that might. We talked
to husband Randy last month and he was so impressed
by the work mold mentor or does, Zach. We can't
say enough good things. And now I know you're working
with my brother and you're going to have to probably
go over to Boots his new basement that he's getting.

Speaker 5 (16:08):
Yeah, yes, we'd love to check it out. I love
what I do, and that's what that's what it takes
as somebody who cares and can't let an investigation, uh,
you know, be left unfinished, right.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
So when it comes to some pumps. What should you check?
Like I always give car tips, what should you do? Good,
down and check it every once in a while. Just
make sure it's working, because when they break, they just break.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
No one tells you, well, yeah, the sumpump isn't a
very is a very important part of the basement drainage.
But you know what else is a very important part
of that basement drainage that you can't see is the
footer drain or the perimeter drain. Okay, that is supposed
to that is supposed to wrap all the way around
the perimeter of your basement along the footer and direct
storm water into the sump pump basin so that the

(16:51):
sump pump can get it out. Oftentimes people have these
perimeter drains that are clogged or smashed. They've been there
for decades and and maybe the pipe system that was
used in the nineties is no longer holding up to
the pressure and of the gravel in the cement and
it's collapsed. So the sump pump can't take water out

(17:12):
of the basement if the drain pipes aren't directing the
water to the sumpump basin. And the only way that
I know if you can inspect those those perimeter drains
is with some sort of a sewer cam. If you
call a company that can do a sewer cam, like
one hundred foot long camera on a scope on it,
you know, they shove it all the way in there
until they either verify that it's all all the drainage

(17:33):
pipes are good or that there is in fact a blockage. Now,
you could pay a company a bunch of money to
just tear up the perimeter of your basement and pull
redo all the drain pipes with a new drain pipe
without having it been inspected. But you might have an
issue with perimeter drainage in your basement even though you
have a some pump having the basin and the sumpump.

(17:55):
If you never see water pouring into the basin or
hear it trickling during a rain, there might be a
reason for that.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
All right, tell people the best way they can reach
and get a hold of you, Zach Duffy.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Go to mold mentorohio dot com.

Speaker 4 (18:12):
All right, brother, we appreciate you. We'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
Then, these are the kind of people you want to hire.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
People who are so passionate about what they do they
love their job and they want to help you. Moldmenttorohio
dot com before you go, zach our trivia or rivia.
Topic is board games. What was your favorite board game
growing up and what is it now?

Speaker 5 (18:34):
Favorite? Was it Monopoly?

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (18:38):
Favorite board game now is chess? Is that a board game?

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (18:42):
It is.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Actually it is just takes too much brain for me.

Speaker 5 (18:46):
Yeah. Well, you know, it's good to wrangle my boys
in the oldest especially and get them on the tough
brain because it slows things down and it tickles part
of the brain that nothing else really does.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
Well, we'll talk to this brother. So rivia is next.
Call the magic number.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Jill's a rating champion.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
If she wins, it's win number four. We need someone
to go up against Jill.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Knock her off her petty. What's the number six one
four a two one nine eight eight six six one
four eight two one nine eight eighty six called in ash.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
She'll be there to take your call. This is uh homicaid.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
Sorry, this is robbed Indian boots always protected by the
unefeated American made tattletale from Harlem Make Studios on news
radio six to ten wtv N