Experts Offer Their Help

By Layla Kalinen
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
ST JOHNSBURY, Vt. — Chad and Kristina Roy are offering free water remediation consultations to anyone whose homes were flooded.

The Roys have spent decades in the structural drying and biological containment fields and are even cited by a Cambridge professor.

The Roys retired six years ago, but when Covid hit they felt the need to share their understanding of virus movement in TikTok videos that received 500 million views. Now, the Roys continue to work as consultants.

In 2020, the Roys joined the civilian biological defense company CIMRTech and its owner Alton Holt. The company has developed systems to kill mold and aerosolized biological threats such as Covid.

And more recently, they have been working with Regen Hubs International to assist quantum ecologist Ken Bellemy, owner of VRMbiologik . In 1989 Bellemy discovered bacteria that gets energy from ultraviolet and infrared light as well as the consumption of methane gas. They are now working to use bacterial photosynthesis to create water in soil and allow food crops to grow 24 hours a day and sequester nutrients out of the air — eliminating the need for additional fertilizers in creation of a nutrient dense food.

With years of experience, the Roys are excited to help with human health around the world.

Chad Roy, in an interview with the Eagles Times, sketched out a simple three-step beginners blueprint for homeowners to recover from the flooding.

Roy said “step one is to remove everything that makes a fertile environment for bacteria and mold.”

“If you have 6 inches of water in your basement, even if it’s gone, you want to cut your drywall and remove all porous material from your basement to avoid what they call SBS, sick building syndrome, which could set in like a Petri dish down there.” Roy explained, “You have not only the bacteria and other contaminants that were in the groundwater, but you also have the mold spores… Every house has mold spores and they just need the right place to grow.”

Porous materials include any cardboard boxes, clothes and carpet, as well as your affected drywall, Roy said.

“With 6 inches of water it’s recommended that you remove at least two feet” of drywall, he said. “If you had over a foot of water, it’s recommended that you do a flood cut,” Roy said explaining how four-feet of drywall should be removed around the entire perimeter.

Roy said the second step is to focus on floors.

“Then remove that damaged flooring material,” he said.

A linoleum floor or a rug might look good, but moisture can be trapped beneath it he warns.

“There’s no way that you can sanitize underneath your linoleum or carpet pad effectively. A rug shampooer for carpets cannot reach under the pad between the carpet and floor underneath.” Roy said. “It’s like washing your clothes, you can either put your clothes in a washing machine or you can take a wet rag and wipe the spot off, but your spot is still going to bleed through to the backside of your shirt.”

Bacteria and mold start taking colonizing the space in just 24 to 72 hours, he cautions. A fan pulling air from upstairs into the basement and then exhausting aerosolized contaminants outside can help dry things out and reduce risks from bacteria and mold.

The third step is to sanitize and dry the affected areas.“After the flood you might not have a sick building, but you may have a sick basement,” he said. “So, after you remove all the wet material … take your soapy water or an EPA approved sanitizer and spray all areas affected. Then with your power washer or hose, you’ll want to rinse everything down and shop vacuum it up off the floor,” Roy said. “I know it sounds foolish, you’re getting it all wet, but you want to wash your house just like you would a car.

“Finally, at that point, then you want to place some fans down there having even air flow on all wet surfaces if possible. And open your windows to get the moisture to evaporate out of there. The industry standard is placing a box fan, for example, every six feet or so at an angle towards your walls because you want air flow to go around your basement.”

He also recommends adding heat, even in the summer, to speed the drying. You can do this by adding electric heaters or if you have radiant heat, turning it on.

The Roys have made their life’s work out of studying the habits and the evolution of contaminants there invisible movement and the proper protocol for mold testing, inspections and eliminating biological threats.

“We were in that industry, including biological containment, for about 30 years. My wife and I have had multiple companies,” Roy said, “Cleanway Services, Restoration Pros, Kingdom cleaners and a few other mitigation companies… We used to do a lot of work for the state of Vermont with moisture mitigation, troubleshooting, crime scene cleanup and biological containment.” Roy said.

They sold their company six years ago.

Roy urges people to email a description of their photographs and videos of their problem, their concerns and questions.

“Typically, what I’ve done before was have individuals send me pictures or a video of what they have going on and then we can do an assessment pretty easily from the videos and how high the water was.”

Both Chad and Kristina Roy have been accredited fungal spore analysts for more than a decade. If you suspect you have mold growth, Roy encourages people to take clear scotch tape and make horseshoe shape with the sticky side facing the surface to be tested. Press the tape into the affected areas and then tape it to a labeled sandwich baggie which can be sent to the Roys for microbial identification. The label should specify where in the house the sample was taken.

The Roys water mitigation consultation services are free for individuals affected by the recent flooding. To contact them email [email protected]

Additional information about water remediation and contact information for Chad Roy can be found at

http://www.tiktok.com/@chadroyvermont and

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-roy-87842b47.