54%built before 1980
How likely is lead paint where you live in Kent County
Kent County's pre-1950 housing share, 22.1%, is the oldest of any county we've pulled data for so far. Grand Rapids carries most of that on its own, 46.2% of the city's homes predate 1950, roughly double the countywide number. This page covers the whole county, Grand Rapids included, so you can check your own address no matter which city or township you're in.
54.0%of Kent County homes were built before 1980
22.1%were built before 1950, the highest-risk years
1977county's median year built
Look up your address
Type a street address in Kent County and see the lead-paint likelihood for that specific census tract, based on how old the housing is around it.
What you can do about it
Test before you renovate
If a home was built before 1978 and you're about to sand, scrape, or demo anything painted, test first. That's when old paint actually turns into dust in the air, and that's the exposure that matters.
A test kit exists for this
Fluoro-Spec test kits spray a surface and glow bright green under UV light if lead is there. No lab, no mailing anything off, an answer in seconds. More at detectlead.com.
Kent County Health Department runs KCLEAR (Kent County Lead Evaluation And Reduction) for lead testing and repair help outside Grand Rapids; call 616-632-6900 or email leadprogram@kentcountymi.gov. Grand Rapids city runs its own established lead hazard program, separate from the county's; this page covers the whole county, Grand Rapids included.
This same address-to-risk lookup runs live for Columbus, Ohio at detectlead.com/columbus. Kent County is the same idea, built on this county's own housing-age data.
Questions about this page
DetectLead
eric@detectlead.com · 631-461-1838
This page is an independent public-information tool built by DetectLead, not an official publication of Kent County and not a county program. Housing-age data is from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 2020-2024 5-year estimates (table B25034), at the census-tract level. Lead-paint likelihood here is estimated from neighborhood housing age only, it isn't a reading of any specific home. Fluoro-Spec test kits are a field screen, not a substitute for an EPA-certified lead inspection where one is legally required.