David Traut

David L. Traut, CAPS, is an award-winning author, master builder, accessibility specialist, and nationally recognized Certified Aging in Place Specialist with more than 30 years of experience helping people create homes that support independence, safety, comfort, and dignity throughout every stage of life.

As Owner and President of T-Square Company in Austin, Texas, David has spent his career designing, building, and remodeling homes for people of all ages and abilities. His work has given him a firsthand understanding of a simple but often overlooked truth: the home that works perfectly for us today may not work as well when our mobility, balance, strength, vision, or health changes.

David believes the best time to prepare a home for the future is before a crisis forces a family to make difficult decisions.

That philosophy inspired his award-winning book, Age in Place at Home: Adapting the Home Environment for All Generations. Drawing upon decades of real-world experience, David created a practical guide to help homeowners and their families understand how thoughtful planning, accessibility, and Universal Design can make it possible to remain safely and comfortably in the home they love.

Rather than approaching aging in place as a collection of medical-looking modifications, David encourages readers to think about the home as a complete living environment. A well-designed home should be easier and safer to use whether someone is 35, 65, or 85, and whether they are fully mobile, recovering from an injury, living with a disability, or simply experiencing the normal changes that come with age.

His philosophy is straightforward:

A home should adapt to the people living in it. People should not have to adapt to their home.

Through Age in Place at Home, David helps homeowners, adult children, caregivers, builders, architects, and designers recognize potential barriers before they become problems. He addresses everything from safer bathrooms, accessible kitchens, entrances, lighting, flooring, stairs, and fall prevention to technology, emergency planning, multigenerational living, and creating a long-term plan for the home.

David's expertise extends well beyond the pages of his book. His career in accessibility began in the private sector and expanded through successful HUD and VA projects throughout Central Texas, giving him extensive experience solving accessibility challenges for people with different physical needs.

He received specialized training in Universal Design through the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the Centre for Universal Design Australia. This background, combined with decades of hands-on construction experience, allows him to approach accessibility differently. Instead of simply adding modifications to a home, David looks for ways to integrate accessibility into the design itself, creating spaces that are functional, attractive, intuitive, and welcoming.

David is also a founding member of the National Aging in Place Council (NAIPC) and a contributing author to its Aging in Place Conversations book project, where he explores the rapidly evolving relationship between housing, accessibility, smart-home technology, healthcare, and aging in place in the most recent book entitled The Housing Addition.

His expertise in Universal Design has been featured in The Austin American-Statesman in articles including “Homes Trending Forward with Universal Design” and “Creating a Home for All Ages.” He has also spoken to organizations supporting people affected by MS, ALS, Parkinson's disease, and other mobility challenges, as well as senior living communities.

Long before his career in construction and accessibility, David developed another way of looking at problems.

He studied neurophysiology at The University of Texas at Austin, where he participated in NIH-funded scientific research that was later published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. That background helped shape the analytical approach he still uses today: understand how people interact with their environment, identify what creates difficulty or risk, and develop practical solutions that improve everyday life.

That combination of science, construction, accessibility, Universal Design, and decades of experience working directly with families gives David a perspective that reaches far beyond traditional remodeling.

For him, aging in place isn't really about grab bars, ramps, wider doorways, or any single home modification.

It is about preserving independence.

It is about helping someone safely prepare breakfast in their own kitchen, enjoy their garden, welcome grandchildren through the front door, sleep in their own bedroom, and continue participating in the routines and traditions that make a house feel like home.

Most importantly, it is about giving people choices.

When David isn't designing, building, consulting, or writing, he enjoys life in Dripping Springs, Texas, with his wife, Kelly. Their home, designed and built by David, reflects many of the principles that have guided his career: thoughtful planning, adaptability, comfort, and creating spaces that continue working as life changes.

He spends his downtime tending raised organic garden beds or relaxing in a hammock beside his koi pond, often thinking about the next project, the next book, or another way to help families prepare for their future.

After more than three decades in the building industry, one idea continues to guide everything David does:

Your home shouldn't determine how independently you can live. Your home should help make that independence possible.

And when a home is thoughtfully planned for the future, home can remain home for a lifetime.