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Electrical Remodeling in Wesley Chapel, FL
Remodels and Conversions|What Pasco's ADU Rule Means for the Wiring|Licensed & Insured, EC13011268
Say whether it's a garage, a room, or a kitchen you're changing.
A Wesley Chapel garage, or part of a house, can now become a second home on the same lot where zoning allows. Pasco County announced its accessory dwelling unit rule in December 2025. Under it, the garage door comes out, and the opening is closed, and the county may require the new unit to run on the house's existing electric connection.
Call (352) 251-2795, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or send a request online. Calls after hours are returned the next business day.
Pasco's ADU Rule
What Pasco's ADU Rule Does to a Garage's Wiring
The county defines an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, as a separate, self-contained living space with its own kitchen, bathroom, and sleeping area. A garage conversion counts, and so does an interior conversion such as an attic or a wing of the house. The size limit is 1,200 square feet of living space, and a lot gets only one.
The rule covers zoning districts that allow single-family homes and master-planned unit developments (MPUDs) where single-family homes are a principal permitted use. That second group matters in Wesley Chapel, where many planned communities are zoned as MPUDs. The county's exceptions include developments with their own ADU rules and properties whose restrictive covenants prohibit a unit, so read your deed restrictions first.
A detached backyard cottage qualifies under the same rule, but it's built from the ground up.
A second kitchen on the first home's service
Sharing the house's electric connection puts a second kitchen, the unit's heating and cooling, and a second water heater, if the unit gets one, on the service the house already has. The electrical code requires that the occupants of a dwelling have ready access to the breakers for their own circuits, which a subpanel inside the unit provides.
When the main panel hangs in the garage
If the house's panel is on a garage wall, the conversion is built around it. A panel needs clear working space in front of it, and it can't end up inside a bathroom or a clothes closet. The household in the main house still needs a way to reach its own breakers once that wall belongs to another home. Where the floor plan can't do all three, relocating the panel becomes part of the project.
| Part of the unit | In the garage today | What the conversion adds |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen and bath | No cooking, counter, or bathroom circuits | GFCI-protected receptacle circuits at the counters and the vanity, a circuit for each appliance on the plan (range or cooktop, refrigerator, microwave, and dishwasher), bathroom lighting, and an exhaust fan |
| Sleeping and living area | A few receptacles and a ceiling light, with no heating or cooling | Receptacles along each wall, switched lighting, arc-fault protection on the new circuits, smoke alarms, and a circuit and disconnect for a mini-split or other cooling equipment |
| The wall where the door was | A door opener plugged in at the ceiling, with its wall button and safety sensors | The opener and its wiring come out with the door, and the new wall is wired like any other wall of the room |
| The unit's entrance | A side door, lit or not | A switched light outside the entry door, which the code calls for at a dwelling's outdoor entrances |
Smaller remodels
When New Countertops or an Outdoor Kitchen Need a Permit
Pasco's list of work that needs no building permit includes kitchen countertops, with a condition in parentheses: no electrical modifications. New counters on the old layout qualify. Move a receptacle for the new backsplash, add one to an island, or hardwire lights under the cabinets, and the job now includes electrical work, which the same list says needs a permit, whatever the job costs.
An outdoor kitchen built on a lanai's existing concrete or pavers is on the county's list of alterations, its permit type for work that doesn't add square footage. The electrical side includes outdoor receptacles with GFCI protection and in-use covers, plus a circuit for anything built-in, such as a refrigerator or an ice maker.
Before the Wiring
What a Conversion Needs Answered Before the Wiring
1. The county's review
Each ADU proposal goes to Pasco with an affidavit from the owner, and the construction and the wiring both need permits.
2. Circuits that already start in the garage
A water heater, a freezer on its own circuit, an EV charger, the irrigation controller: anything powered from the garage either stays and is built around, or moves and takes its circuit with it.
3. Two homes added up on one service
A load calculation totals the main house and the new unit together. The result shows whether the existing service can carry both and what size the unit's feeder and panel need to be.
Estimates
A Written Quote for the Conversion or Remodel
We don't do upfront pricing. No job has a standard price with us: each one is tailored to the property and the work you've asked for, and priced once we've seen it.
We offer free estimates on installs, upgrades, and replacements in our service area. Estimates aren't free when the job needs troubleshooting or testing to price, falls after hours or outside our service area, needs several meetings to gather information, or is new construction or a custom remodel with multi-party walk-throughs. For most jobs, estimates arrive by email by the end of the next business day, and quotes are good for 30 days.
Custom homes and large or multi-phase projects are estimated as soon as we can, or on the timeline your project sets.
When remodel wiring needs a warranty call
03If something we installed fails because of our workmanship within 30 days of completion, we waive the hourly labor to put it right. Materials Kennedy Electric purchases for your job carry the manufacturer's one-year warranty. To replace defective materials we supplied, or materials damaged by storm, flood, fire, or other acts of God, we charge a reduced warranty labor rate of $50 an hour residential and $75 an hour commercial. The warranty does not cover materials not purchased by Kennedy Electric, work performed by the customer, or materials the customer purchased or damaged. Our warranty terms are printed on the estimate, the invoice, and the receipt, and the product boxes stay with you so you can register each product with its manufacturer.
Reviews
Unfiltered Reviews From Our Google Listing
Straight from Google, in our customers' own words.
Can the unit have its own electric meter and its own bill?
We're finishing the garage as a game room, with no kitchen or bath. Is that an ADU?
Contact us
Wesley Chapel Remodel and Conversion Estimates
Send the address, a floor plan or sketch, and whether the space will be its own dwelling or part of the house. Our office will call you back during business hours.