Masonry heater spanning modular home central beam

Masonry Heater Design
1

Hi all,

First time poster here. I recently moved from a mostly off-grid tiny house to a grown-up, “real” house (grid connected). The house is all electric, and it makes me panic to think what I’d do in the middle of a northeast US winter (1500ft elevation) if the power goes out for a week. I guess a generator is an option, but I’d love something less noisy.

To ease some of that panic, and since I’m used to being grid independent, my long-term goal (fantasy, even) is to install a masonry heater. The house is an 80’s modular home, constructed in two sections and joined at a central beam spanning the length of the house. There is an existing tiny, 80’s-style wood fireplace that needs work and, because it is located on an exterior wall, isn’t the ideal location for a masonry heater.

I haven’t consulted any professionals yet (none in my area, and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time for a project that is probably years down the road), but my thought is that the best location for a masonry heater is on the interior wall at the central beam. What would make it even better is if I could straddle the central beam and have about 2/3 of the heater in the kitchen and the rest in the living room. The attached photo shows a sort-of floor plan. The brick red rectangle is the existing fireplace. The light purple rectangle is where I’m picturing the masonry heater.

My question is whether it’s reasonable to consider a heater that straddles what is clearly the main support for the house. I am just now considering that maybe it could be built without removing any studs and just a stone facade on one side that makes it appear to be a solid unit through the wall.

I know anything can be considered “reasonable” if you throw enough money at it, but am I nuts to think about having it straddle the beam?

Thanks!

masonry heater
masonry heater2132×1650 229 KB

2

More of an engineering question than a heater question, but I can offer this: assess the support under that beam, the size of the beam, and the potential to remove a section of the beam and support the stove with a foundation. These are heavy loads (1.5 tons and up), best supported by a dedicated foundation (as per Max’s excellent foundation section drawing), that in some cases may be possible to support over wood framing, but you should approach it from the engineering side first.

3

Thanks for your response. To clarify my question (definitely an engineering question), I am assuming that the beam cannot be removed but didn’t know if it was possible to build the foundation so that it encompasses the beam. I haven’t done a deep dive into foundations but picture the foundation supporting the beam, plus the floor on either side, with the concrete slab being on top of the subfloor rather than cutting out the beam and making the slab flush with the subfloor.

Thoughts?