Upper floors: Support from internal walls

Long traditional solid joists (over 5.4m or so) are expensive and difficult to obtain. It is usually cheaper to provide internal loadbearing walls to reduce the required span. Such walls are typically constructed in 100mm blockwork. The joists can be fixed to wall-plates bedded on the internal wall, built in, or can be supported on hangers. As observed above, modern I-beams and metal web joists will often span right across a house without the need for internal loadbearing walls. This not only provides savings in capital cost, it also means that the ground floor space is more adaptable.