Walls and Ceilings - Joining celing joists

Anyone know a good way to join two ceiling joist ends together? Currently, there is a (load bearing?) wall supporting where the ends meet but I hope to expand the bathroom by removing this wall and building a new wall. I've seen 24"x2" metal straps at Home Depot that I thought may work but am not sure. What's a good way to do this?

Thanks for the advice!

hard to answer this question with the information you gave. how long is this supporting wall you want to move and r u moving it back forward or changing it all together. if your not moving it to far you might be able to just nail another piece on sides of existing joist to bridge the difference. but if your moving it far youll probally have to build a beam of some kind where they meet that is supported on both ends. then attach joist to this. could tell more if there was more to go on

Where will the new wall be that replaces the existing? It sounds like you are trying to replace the load bearing wall supporting the joists with a strap of metal tying them together. Please clarify, because with the missing info this scheme does not make sense.

Thanks for the reply!

I drew a diagram about what I'm trying to do to help clarify. I'm building the new bathroom wall about 4ft further away from the exterior wall. There are about 4 ceiling joists running across the bathroom area. The question I have is what do do with the joist ends (in the picture marked "?") once I tear down the old wall. I'm afraid that once the old wall isn't there, unless I connect the joists somehow, the bathroom ceiling will just fall down.

The old wall is roughly 6ft wide by 8ft tall. The new wall will be the same dimensions.

Thanks.

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You will have to put a beam in the ceiling and attach the joists to it with joist hangers and nails. The wall you want to move is a load bearing wall.

I agree with coops, you have to run a beam perpendicular to support the ends of all the joists. The joists can be cut back and supported with joist hangers to reduce the amount of the beam's depth that extends down below the ceiling.