The floor of one level of a house is framed in the same way as the ceiling of the level below it. The total structure between floors in a typical home can be 12 to 14 inches thick, depending on the type of joists used and the finish materials for the floor and ceiling. The space above the ceiling is called the attic. The ceiling between apartments or rooms is usually not as strong as that in a house. It should be able to support the weight of any objects that might be hung from it but no more than that. Thickness varies according to local building codes but typically ranges from 6 to 10 feet high. The attic is also known as a storage room or utility loft. Attics are usually accessed through a stairway or ladder that leads up to an opening created by removing part of the roof or wall. Sometimes the opening is large enough to enter from the ground side of the apartment building as well. When attics are not accessible this way they are often small or unusable spaces. They may have been cut out when the apartment was built so that people could move heavy objects such as furniture up or down stairs without having to carry them all the way up or down one step at a time. This is called "lateral loading". Some buildings have separate attics for each floor while others combine several smaller lofts into one large one.