Choosing the right container · ISO, Office, Sanitary, Special or Custom

Start with the use case

Most container quote requests begin with the wrong question. "How much is a 20 ft container?" is a price tag. "How fast can you ship one?" is a calendar. Neither tells the buyer whether the unit will do the job once it arrives. The right opening question is what the container has to do on the day it is plugged in: store pallets in a yard, house six fitters through a winter, serve as a smoke-rated training room, hold 5000 litres of grey water, or pass an EU Internal Security Fund audit as a four-module police training centre.

Tanax builds five families out of one hall in Bánovce nad Bebravou: ISO Standard, Office and Living, Sanitary and Septic, Special Purpose, Custom. Same welders, same paint booth, same FARO Arm Prime 10. Switching between families is a process question, not a capability question. What changes is engineering effort up front and fit-out at the back, and that ratio drives lead time and price.

Five questions before the first quote:

1. Will people live, work or train inside, or only steel and equipment?
2. Does the unit need a thermal envelope, plumbing, fire rating or specific paint code?
3. Is the unit going on a vessel, flatbed, rail flat, or staying on one site for years?
4. Does the unit satisfy a public-procurement specification (defence, ISF, civil protection, framework)?
5. What is the delivery window, and is it tied to a season, tender deadline or mobilisation date?

One routes between ISO Standard and the rest. Two narrows further. Three sets the certification path. Four decides whether AQAP 2110, EXC2 docs, CSC or EI 30 ratings get activated. Five decides catalog versus custom.

ISO Standard · when it fits

ISO Standard is the right answer when the unit stores or transports something, when intermodal handling matters, or when the buyer is sourcing a shell to modify later. Tanax builds 20 ft and 40 ft dry cubes to ISO 668 and ISO 1496-1, with forged ISO 1CC corner castings, full CSC plate certification, ISO 6346 BIC code and stack rating to nine high. Body is corrugated weathering steel on a hot-rolled bottom rail, prepared to Sa 2.5 and painted to EN ISO 12944 C3.

Pick this family when:

• Cargo is pallets, parts, drums, machinery or fleet inventory that does not need to be heated, cooled, plumbed or fire-rated.
• The unit moves on a chassis, rail flat or vessel and must carry the matching paperwork.
• The order is a fleet pool or hire-company top-up that needs every cube interchangeable.
• The downstream plan is to modify the shell. Most of our office and special-purpose builds begin as an ISO Standard shell from this line.

A typical request is twenty 20 ft DV cubes in RAL 7016 with double end doors, passive louvers and L-track lashing rail, EXW Bánovce with CSC plates and BIC codes ready for the buyer's fleet database. See /catalog/iso-standard for the dimensional table and customisation menu. Where ISO Standard stops fitting is the moment people have to spend time inside the box.

Office and Living · when it fits

Office and Living is the right answer when the unit has to keep people comfortable. Standard envelope is 6058 by 2438 by 2800 mm external, with PIR sandwich walls and roof, double-glazed PVC windows, PN-HD 60364 electrical and internal clear height around 2500 mm. The frame uses the same EXC2 steel chain and forged ISO 1CC corner castings as our ISO production, so the cabin lifts and stacks on standard rigging.

Pick this family when:

• The unit is a site office, command post, observation room or short-stay accommodation cell.
• Crew comfort matters: heating, glazing, sockets, ventilation, multi-point-lock personnel door.
• The deployment is multi-cabin and units combine laterally into wider rooms or stack into two-storey blocks.
• The use case sits between fully residential and pure storage. Site welfare, seasonal staff housing and command facilities are the sweet spot.

References: MELIDA Špindlerův Mlýn (22 cabins, two-storey, 6058 by 2990 by 2800 mm, REI 30), ITCC Pezinok (four-module command and control under EU ISF 2021 to 2027), TMR Tatralandia and Priehyba leisure cabins. The Slovak MoD ARMADA framework (€16.22M, 2025 to 2028) uses Office and Living cabins in the call-off mix.

See /catalog/office-living for U-values (around 0.28 W/(m²·K) walls, 0.22 W/(m²·K) roof), the EI 30 variant, joining patterns and livery options. For en-suite plumbing, pair the cabin with a Sanitary and Septic unit rather than fitting a bathroom inside.

Sanitary and Septic · when it fits

The Sanitary and Septic family covers every hygiene function a deployed camp or public-sector site might need: WC blocks (gents, ladies, accessible), shower blocks at four to six heads, laundry, kitchen-trailer modules, plus septic holding tanks and fresh-water tanks. The shell is the same 20 ft ISO 1CC envelope used elsewhere, so transport, lashing and stacking are identical to a dry cube.

Pick this family when:

• The site needs welfare facilities and the mains connection is absent or incomplete.
• The buyer is procuring under a public-sector specification with a strict livery: HaZZ red (RAL 3000), civil-protection blue (RAL 5010), or fire-rescue red with reflective bands.
• The deployment is field-camp scale and the buyer wants a self-contained stack of WC, shower, fresh-water tank and septic tank that ships on two flatbeds.
• Drinking-water certification, backflow prevention (DIN EN 1717) and septic capacity calculations have to be answered as part of the quote.

The Tanax HaZZ delivery covers 57-plus units (sanitary, laundry, material-transport, septik, water-tank) in RAL 3000, hot-dip galvanised, with a 24-month warranty. Sizing rules of thumb: 80 to 120 litres per person per day, one shower head per ten occupants, one WC per fifteen. See /catalog/sanitary-septic for tank capacities (1000 to 5000 L), the heated-variant build-up and integration into a larger accommodation village. The key buying decision here is hydraulic and electrical layout, not the shell.

Special Purpose · when it fits

Special Purpose is the right family when the unit is engineered against a specific operational duty rather than pulled from a stock list. A firefighter entering a smoke-filled compartment, a police instructor running a tactical scenario, a mountain resort housing 60 seasonal staff, a depot storing 20 cubic metres of diesel under ADR, a K9 unit kennelled outdoors year-round. None of those lives in an ISO Standard catalogue. All have shipped from Bánovce.

Pick this family when:

• The duty needs an engineered envelope: double-skin walls with stone-wool core, diamond-plate floors, ATEX zoning, EI 30 or REI 30 fire rating, smoke-rated training compartments.
• The deployment carries reputational or operational weight: a national fire school, an EU-funded training centre, a seasonal accommodation block in daily occupied service.
• The buyer needs a single supplier for steel, fit-out, electrical and on-site assembly. Tanax delivered ITCC Pezinok end-to-end: design, factory build, on-site assembly, electrical, HVAC and camera prep.
• The unit ships into a defence or NATO chain with AQAP 2110:2017 documentation and NSPA CAGE 4094M routing.

References: LION firefighter training (US active, EU ramping), ITCC Pezinok (four modules under EU ISF 2021 to 2027), MELIDA Špindlerův Mlýn (22 cells, REI 30), police dog kennels in hot-dip galvanised steel with 24-month warranty, CZ 25-040 emergency accommodation bid (EI 30 panels, EXC2 steel, PIR roof, RAL 5010). See /catalog/special-purpose for reference envelopes, certification activation and the dimensional flexibility band.

Special Purpose is also the right family when a buyer is mid-conversation about an "office container" but the actual brief is closer to a command post with hardened entry, a training room with operator consoles, or a 2990 mm wide REI 30 accommodation cell. Naming it Special Purpose unlocks the engineering review on day one.

Custom builds · when none of the above fits

Custom is not a separate product. It is what happens when the buyer arrives with drawings, a use case or a fleet need that does not fit the four catalog families. The same hall in Bánovce cuts, welds, blasts and paints the unit. The difference is at the front: engineering reviews the drawings against EN 1090-1 EXC2, develops the weld procedures and returns a fixed price and fixed lead time. The customer signs off shop drawings and BOM, then steel hits the laser.

Pick this engagement model when:

• The buyer has a complete drawing set or tightly scoped engineering brief that does not map to the catalog.
• The unit is not strictly a container at all: a welded sub-assembly, frame, skid, tank section, or a carbon-mineralisation silo (Neustark AG NDA programme).
• The procurement model is subcontract-under-prime. Tanax acts as European steel and integration partner under the buyer's QA, with the buyer's serials on every plate. References: Ploeger, Kleemann, Rheinmetall MAN, Doll, Langzauner.
• The export profile is non-EU and the buyer needs mill certificates (EN 10204 3.1), weld docs (WPS, PQR per EN ISO 15614-1) and dual-use clearance.

The UK 90-unit programme delivered SALONKA-type units in widths 2438 to 2990 mm; the Slovak MoD ARMADA framework runs as a multi-year call-off; CZ 25-040 was bid November 2025; LION ships into US and EU fire schools. NDA inside 24 hours where drawings are sensitive. See /catalog/custom for the engagement model and documentation pack.

Cost and lead-time tradeoffs

Price and lead time correlate with engineering effort and fit-out content, not with size. A bare 20 ft ISO cube ships in 1 to 3 weeks from catalog stock or 6 to 10 weeks on a new build. An Office and Living cabin runs 6 to 10 weeks catalog or 10 to 16 weeks on a custom envelope. A four-module police training centre with electrical, HVAC and camera prep lands in the 12 to 20 week band. A multi-cell accommodation block with EI 30 fire rating sits at the top of that band, because the rated assembly is tested as a system and the certification chain has to be activated end to end.

Cost follows the same pattern. A stock ISO cube is the floor. An Office and Living cabin is a multiple once PIR panel, glazing, electrical and cladding are in. A Sanitary block sits higher again, because plumbing, hot water, ventilation, wet-area lining and tank work each carry their own BOM. Special Purpose spans the widest range: a K9 kennel run is engineering-light, a smoke-rated training module is engineering-heavy. Custom mirrors whatever family it inherits from, with engineering hours added at the front.

Three rules of thumb:

1. Engineering effort early always beats variation orders late. The sign-off gate before production catches most of the cost-overrun risk.
2. Insulation, plumbing and fire rating each add roughly a tier of cost and a tier of lead time. Asking for all three at once is the most expensive corner of the catalog.
3. Framework call-offs beat one-off orders on price stability. Pricing locks across the window, lead time holds against the baseline, documentation is re-used across call-offs.

Decision tree

1. Will people spend time inside the unit?
   • No: ISO Standard.
   • Yes: continue.
2. Does the unit need plumbing (WC, shower, laundry, kitchen, tanks)?
   • Yes: Sanitary and Septic, possibly combined with Office and Living for sleep / work space.
   • No: continue.
3. Is the duty a specific operational scenario (training, fuel, kennels, hardened command, fire-rated accommodation, defence call-off)?
   • Yes: Special Purpose.
   • No: continue.
4. Does the catalog envelope cover the brief (6058 by 2438 by 2800 mm for Office and Living, 20 ft for ISO and Sanitary)?
   • Yes: Office and Living catalog layout.
   • No: Custom.
5. Is there a public-procurement specification (HaZZ, MoD framework, ISF, AQAP 2110, REI 30)?
   • Yes: flag at first contact. Certification scope drives the engineering gate and the lead-time band.
   • No: standard catalog path applies.

The tree resolves on the family page that fits, and that page lists the certifications, dimensional bands and reference projects that anchor the quote. First quote response from Bánovce lands in 3 to 5 working days for catalog and 3 to 10 working days for custom.

FAQ

We need a site office for a six-month construction job. Which family is right? Office and Living, a single 6058 by 2438 by 2800 mm cabin with two desks, meeting table, electric panel heater, PN-HD 60364 electrical and PVC windows. If a small WC and shower is required, pair it with a three-cubicle Sanitary and Septic block rather than fitting a bathroom inside. Lead time is 6 to 10 weeks ex works.

Can we use an ISO Standard cube as a workshop? Yes, with caveats. A dry cube can carry a workshop fit-out (benches, tool storage, 230 V or 400 V electrical, compressed air, LED task lighting). Once insulation, climate control or fire rating enter the brief, the build is closer to Special Purpose. Start in ISO Standard and let engineering flag whether it should migrate.

What is the practical difference between Office and Living and Special Purpose for staff accommodation? Width and rating. A standard Office and Living cabin is 2438 mm wide and carries certifications for site offices and short-stay accommodation. The MELIDA block is in Special Purpose because it is 2990 mm wide and REI 30 rated for a two-floor occupied block under the Czech building code. If the deployment is occupied year-round and stacks two storeys, ask for Special Purpose.

Do we need CSC plates if the unit stays on one site for ten years? Not strictly. CSC certifies the unit for intermodal transport. If the unit is craned in and never moves, CSC is not required. Every Tanax unit ships with CSC plate and BIC code by default to keep options open: the unit can be lifted onto a flatbed at any time for redeployment or resale.

Can a custom unit ship as fast as a catalog one if we accept the catalog spec? Yes. If the buyer adopts a catalog envelope, electrical, livery and fit-out, the unit ships on the 6 to 10 week schedule even when the engagement is technically Custom. The 10 to 16 week band kicks in when engineering effort is required up front: new envelope, new fire rating, new electrical, new certification chain.

How do framework call-offs (MoD, ISF) compare to one-off purchases? Framework call-offs lock unit price across the window, hold lead time against the baseline and reuse the documentation chain across call-offs. The Slovak MoD ARMADA framework at €16.22M over 2025 to 2028 is the live reference. One-off purchases carry full engineering and quotation on each order, with slightly longer lead times and project-by-project pricing.

Where do we send the first request for quotation? Send dimensions, use case, finishes, certifications and delivery window to [email protected]. For sensitive drawings, ask for the NDA first; we sign within 24 hours. A fixed quote follows in 3 to 5 working days for catalog, 3 to 10 for custom. From there: engineering, sign-off gate, production, FARO QA, dispatch from Bánovce.