Site Office Container for Live Construction Projects

What a Site Office Container Has to Survive

A site office is not a normal office. It lands on a plot that has no boundary wall yet. Boots arrive caked in slurry. Drawings come back rolled, torn and marked. The power supply is a temporary connection from a DG set or a site board. Then, eight months later, the whole thing gets lifted onto a trailer and moved to the next work front.

So the cabin has to be built for handling, not only for sitting in. SAMAN starts with a welded mild steel base. A 125 x 75 x 4 mm C-channel runs the perimeter. That member carries the load when the unit sits on uneven temporary supports. Below it, 100 x 50 x 3 mm channels and 80 x 40 x 2.5 mm tubes form a bracing grid.

That grid is not spaced by habit. We set it around where the weight actually goes. On a site office that means plan-table legs, filing storage and the entrance zone everybody walks through. A residential floor pattern would put steel where nobody stands and leave it thin where the printer sits.

Width Decides the Desk Count, Length Decides the Rooms

Most buyers ask about length first. On these six layouts, width matters more. The workstation module is a fixed 4 x 2.5 ft, and a desk projects 2.5 ft into the room. At 8 ft of internal width you can run desks along one wall only. A second run would close the aisle. That is why the 20 x 8 ft plan stops at three seats.

Move to 10 ft and both long walls can carry desks with a clear aisle between them. That single change is what lifts the 40 ft layouts from seven workstations to twelve. Go to 12 ft and the desk count does not rise again. What you gain instead is roughly seven feet of clear floor down the middle. That is enough to open a plan table without anybody standing up.

Length does something different. It decides how many rooms you get. Twenty feet gives one open room. Thirty feet earns a second external door, so site staff and visitors stop using the same entrance. Forty feet lets us put a partition ten feet in, which creates a private manager cabin with an internal door.

Read the GA Plan Before You Fix a Size

Every one of the six sizes ships with a signed general arrangement drawing. It is worth reading before you sign anything, because it settles the questions that cause arguments later.

The GA shows each wall separately. It names every opening in order along that wall, so you can see exactly where the door falls and which windows sit behind which desks. It states the workstation count per wall, not as a total. It marks the partition and its internal door on the three 40 ft plans. Four exterior elevations sit below the floor plan, and their openings match the plan exactly.

Two things the GA deliberately does not do. It is a buyer-facing arrangement drawing, not a structural design. Foundations, support reactions and services stay with the signed project engineering for your site. It also carries no certification claim, and we do not make one.

Site Office Container Price Across the Six Sizes

Our published rate is built from one reference point. A 20 x 10 ft cabin, 200 sq ft, is quoted at Rs 1,350 per sq ft. Smaller units cost more per square foot because the fixed content does not shrink. Larger ones cost less. The bands below are the same ones we apply across the range.

Read the table by cost per seat, not by headline price. The 40 x 12 ft unit looks expensive next to the 20 x 8 ft one. Per workstation it is far cheaper. Twelve desks share the same steel, the same roof and the same delivery. Work out the number your project actually needs, then divide. That single sum settles most size arguments before they start.

What the Published Price Covers

The figure above buys the finished cabin as specified: the welded steel frame, the corrugated shell, the roof, the insulation, the internal lining, the ceiling, the floor build-up, the doors and windows in the GA, the electrical fit-out described below, and the coating system. It is the cabin, complete and working.

What It Does Not Cover

We would rather say this plainly than have it appear in a revised quotation later. The published price excludes interior fit-out beyond the specified lining, loose furniture, optional equipment, transport, unloading, craneage, installation, foundations, site utilities, and any project-specific engineering or certification. Each of those gets quoted separately when you ask for it.

Plumbing sits outside too. None of these six layouts contains a toilet, and none is designed to take one. A toilet needs a wider corporate plan at 16 to 20 ft of width, with its own approved GA and its own engineering. If your site needs sanitation next to the office, plan it as a separate unit and tell us at enquiry, so the two land together.

The Steel Under the Cladding

The frame is welded mild steel throughout. A 50 x 50 x 2 mm square pipe forms the top perimeter and carries the roof edge. Rafters at 50 x 50 x 2 mm and purlins at 40 x 40 x 2 mm span the roof above. Corner posts and wall framing use 50 x 50 x 2.5 mm square pipe, and every scheduled opening is framed into that grid before the sheet goes on.

Roof framing gets laid out for monsoon drainage first. Water has to run to a defined fall and discharge away from the entrances, not over the door that everybody uses. We also place the framing around field-mounted equipment. An exhaust or a communication antenna then lands on a member rather than on bare sheet.

Lifting is designed, not improvised. The unit gets MS hooks or lugs matched to its completed weight. Handle it only from those points, using the approved lifting and support-point drawing. Use certified slings, and a spreader beam where the drawing calls for one. We issue the shipped weight, the centre of gravity and the support points before dispatch, so your crane plan uses real numbers.

The Shell, the Lining and the Insulation

Outside, the wall sheet is 1.25 mm corrugated HR or MS. The roof steps up to 1.4 mm. Both are chosen for a repairable site life rather than a showroom finish. Laps, lower edges and penetrations get detailed to keep wind-driven dust and rain out, and a damaged sheet can be replaced without stripping the wall.

Inside, walls are lined in 8 to 12 mm pre-laminated MDF or plywood, with backing where plan boards, shelves and secure document storage go. The ceiling is an 8 mm pre-laminated board, and inspection panels sit where a maintenance team can reach them without shifting fixed furniture.

The floor is an 18 mm Bison panel, supported at every edge and sealed before installation, with 2 mm commercial vinyl over it. Joints get welded or sealed. That matters more than it sounds. A site office floor takes mud, grit and constant chair movement, and an unsealed joint lifts within one monsoon.

Insulation is 50 mm glass wool in the walls and 75 mm in the roof. The roof figure is higher for a reason. Most of the heat in an Indian site office arrives through the roof in the afternoon. So we keep the roof layer continuous around rafters, lights and AC routes. A gap there shows up as a hot strip directly above somebody's desk.

Doors, Windows and the Mud Problem

Doors are 3 x 7 ft, built as a 34 mm BWP flush leaf in a powder-coated MS frame. Hardware, closer and threshold get picked for constant traffic in dusty conditions, not for a quiet office corridor. On the 30 ft and 40 ft plans, the two external doors sit at opposite ends of the run. That lets you separate site entry from visitor entry.

Windows are 4 x 3 ft in powder-coated aluminium with 5 mm glass. Sill height stays at 3 ft 6 in and head height at 6 ft 6 in across every size. So a desk pushed against the wall never blocks the opening. Every end wall carries exactly one centred window and no door. Security grills, insect mesh and louvers get scheduled only where the approved opening schedule calls for them.

Then there is the mud. Every site office has the same failure point, which is the first three feet inside the door. We detail that zone for it: the entrance threshold sits in the bracing plan, the finishes near the door suit frequent cleaning, and the flooring layout allows a replaceable mat zone rather than a carpet that dies in week two.

Power, Data and Cooling on a Temporary Supply

Wiring is concealed PVC-insulated copper. Indicative sizes are 1.5 sq mm for lighting, 2.5 sq mm for sockets and 4 sq mm for higher-load or AC circuits. Treat those as starting values only. The final conductor size, derating, containment, voltage drop, fault level and circuit segregation all follow the approved load schedule and the electrical rules that apply to your site.

Protection comes as a distribution board with MCB and RCCB devices. Add protective earthing and segregation between lighting, socket and AC circuits, all per the approved drawing. Test records cover continuity, insulation resistance, polarity and RCD operation.

Fittings are placed for how a project office actually works. You get LED lighting, data points, a UPS provision, 6A and 16A sockets, fan points and a dedicated AC circuit. We position them around the printer, the plotter, the charging corner and any temporary communication kit. Even spacing looks tidy on a drawing and helps nobody.

Cooling combines cross ventilation, wall or ceiling fans and a split-AC provision. Note the word provision. The published price includes the dedicated circuit and the preparation, not the AC unit itself. Condensate gets discharged away from walkways, which is easy to specify and easy to forget.

Getting the Plot Ready Before the Trailer Arrives

Site readiness causes more delay than fabrication does. So fix the standing position early. The ground needs to be compacted and level, with bearing pads or a prepared support at the points the drawing names. Check the trailer route as well. Gate width, turning radius and overhead cables all stop a delivery just as effectively as a missing part does.

Decide the unloading method before the vehicle is booked. Craneage and unloading sit outside the published price, so somebody on your side has to own them. Confirm the power inlet position too. Moving it after the cabin lands means opening finished lining, and that is slow, messy and avoidable work.

Moving the Office When the Work Front Moves

Relocation is the reason this product exists in this form. When the office shifts, treat it as a short project rather than a lift. Isolate and disconnect services properly. Lift only from the approved points. After it lands, reseal the joints and penetrations that the move disturbed, then retest the electrical circuits before anybody plugs in.

Warranty follows the same honesty. The period and its exclusions get confirmed in your final quotation, not on this page. Relocation damage, misuse, site services and unapproved alterations sit outside the agreed scope. We would rather print that here than argue about it later, when your project is the one waiting.

What We Check Before the Unit Leaves the Factory

Pre-dispatch inspection covers dimensions, member and sheet identification, welds, coating, roof drainage, weather sealing, doors, windows, electrical continuity and functional operation. Punch items get closed before dispatch, and we record fit, weld condition, coating, sealing, the dimensional check and dispatch photographs.

The coating system is one red-oxide primer coat followed by two compatible anti-rust enamel coats on prepared MS surfaces. A harsher exposure needs more. Coastal air and heavy industrial fallout both attack a standard system faster than an inland plot does. Tell us the exposure at enquiry and we will price an upgraded coating into the quotation.

Which Container Office Page You Actually Need

SAMAN publishes three container office products, and they answer three different questions. Buyers often land on the wrong one, compare the wrong price and reach the wrong conclusion. So here is the split in plain terms, with the rate at the same 200 sq ft reference each time.

This page answers a project question. You need an office on a live construction plot. It has to move with the work front. And you want the workstation count settled on a drawing before you order.

If the question is about the box instead, read how the ISO shell version is built. That page owns the form-factor decision, and its published rate at the 200 sq ft reference runs higher than ours. Buy it when the shell itself has to be an ISO container, for stacking, for handling equipment or because the client asked for one. If budget leads and the office stays in one place, compare our value-line steel office cabin. It is quoted at Rs 2,50,000 ex GST at the same 200 sq ft reference, against Rs 2,70,000 here.

Questions Site Teams Ask Before Ordering

How many people fit in a site office container?

Between three and twelve workstations, depending on the size you pick. The count comes off the signed GA plan, so it is not an estimate. Three at 20 x 8 ft, five at 20 x 10 ft, eight at 30 x 10 ft, seven at 40 x 8 ft, and twelve at both 40 x 10 ft and 40 x 12 ft. Seats run higher on the 40 ft plans, because the manager and two guest chairs count as well.

What does a site office container cost in India?

From Rs 2,37,600 ex GST for 160 sq ft to Rs 6,09,120 ex GST for 480 sq ft. Add 18 per cent GST for the invoice figure. Transport, craneage, foundations and installation get quoted separately, so budget for them alongside the cabin. The rate per square foot falls as the unit gets larger, which is why cost per seat is the number worth comparing.

Does it come with a toilet?

Not in these six layouts. All of them are 8 to 12 ft wide and none contains a toilet. A toilet needs a wider corporate plan at 16 to 20 ft of width, with a separate approved GA and separate engineering behind it. Ask for that plan by name if you need it, and we will quote the sanitation unit as its own line.

Can it be moved to another site?

Yes, and it is designed for that. Lift only from the approved hooks or lugs, using the lifting and support-point drawing we issue with the unit. Reseal the joints and penetrations the move disturbed, then retest the electrical circuits before anybody plugs in. Damage caused during a relocation sits outside the warranty, so plan the lift properly.

Is the air conditioner included?

No. The published price includes a dedicated AC circuit, cross ventilation and fan points, and that is what provision means. The AC unit itself gets quoted as an option. Tell us the occupancy and the working hours at enquiry. Cooling duty on a site office depends on how often the door opens, as much as on floor area.

How long does delivery take?

We confirm it in the quotation, because it depends on the size, the options and how many units you order. We will not print a fixed number here that we cannot hold for your project. Give us the delivery location and the required standing date at enquiry, and the quotation will carry a date we can actually meet.

What do you need from me to quote?

Send the size or the headcount, the delivery location, the standing position and the access route. Add the power inlet position, and any options you want priced. Common ones are AC units, extra partitions, upgraded coating for a coastal site, and opening protection such as grills or insect mesh. That is enough for a firm quotation.

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