Custom Orb vs Trimdek vs Kliplok: A Melbourne Homeowner’s Profile Guide

A practical comparison of Australia’s three most-installed metal roofing profiles — with a Melbourne-focused view on pitch, style, heritage councils, and the trade-offs that actually matter when you’re re-roofing.

If you’ve started quoting a metal re-roof in Melbourne, you’ve already heard the words Custom Orb, Trimdek and Kliplok more times than you wanted to. Three profiles, all BlueScope Colorbond, all installed across Melbourne weekly — but each suits a completely different style of home, pitch and fixing preference. Picking the wrong one isn’t catastrophic, but picking the right one means your roof looks better, leaks less, and runs a quieter house underneath it.

This is the guide we give every homeowner who asks “which one should I use?” when we’re assessing their roof. No sales pitch — just the mechanics of each profile and where it earns its keep.

The short version: one line per profile

Custom Orb — The classic Australian corrugated look. Rounded ribs, exposed fasteners, heritage-friendly, minimum 5° pitch.
Trimdek — Flatter, sharper ribs. Exposed fasteners but a cleaner contemporary line. Good on pitches as low as 2°.
Kliplok — Concealed-fix standing seam. No visible screws, minimum pitch ~1°, architectural first choice.

Now the longer answer — the one that actually helps you choose.

Custom Orb: the heritage default

Custom Orb is the rippled corrugated profile your grandparents’ house wore. It has been manufactured in Australia in essentially the same shape since the late 1800s, which is why it’s the profile nearly every heritage council in Melbourne will approve without a fight. If you own a Victorian cottage in Carlton, an Edwardian in Camberwell or a California bungalow in Northcote, the heritage officer is going to want to see Custom Orb on the roof.

Mechanically, it has a 16mm deep rib with a 76mm pitch between ribs. It’s fixed with exposed hex-head screws through the crest of the rib, sealed with neoprene washers. That means the screws are visible when you look up at the roof — which is a feature on heritage homes and a non-issue on most weatherboards and brick veneers. Custom Orb needs a minimum roof pitch of 5 degrees to drain reliably, which covers almost every pitched Melbourne home built before 1985.

Where Custom Orb wins:

Heritage overlays and council-approved re-roofs (the default answer in most Darebin, Yarra, Stonnington and Boroondara heritage zones).
Matching neighbouring houses on a character streetscape.
Weatherboards, Edwardians, Victorians, Californian bungalows.
Owners who want the authentic corrugated look rather than a contemporary finish.

Where Custom Orb is the wrong call:

Very low-pitch roofs (below 5°) — water ponds, screws start weeping.
Modern architectural builds where exposed fasteners break the clean line.
Clients who hate the look of screw heads in the sun.

Trimdek: the all-rounder

Trimdek is the most-installed residential profile we quote across Melbourne’s middle ring. It has a 21mm deep rib with a 187mm rib pitch — much squarer and more angular than Custom Orb. The line it draws across a roof is cleaner, more contemporary, and it works on pitches as shallow as 2 degrees. Same exposed fixing system as Custom Orb — hex screws through the crest — but the rib shape makes Trimdek look modern where Custom Orb looks traditional.

Trimdek is the profile we install on the bulk of post-war weatherboards, 60s and 70s brick veneers, and modern infill builds across Preston, Glen Waverley, Doncaster and Box Hill. It’s affordable, quick to install, and sits easily against modern soffits and gutters.

Where Trimdek wins:

Post-war homes without a heritage overlay.
Low-to-moderate pitch roofs (2° to 10°).
Owners who want a modern clean line but aren’t paying for concealed fixings.
Extensions that need to match a neighbouring contemporary roof.

Where Trimdek is the wrong call:

Heritage homes in council-protected zones (the ribs are wrong for the character).
Very-low-pitch skillion roofs below 2° — go Kliplok instead.
High-end architectural projects where exposed screws aren’t acceptable.

Kliplok: the architectural choice

Kliplok is the profile you see on almost every new architectural home, contemporary extension and flat-pitch skillion roof in Melbourne’s inner east. Instead of a screw fixing through the crest of the rib, each sheet has a rolled-up lip that clips over a concealed clip screwed into the purlin. Once the run is clipped together, there are no visible fasteners on the roof surface — just the long clean ribs running from ridge to gutter.

Kliplok 406 is the most common version in Melbourne. It has a 41mm high tray, a 406mm cover width, and can be installed on pitches as low as 1 degree (effectively flat) because the interlocking clip makes the seam water-tight without relying on gravity alone. That low-pitch capability is why every modern skillion extension we quote in Hawthorn, Armadale, Toorak and South Yarra specifies Kliplok rather than Trimdek or Custom Orb.

The trade-off is cost and labour. Kliplok sheets are more expensive per square metre than Custom Orb or Trimdek, and the installation is slower because each sheet has to be clipped individually. Expect a Kliplok job to take 20-30% longer than an equivalent Trimdek re-roof.

Where Kliplok wins:

Architectural homes where the clean line matters more than anything else.
Skillion roofs, flat extensions, low-pitch decks.
High-end rebuilds across Hawthorn, Toorak, Armadale and South Yarra.
Owners who don’t want to see a single fastener on the finished roof.

Where Kliplok is the wrong call:

Heritage-overlay homes (councils reject the profile for historical character).
Budget-conscious re-roofs where Trimdek delivers 95% of the performance for 70% of the cost.
Steep-pitched Victorian roofs where the profile looks out of place.

A simple decision tree

Is the home heritage-listed or in a heritage overlay? → Custom Orb.
Is the roof pitch below 2°? → Kliplok.
Is it a high-end architectural build or modern extension? → Kliplok.
Everything else — post-war weatherboard, 60s brick veneer, standard extension? → Trimdek.

That tree covers about 95% of the decisions we make on Melbourne re-roofs. The other 5% are edge cases — mixed pitches on a complex roof, specific council requirements, or owners who’ve already decided and just want us to quote.

What about warranty?

All three profiles carry the same 36-year BlueScope Colorbond material warranty when installed in a standard inland Melbourne environment on the correct substrate code. Workmanship warranty comes from us — 10 years on every re-roof we install regardless of profile. Warranty doesn’t drive the profile choice for any homeowner we’ve worked with.

Book a site assessment, see samples on the roof

Reading about profiles on a screen is one thing — seeing them held up against your actual roof, in your actual light, is another. We bring the full BlueScope colour and profile chart to every site assessment. We’ll hold the Custom Orb, Trimdek and Kliplok samples against your existing roofline, photograph the options in daylight, and walk you through which profile we’d recommend and why.

See our full metal re-roofing service or book a free on-site assessment — we’ll be in touch within 24 hours.