PrimeBuild Recruitment founder Luke Cotterell spent more than a decade on tools, in offices and on sites before he ever placed a candidate. That background is exactly why the builders he works with keep calling him back.
There is a version of a recruiter that builders know all too well.
They ring you cold. They mispronounce the software your team uses every day. They send you a CV from someone who sold televisions last year and call it a match.
Luke Cotterell is not that recruiter.
The founder of Prime Build Recruitment came to the industry after a career that moved from labouring and painting to estimating to contracts administration across residential and commercial projects. Before he placed a single candidate, he had lived the roles he now fills. He understood what a cooked estimate costs a builder before it becomes a P&L line. He knew why a supervisor would resign over an offshore estimating rollout before anyone in the office did.
That is the thing that sets him apart. And it is also, he argues, the thing missing from most of the recruitment industry.
The Problem He Set Out to Solve
Cotterell did not plan to become a recruiter. He lost his job, had a one-year-old at home, a mortgage in hardship, and was ringing every recruiter he could find to land something quickly.
No one answered.
When they did, the experience was memorable for the wrong reasons.
“I could do that jobs to a T. I’m calling this guy. No one’s answering the phone. Or you’d talk to somebody. ‘Oh hold on a minute, I’m going to a meeting. I’ll call you back.’ You never hear from them again.”
That experience was not the reason he started Prime Build. Life intervened in other ways first. But eventually, sitting with the idea long enough, the logic became hard to ignore.
“I’m looking at all these roles that they’ve got available. I know someone that could fill that role. I know someone that would do that role.”
He built a website, bought a legal template for terms of business, ran five-dollar-a-day Google ads, and started calling builders.
His first placement came from a builder who had already burned through multiple recruiters sending salespeople from retail backgrounds. Cotterell sent people who could read a floor plan, understand upgrades, and have a meaningful conversation about construction. They stayed. The relationship grew.
Why Industry Background Is Not a Nice to Have
The cost of a wrong hire in construction is not abstract. Cotterell has seen it from the inside.
A cooked estimate does not just show up as a loss at handover. It can put a builder in the red before the slab is poured. A supervisor who is spending their day chasing up incorrect offshore takeoffs is not running a build. They are doing damage control. And when good people eventually leave over it, they rarely say loudly why. They just go.
“Think about putting in a shit estimate. You can be 50K out like that. You miss off something with earthworks. You could fuck something completely and not even be out of the ground yet.”
Cotterell works in a market where CAs, estimators and supervisors are in short supply and high demand. Anyone under pressure knows they can leave tomorrow. The good ones know they will be looked after elsewhere before the week is out.
This is why he argues that finding the right person is not a cost to manage. It is an investment that either pays or costs far more than the fee.
“People are investment. They’re not a sale. If you don’t understand what value they’ve got to add, you can’t understand how they add value into a role.”
The Office Versus Site Gap
One of the clearest threads through Cotterell ‘s career is his understanding of the tension between site and office, and why it breaks things.
He was never fully the office guy. He came from the tools. He could sit across from a supervisor who was tearing his hair out over a problem and actually understand why, not just categorise it as a squeaky wheel.
“Communication to those guys on site, returning their phone call or answering their phone call at the very least means the world. I got to the point where people were calling me for the jobs that were in my lane because they knew I’d answer.”
That rapport carried into recruitment. When Cotterell vouches for someone, it is because he has understood what the role actually demands, not what the job description says it demands.
He talks about supervisors who leave builders they genuinely like because the estimating function is broken and they are spending most of their day picking up the pieces.
“They might like the builder. They might like the systems, the culture. But when they’re spending most of their time not doing what makes them the best version of themselves, they just can’t do it anymore.”
The Revolving Door in South East Queensland
Right now, the construction workforce across South East Queensland is moving.
Cotterell sees it every day. Not because people are unhappy with their builders necessarily, but because the shortage of skilled CAs, estimators and supervisors means a single pressure point is enough to trigger a move. Someone across town is paying slightly more or running a cleaner office. One phone call and they are gone.
The good ones, he says, tend to sit tight. They have invested in a business, they do not want to start over, and they know that if they were seriously looking, their current builder would fight for them.
But builders need to earn that. And too many are not having the conversation until it is already too late.
“I try and educate a lot of builders. You’ve got to be prepared for a counter offer. Someone who’s chopping and changing here and there is easier to get across. The ones who stay, they’re invested. They’re the ones you want.”
His view on the next 12 to 24 months is measured but clear. Investment may slow. Some of the frantic pace of the past few years will ease. And that window, if builders use it properly, is an opportunity to look hard at their teams.
“It’s a perfect time to see where their weaknesses are in their business. Do I need to get a better team in place? Where’s the weak link? Why is it the weak link? You come back full swing with the best in place.”
What Makes a Good Builder
When asked directly what makes a good builder, Cotterell did not talk about margins or project delivery.
He talked about how builders treat people.
“Someone that leaves their ego at the door and says, what can you bring to make this a better building company? I want to hear what you’ve done. Give me a crack at making this a better business.”
He talks about builders whose staff rock up because they want to be there. Directors who are hands-on without micromanaging. Leaders who actually ask the estimator sitting three desks away what they think could be done better.
“Imagine how good you’d feel about that. You’d want to do everything you can for these people because they see your potential and what you’re capable of.”
He has also seen the other version. The builder who listens politely, says “good point”, and does nothing. The one person in the office who makes everyone else dread Monday morning. The company that promotes its culture loudly while the team quietly counts down to their next move.
“You’re only as good as your weakest performer. You could build a good product but it’s going to be a shit product on the surface because clients are going to be pissed off, build times are dragging out, variations are getting missed.”
Five Really Good Clients Over Twenty Average Ones
One of the most practical things Cotterell said was about volume.
He could work with more builders. He chooses not to.
“I’d rather do five really good than twenty sloppy. I’d rather have five really good clients that know if they call me, I’m going to get it done and do it right.”
It is not a sales pitch. It is a philosophy. And it is the same philosophy the builders who perform well tend to have about their own pipeline. Know what your team can deliver. Do not overtrade. Come out the other side intact.
The builders he most respects are the ones who understand this. Who build teams deliberately, retain them carefully, and make sure the people inside the business are set up to succeed before the business takes on more.
“If everyone’s got each other’s back and looking out for one another, all equal and treated well, and they’re looking out for each other to achieve the same goal. You just weaponise yourself.”
The Good Builder Take
The recruitment conversation in construction is long overdue.
Builders spend significant money on leads, marketing, and estimating tools. They negotiate hard on materials. They track build times down to the week.
Then they hire a CA with someone who has never set foot in a building office. Or they let a good supervisor walk because no one had the conversation before it was too late.
Luke Cotterell ‘s value is not just that he knows the industry. It is that he understands the downstream cost of getting a hire wrong, and he has the background to find people who will not create that cost.
In a market where labour is tight and the margin for error is thin, that is not a commodity. It is a genuine competitive advantage for the builders willing to use it properly.
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