diff --git a/lib/bb/utils.py b/lib/bb/utils.py
index 1347c29d020..8b8d381faa5 100644
--- a/lib/bb/utils.py
+++ b/lib/bb/utils.py
@@ -944,8 +944,20 @@ def mkdirhier(directory):
     try:
         os.makedirs(directory)
     except OSError as e:
-        if e.errno != errno.EEXIST or not os.path.isdir(directory):
+        if e.errno != errno.EEXIST:
             raise e
+        if os.path.isdir(directory):
+            return
+        # We can end up here if there is a race between two mkdirs on an NFS mount,
+        # which happens more often with sstate that you'd think. The server returns
+        # EEXIST but the local attribute cache is out of date. It can be refreshed with
+        # an opendir call, so try that (via listdir) and check the directory again
+        # before we really fail.
+        os.listdir(os.path.dirname(directory))
+        if os.path.isdir(directory):
+            return
+        bb.warn("mkdir: %s is not a directory?")
+        raise e
 
 def movefile(src, dest, newmtime = None, sstat = None):
     """Moves a file from ``src`` to ``dest``, preserving all permissions and