diff --git a/make_helpers/build_macros.mk b/make_helpers/build_macros.mk
index 93db2d6..cc51393 100644
--- a/make_helpers/build_macros.mk
+++ b/make_helpers/build_macros.mk
@@ -308,14 +308,16 @@
         $(eval BL_LINKERFILE := $(BL$(call uppercase,$(1))_LINKERFILE))
         # We use sort only to get a list of unique object directory names.
         # ordering is not relevant but sort removes duplicates.
-        $(eval TEMP_OBJ_DIRS := $(sort $(BUILD_DIR)/ $(dir ${OBJS} ${LINKERFILE})))
+        $(eval TEMP_OBJ_DIRS := $(sort $(dir ${OBJS} ${LINKERFILE})))
         # The $(dir ) function leaves a trailing / on the directory names
         # Rip off the / to match directory names with make rule targets.
         $(eval OBJ_DIRS   := $(patsubst %/,%,$(TEMP_OBJ_DIRS)))
 
 # Create generators for object directory structure
 
-$(eval $(foreach objd,${OBJ_DIRS},$(call MAKE_PREREQ_DIR,${objd},)))
+$(eval $(call MAKE_PREREQ_DIR,${BUILD_DIR},))
+
+$(eval $(foreach objd,${OBJ_DIRS},$(call MAKE_PREREQ_DIR,${objd},${BUILD_DIR})))
 
 .PHONY : bl${1}_dirs
 
diff --git a/make_helpers/unix.mk b/make_helpers/unix.mk
index ab60435..6f70200 100644
--- a/make_helpers/unix.mk
+++ b/make_helpers/unix.mk
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #
-# Copyright (c) 2016, ARM Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2016-2017, ARM Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 # modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
@@ -67,11 +67,14 @@
 
     # ${1} is the directory to be generated.
     # ${2} is optional, and allows a prerequisite to be specified.
+    # Do nothing if $1 == $2, to ignore self dependencies.
     define MAKE_PREREQ_DIR
+        ifneq (${1},${2})
 
 ${1} : ${2}
 	${Q}mkdir -p  "${1}"
 
+        endif
     endef
 
     define SHELL_REMOVE_DIR
diff --git a/make_helpers/windows.mk b/make_helpers/windows.mk
index c4317d5..5138d1b 100644
--- a/make_helpers/windows.mk
+++ b/make_helpers/windows.mk
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 #
-# Copyright (c) 2016, ARM Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2016-2017, ARM Limited and Contributors. All rights reserved.
 #
 # Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 # modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
@@ -75,12 +75,15 @@
 
     # ${1} is the directory to be generated.
     # ${2} is optional, and allows prerequisites to be specified.
+    # Do nothing if $1 == $2, to ignore self dependencies.
     define MAKE_PREREQ_DIR
+        ifneq (${1},${2})
 
 ${1} : ${2}
 	$(eval tmp_dir:=$(subst /,\,${1}))
 	-@if not exist "$(tmp_dir)"  mkdir "${tmp_dir}"
 
+        endif
     endef
 
     # ${1} is the directory to be removed.