diff --git a/lib/grunt/file.js b/lib/grunt/file.js
index 9619e808..8b115b7c 100644
--- a/lib/grunt/file.js
+++ b/lib/grunt/file.js
@@ -268,7 +268,9 @@ file.write = function(filepath, contents, options) {
   var nowrite = grunt.option('no-write');
   grunt.verbose.write((nowrite ? 'Not actually writing ' : 'Writing ') + filepath + '...');
   // Create path, if necessary.
-  file.mkdir(path.dirname(filepath));
+  if (!file.exists(path.dirname(filepath))) {
+    file.mkdir(path.dirname(filepath));
+  }
   try {
     // If contents is already a Buffer, don't try to encode it. If no encoding
     // was specified, use the default.