diff --git a/drivers/overlay/overlay.go b/drivers/overlay/overlay.go
index fc3f9d7e0e..c36f59dcf6 100644
--- a/drivers/overlay/overlay.go
+++ b/drivers/overlay/overlay.go
@@ -947,6 +947,15 @@ func (d *Driver) create(id, parent string, opts *graphdriver.CreateOpts, disable
 	d.locker.Lock(id)
 	defer d.locker.Unlock(id)
 
+	if _, err := system.Lstat(dir); err == nil {
+		logrus.Warnf("Trying to create a layer %#v while directory %q already exists; removing it first", id, dir)
+		// Don’t just os.RemoveAll(dir) here; removeLocked also removes the link in linkDir,
+		// so that we can’t end up with two symlinks in linkDir pointing to the same layer.
+		if err := d.removeLocked(id); err != nil {
+			return errors.Wrapf(err, "removing a pre-existing layer directory %q", dir)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if err := idtools.MkdirAllAndChownNew(dir, 0700, idPair); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -1183,6 +1192,10 @@ func (d *Driver) Remove(id string) error {
 	d.locker.Lock(id)
 	defer d.locker.Unlock(id)
 
+	return d.removeLocked(id)
+}
+
+func (d *Driver) removeLocked(id string) error {
 	dir := d.dir(id)
 	lid, err := ioutil.ReadFile(path.Join(dir, "link"))
 	if err == nil {