diff --git a/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py b/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py
index 373a7178..fda1a5cd 100644
--- a/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py
+++ b/fail2ban/tests/misctestcase.py
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ class SetupTest(unittest.TestCase):
 		if not self.setup:
 			return			  # if verbose skip didn't work out
 		tmp = tempfile.mkdtemp()
+		remove_build = not os.path.exists('build')
 		# suppress stdout (and stderr) if not heavydebug
 		supdbgout = ' >/dev/null' if unittest.F2B.log_level >= logging.DEBUG else '' # HEAVYDEBUG
 		try:
@@ -178,6 +179,8 @@ class SetupTest(unittest.TestCase):
 			# remove build directory
 			os.system("%s %s clean --all%s"
 					  % (sys.executable, self.setup, (supdbgout + ' 2>&1') if supdbgout else ''))
+			if remove_build and os.path.exists('build'):
+				shutil.rmtree('build')
 
 
 class TestsUtilsTest(LogCaptureTestCase):