diff --git a/src/libstore/builtins/unpack-channel.cc b/src/libstore/builtins/unpack-channel.cc
index a6369ee1c..43fbb62cd 100644
--- a/src/libstore/builtins/unpack-channel.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/builtins/unpack-channel.cc
@@ -23,11 +23,7 @@ void builtinUnpackChannel(
         throw Error("channelName is not allowed to contain filesystem separators, got %1%", channelName);
     }
 
-    try {
-        fs::create_directories(out);
-    } catch (fs::filesystem_error &) {
-        throw SysError("creating directory '%1%'", out.string());
-    }
+    createDirs(out);
 
     unpackTarfile(src, out);
 
diff --git a/src/libutil/tarfile.cc b/src/libutil/tarfile.cc
index a8a22d283..0200b091f 100644
--- a/src/libutil/tarfile.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/tarfile.cc
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ void unpackTarfile(Source & source, const fs::path & destDir)
 {
     auto archive = TarArchive(source);
 
-    fs::create_directories(destDir);
+    createDirs(destDir);
     extract_archive(archive, destDir);
 }
 
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ void unpackTarfile(const fs::path & tarFile, const fs::path & destDir)
 {
     auto archive = TarArchive(tarFile);
 
-    fs::create_directories(destDir);
+    createDirs(destDir);
     extract_archive(archive, destDir);
 }