diff --git a/stream.c b/stream.c
index 4b9c16c..4ed7e72 100644
--- a/stream.c
+++ b/stream.c
@@ -960,7 +960,7 @@ retry:
 		print_maxverbose("Unable to compress in parallel, waiting for previous thread to complete before trying again\n");
 	}
 
-	if (control.threads > 1)
+	if (control.threads > 1 && !waited)
 		wait_sem(&cthread[cti->wait_on].complete);
 	waited = 1;
 	if (ret)
@@ -1093,12 +1093,20 @@ retry:
 		print_maxverbose("Unable to decompress in parallel, waiting for previous thread to complete before trying again\n");
 	}
 
-	post_sem(&uci->complete);
-	wait_sem(&uci->ready);
+	/* First ready, are up to this thread yet? */
+	if (!waited)
+		wait_sem(&uci->ready);
 	waited = 1;
 	if (ret)
 		goto retry;
 
+	/* This complete tells the main thread that this thread has its
+	 * decompressed data ready */
+	post_sem(&uci->complete);
+	/* Second ready, the buffer has been grabbed by the main thread so this
+	 * thread can exit */
+	wait_sem(&uci->ready);
+
 	print_maxverbose("Thread %ld returning %lld uncompressed bytes from stream %d\n", i, uci->u_len, uci->stream);
 	post_sem(&uci->free);
 
@@ -1184,12 +1192,18 @@ fill_another:
 		goto fill_another;
 	}
 out:
+	/* This ready tells the decompression thread we're up to it */
+	post_sem(&ucthread[s->unext_thread].ready);
+	/* This complete is the deco thread telling us it's finished
+	 * decompressing data */
 	wait_sem(&ucthread[s->unext_thread].complete);
 
 	s->buf = ucthread[s->unext_thread].s_buf;
 	s->buflen = ucthread[s->unext_thread].u_len;
 	s->bufp = 0;
 
+	/* This ready tells the decompression thread we've taken the buffer so
+	 * it can exit */
 	post_sem(&ucthread[s->unext_thread].ready);
 
 	if (++s->unext_thread == s->base_thread + s->total_threads)
@@ -1284,6 +1298,13 @@ int close_stream_in(void *ss)
 	for (i = 0; i < sinfo->num_streams; i++)
 		free(sinfo->s[i].buf);
 
+	for (i = 0; i < control.threads + 1; i++) {
+		wait_sem(&ucthread[i].free);
+		destroy_sem(&ucthread[i].complete);
+		destroy_sem(&ucthread[i].free);
+		destroy_sem(&ucthread[i].ready);
+	}
+
 	free(ucthread);
 	free(threads);
 	free(sinfo->s);