diff --git a/tsdb/engine/tsm1/engine.go b/tsdb/engine/tsm1/engine.go
index 0d792ad9e2..3d27c81109 100644
--- a/tsdb/engine/tsm1/engine.go
+++ b/tsdb/engine/tsm1/engine.go
@@ -58,13 +58,13 @@ const (
 
 // Engine represents a storage engine with compressed blocks.
 type Engine struct {
-	mu                         sync.RWMutex
-	done                       chan struct{}
-	snapshotterDone            chan struct{}
-	wg                         sync.WaitGroup
-	snapshotterWg              sync.WaitGroup
-	levelCompactionsEnabled    bool
-	snapshotCompactionsEnabled bool
+	mu           sync.RWMutex
+	wg           sync.WaitGroup
+	done         chan struct{}
+	levelWorkers int
+
+	snapDone chan struct{}
+	snapWG   sync.WaitGroup
 
 	path         string
 	logger       *log.Logger // Logger to be used for important messages
@@ -155,80 +155,87 @@ func (e *Engine) SetEnabled(enabled bool) {
 func (e *Engine) SetCompactionsEnabled(enabled bool) {
 	if enabled {
 		e.enableSnapshotCompactions()
-		e.enableLevelCompactions()
-
+		e.enableLevelCompactions(0)
 	} else {
 		e.disableSnapshotCompactions()
-		e.disableLevelCompactions()
+		e.disableLevelCompactions(0)
 	}
 }
 
-func (e *Engine) enableLevelCompactions() {
+func (e *Engine) enableLevelCompactions(n int) {
 	e.mu.Lock()
-	if e.levelCompactionsEnabled {
+	e.levelWorkers -= n
+	if e.levelWorkers != 0 || e.done != nil {
+		// still waiting on more workers or already enabled
 		e.mu.Unlock()
 		return
 	}
-	e.levelCompactionsEnabled = true
+
+	// last one to enable, start things back up
 	e.Compactor.EnableCompactions()
-	e.done = make(chan struct{})
-	e.mu.Unlock()
+	quit := make(chan struct{})
+	e.done = quit
 
 	e.wg.Add(4)
-	go e.compactTSMFull()
-	go e.compactTSMLevel(true, 1)
-	go e.compactTSMLevel(true, 2)
-	go e.compactTSMLevel(false, 3)
-}
-
-func (e *Engine) disableLevelCompactions() {
-	e.mu.Lock()
-	if !e.levelCompactionsEnabled {
-		e.mu.Unlock()
-		return
-	}
-	// Prevent new compactions from starting
-	e.levelCompactionsEnabled = false
-	e.Compactor.DisableCompactions()
 	e.mu.Unlock()
 
-	// Stop all background compaction goroutines
-	close(e.done)
+	go func() { defer e.wg.Done(); e.compactTSMFull(quit) }()
+	go func() { defer e.wg.Done(); e.compactTSMLevel(true, 1, quit) }()
+	go func() { defer e.wg.Done(); e.compactTSMLevel(true, 2, quit) }()
+	go func() { defer e.wg.Done(); e.compactTSMLevel(false, 3, quit) }()
+}
 
-	// Wait for compaction goroutines to exit
+func (e *Engine) disableLevelCompactions(n int) {
+	e.mu.Lock()
+	old := e.levelWorkers
+	e.levelWorkers += n
+
+	if old == 0 && e.done != nil {
+		// Prevent new compactions from starting
+		e.Compactor.DisableCompactions()
+
+		// Stop all background compaction goroutines
+		close(e.done)
+		e.done = nil
+	}
+
+	e.mu.Unlock()
 	e.wg.Wait()
 
-	if err := e.cleanup(); err != nil {
-		e.logger.Printf("error cleaning up temp file: %v", err)
+	if old == 0 { // first to disable should cleanup
+		if err := e.cleanup(); err != nil {
+			e.logger.Printf("error cleaning up temp file: %v", err)
+		}
 	}
 }
 
 func (e *Engine) enableSnapshotCompactions() {
 	e.mu.Lock()
-	if e.snapshotCompactionsEnabled {
+	if e.snapDone != nil {
 		e.mu.Unlock()
 		return
 	}
 
-	e.snapshotCompactionsEnabled = true
-	e.snapshotterDone = make(chan struct{})
 	e.Compactor.EnableSnapshots()
+	quit := make(chan struct{})
+	e.snapDone = quit
+	e.snapWG.Add(1)
 	e.mu.Unlock()
 
-	e.snapshotterWg.Add(1)
-	go e.compactCache()
+	go func() { defer e.snapWG.Done(); e.compactCache(quit) }()
 }
 
 func (e *Engine) disableSnapshotCompactions() {
 	e.mu.Lock()
-	if !e.snapshotCompactionsEnabled {
-		e.mu.Unlock()
-		return
+
+	if e.snapDone != nil {
+		e.Compactor.DisableSnapshots()
+		close(e.snapDone)
+		e.snapDone = nil
 	}
-	e.snapshotCompactionsEnabled = false
-	e.Compactor.DisableSnapshots()
+
 	e.mu.Unlock()
-	e.snapshotterWg.Wait()
+	e.snapWG.Wait()
 }
 
 // Path returns the path the engine was opened with.
@@ -309,8 +316,6 @@ func (e *Engine) Statistics(tags map[string]string) []models.Statistic {
 
 // Open opens and initializes the engine.
 func (e *Engine) Open() error {
-	e.done = make(chan struct{})
-
 	if err := os.MkdirAll(e.path, 0777); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -688,8 +693,8 @@ func (e *Engine) DeleteSeriesRange(seriesKeys []string, min, max int64) error {
 	// so that snapshotting does not stop while writing out tombstones.  If it is stopped,
 	// and writing tombstones takes a long time, writes can get rejected due to the cache
 	// filling up.
-	e.disableLevelCompactions()
-	defer e.enableLevelCompactions()
+	e.disableLevelCompactions(1)
+	defer e.enableLevelCompactions(1)
 
 	// keyMap is used to see if a given key should be deleted.  seriesKey
 	// are the measurement + tagset (minus separate & field)
@@ -860,22 +865,13 @@ func (e *Engine) writeSnapshotAndCommit(closedFiles []string, snapshot *Cache) (
 }
 
 // compactCache continually checks if the WAL cache should be written to disk
-func (e *Engine) compactCache() {
-	defer e.snapshotterWg.Done()
+func (e *Engine) compactCache(quit <-chan struct{}) {
 	for {
 		select {
-		case <-e.snapshotterDone:
+		case <-quit:
 			return
 
 		default:
-			e.mu.RLock()
-			enabled := e.snapshotCompactionsEnabled
-			e.mu.RUnlock()
-
-			if !enabled {
-				return
-			}
-
 			e.Cache.UpdateAge()
 			if e.ShouldCompactCache(e.WAL.LastWriteTime()) {
 				start := time.Now()
@@ -907,12 +903,10 @@ func (e *Engine) ShouldCompactCache(lastWriteTime time.Time) bool {
 		time.Now().Sub(lastWriteTime) > e.CacheFlushWriteColdDuration
 }
 
-func (e *Engine) compactTSMLevel(fast bool, level int) {
-	defer e.wg.Done()
-
+func (e *Engine) compactTSMLevel(fast bool, level int, quit <-chan struct{}) {
 	for {
 		select {
-		case <-e.done:
+		case <-quit:
 			return
 
 		default:
@@ -997,12 +991,10 @@ func (e *Engine) compactTSMLevel(fast bool, level int) {
 	}
 }
 
-func (e *Engine) compactTSMFull() {
-	defer e.wg.Done()
-
+func (e *Engine) compactTSMFull(quit <-chan struct{}) {
 	for {
 		select {
-		case <-e.done:
+		case <-quit:
 			return
 
 		default: