diff --git a/roles/_init/tasks/main.yml b/roles/_init/tasks/main.yml
index f356e08d..bcb387f3 100644
--- a/roles/_init/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/_init/tasks/main.yml
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@
   ansible.builtin.set_fact:
     _build_numbers_to_delete: "{{ _build_numbers_to_delete + [item] }}"
   with_items: "{{ _build_numbers_clean }}"
-  when: _build_directory_index < (_build_directories.matched - deploy_code.keep + 1)  # add one because we are about to create a build directory
+  when: _build_directory_index < (_build_directories.matched - deploy_code.keep)  # even though the index starts at 0 this works because we have an extra (new) build
   loop_control:
     index_var: _build_directory_index