diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index a922bc0..2fb943f 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
     "imgix"
   ],
   "require": {
-    "php": ">=5.3"
+    "php": ">=5.3",
+    "jakeasmith/http_build_url": "^1.0"
   },
   "require-dev": {
     "phpunit/phpunit": "*"
@@ -16,4 +17,4 @@
       "Imgix\\": "src/"
     }
   }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/composer.lock b/composer.lock
index 233d0e8..4b7d3a0 100644
--- a/composer.lock
+++ b/composer.lock
@@ -4,8 +4,45 @@
         "Read more about it at https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#composer-lock-the-lock-file",
         "This file is @generated automatically"
     ],
-    "hash": "63e826441987c24766a36dfa52c7e0e3",
-    "packages": [],
+    "hash": "7441d910eae3b22d63087429d01de669",
+    "packages": [
+        {
+            "name": "jakeasmith/http_build_url",
+            "version": "1.0.0",
+            "source": {
+                "type": "git",
+                "url": "https://github.com/jakeasmith/http_build_url.git",
+                "reference": "15bdd686e5178ddfa3e88de60fa585adffb292bb"
+            },
+            "dist": {
+                "type": "zip",
+                "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/jakeasmith/http_build_url/zipball/15bdd686e5178ddfa3e88de60fa585adffb292bb",
+                "reference": "15bdd686e5178ddfa3e88de60fa585adffb292bb",
+                "shasum": ""
+            },
+            "require-dev": {
+                "phpunit/phpunit": "~3.7"
+            },
+            "type": "library",
+            "autoload": {
+                "files": [
+                    "src/http_build_url.php"
+                ]
+            },
+            "notification-url": "https://packagist.org/downloads/",
+            "license": [
+                "MIT"
+            ],
+            "authors": [
+                {
+                    "name": "Jake A. Smith",
+                    "email": "theman@jakeasmith.com"
+                }
+            ],
+            "description": "Provides functionality for http_build_url() to environments without pecl_http.",
+            "time": "2015-05-06 12:27:20"
+        }
+    ],
     "packages-dev": [
         {
             "name": "doctrine/instantiator",
diff --git a/src/Imgix/UrlHelper.php b/src/Imgix/UrlHelper.php
index 46440fb..e84a5f1 100644
--- a/src/Imgix/UrlHelper.php
+++ b/src/Imgix/UrlHelper.php
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ public function getURL() {
 
         $url_parts = array('scheme' => $this->scheme, 'host' => $this->domain, 'path' => $this->path, 'query' => $query);
 
-        return self::join_url($url_parts);
+        return self::joinURL($url_parts);
     }
 
     public static function encodeURIComponent($str) {
@@ -63,47 +63,13 @@ public static function encodeURIComponent($str) {
         return strtr(rawurlencode($str), $revert);
     }
 
-    // TODO: This is almost entirely garbage. We should not be manually building URLs
-    public static function join_url($parts, $encode=true) {
-        $url = '';
-        if (!empty($parts['scheme'])) {
-            $url .= $parts['scheme'] . ':';
-        }
-        if (isset($parts['host'])) {
-            $url .= '//';
-            if (isset($parts['user'])) {
-                $url .= $parts['user'];
-                if (isset($parts['pass']))
-                    $url .= ':' . $parts['pass'];
-                $url .= '@';
-            }
-            if (preg_match('!^[\da-f]*:[\da-f.:]+$!ui', $parts['host'])) {
-                $url .= '[' . $parts['host'] . ']';
-            } else {
-                $url .= $parts['host'];
-            }
-            if (isset($parts['port'])) {
-                $url .= ':' . $parts['port'];
-            }
-            if (!empty($parts['path']) && $parts['path'][0] != '/') {
-                $url .= '/';
-            }
-        }
-        if (!empty($parts['path'])) {
-            $url .= $parts['path'];
-        }
-        if (isset($parts['query']) && strlen($parts['query']) > 0) {
-            if (substr($parts['query'], 0, 2) === "s=") {
-                $url .= '?&' . $parts['query']; // imgix idiosyncracy for signing URLs when only the signature exists. Our query string must begin with '?&s='
-            } else {
-                $url .= '?' . $parts['query'];
-            }
-        }
-        if (isset($parts['fragment'])) {
-            $url .= '#' . $parts['fragment'];
+    public static function joinURL($parts) {
+
+        // imgix idiosyncracy for signing URLs when only the signature exists. Our query string must begin with '?&s='
+        if (substr($parts['query'], 0, 2) === "s=") {
+            $parts['query'] = "&" . $parts['query'];
         }
 
-        return $url;
+        return http_build_url($parts);
     }
-
 }